1 Kings 9
Berean Standard Bible · Compare translations · 946 BC – 931 BC · United kingdom · Tap a verse to copy, share or highlight ·
28 verses · 749 words · ~4 min read · ~5 min listen
The LORDʼs Response to Solomon
1Now when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and the royal palace, and had achieved all that he had desired to do, 2the Lord appeared to him a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3And the Lord said to him:
“I have heard your prayer and petition before Me. I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting My Name there forever; My eyes and My heart will be there for all time.
4And as for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and uprightness, doing all I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances, 5then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David when I said, ‘You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’
6But if indeed you or your sons turn away from following Me and do not keep the commandments and statutes I have set before you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods, 7then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples.
8And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and will hiss and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ 9And others will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—because of this, the Lord has brought all this disaster upon them.’”
Solomonʼs Additional Achievements
10Now at the end of the twenty years during which Solomon built these two houses, the house of the Lord and the royal palace, 11King Solomon gave twenty towns in the land of Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, who had supplied him with cedar and cypress logs and gold for his every desire. 12So Hiram went out from Tyre to inspect the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them.
13“What are these towns you have given me, my brother?” asked Hiram, and he called them the Land of Cabul, as they are called to this day.
14And Hiram had sent the king 120 talents of gold.
15This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon imposed to build the house of the Lord, his own palace, the supporting terraces, and the wall of Jerusalem, as well as Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.
16Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and given it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomonʼs wife. 17So Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth-horon, 18Baalath, and Tamar in the Wilderness of Judah, 19as well as all the store cities that Solomon had for his chariots and horses—whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout the land of his dominion.
20As for all the people who remained of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites (the people who were not Israelites)— 21their descendants who remained in the land, those whom the Israelites were unable to devote to destruction—Solomon conscripted these people to be forced laborers, as they are to this day.
22But Solomon did not consign any of the Israelites to slavery, because they were his men of war, his servants, his officers, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and cavalry. 23They were also the chief officers over Solomonʼs projects: 550 supervisors over the people who did the work.
24As soon as Pharaohʼs daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace that Solomon had built for her, he built the supporting terraces.
25Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he had built for the Lord, burning incense with them before the Lord. So he completed the temple.
26King Solomon also assembled a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea. 27And Hiram sent his servants, sailors who knew the sea, to serve in the fleet with Solomonʼs servants. 28They sailed to Ophir and imported gold from there—420 talents—and delivered it to Solomon.
Footnotes (12)
- a v8 Some LXX manuscripts, Syriac, and Arabic; Hebrew And though this temple is now exalted; see also 2 Chronicles 7:21.
- b v11 Or pine or juniper or fir
- c v13 Cabul sounds like the Hebrew for good-for-nothing.
- d v14 120 talents is approximately 4.52 tons or 4.1 metric tons of gold.
- e v15 Hebrew the Millo; also in verse 24
- f v18 Alternate MT reading; the other alternate reads Tadmor
- g v18 Hebrew in the wilderness in the land
- h v19 Or horsemen or charioteers
- i v21 Forms of the Hebrew cherem refer to the giving over of things or persons to the LORD, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering.
- j v26 Eloth is a variant of Elath; see LXX, 2 Kings 14:22,and 2 Kings 16:6.
- k v26 Or the Sea of Reeds
- l v28 420 talents is approximately 15.8 tons or 14.4 metric tons of gold.
Study notes on this chapter · 1
The curse on Canaan
After the flood Noah curses Canaan, Ham's son, to be a servant of servants to his brothers. Later Israel subdued the Canaanites, and Gibeonites were made woodcutters and water carriers. This passage has been tragically misused to justify the enslavement of Africans, a reading that has no basis in the text, which names only Canaan, and that most modern interpreters and churches reject.
When: Genesis (primeval history); Canaanite subjugation, c. 1400–950 BC.
Ways people read this (3)
- The curse foretells Israel's later dominance over the Canaanites (Joshua 9:23; 1 Kings 9:20-21).
- A literary explanation of Israel's relations with Canaan, written in the monarchy.
- The curse applies only to Canaan and cannot be applied to other peoples, as is now broadly affirmed across traditions.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.