References (274)
And these are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem:
Shamoa
and Shovav
and Nathan
and Solomon [these four were the sons of Bathsheba, see ]
And David comforted Bathsheba, his wife, and went in to her and lay with her, and she bore a son and named him Solomon. And the Lord loved him
and he sent [a greeting] by the hand of the prophet Nathan, and he named him Jedidiah, for the Lord's sake. [Solomon means "his shalom," i.e., his peace, prosperity, success, health, and all heavenly blessings. Jedidiah means "beloved of the Lord."]
But he did not call the prophet Nathan, Benaiah, the mighty men ["David's veterans" who had supported him before his time as king], or his [younger] brother Solomon.
Then [the prophet] Nathan spoke to [David's wife] Bathsheba, Solomon's mother, and said, "Have you not heard that Adonijah, the son of Haggith, is reigning (has made himself king), and David, our lord (Hebr. adón), does not know it?
And now, let me give you advice, I beg you (appeal), so that you may save your own life and the life of your son Solomon.
Go in to King David and say to him, 'Did you not, my lord the king, swear (take an oath) to your servant and say, "Surely your son Solomon shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne"? Why then is Adonijah reigning?
She said to him, "My lord, you swore (gave your oath) by the Lord your God (Yahweh Elohim) to your servant, 'Surely your son Solomon shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne.
And he has slaughtered oxen and fattened cattle and sheep in abundance, and has invited all the king's sons and the priest Abiathar and Joab, the commander of the army, but Solomon, your servant, he has not invited.
Otherwise, when my lord sleeps with his fathers, I and my son will be counted as lawbreakers."
But me, your servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and your servant Solomon, he has not called.
I have truly (indeed) sworn to you by the Lord (Yahweh), the God (Elohim) of Israel, saying, 'Surely your son Solomon shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne in my place,' I will do this today."
And the king said to them, "Take your lord's servants and let my son Solomon ride on my own mule and bring him down to Gihon [the spring on the east side of Jerusalem].
And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there as king over Israel, and blow the trumpet and say, 'Long live King Solomon.
As the Lord (Yahweh) has been with my lord the king, so may he be with Solomon and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David."
Then Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the Kerethites, and the Pelethites went down and had Solomon ride on King David's mule and brought him to Gihon [the spring on the east side of Jerusalem].
And Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the tent and anointed Solomon. And they blew the shofar, and all the people said, "Long live King Solomon."
And Jonathan answered and said, "Truly, our lord King David has made Solomon king.
And Solomon also sits on the throne of the kingdom.
And besides, the king's servants came and blessed our lord King David, saying, 'God (Elohim) will make Solomon's name even greater (better) than your name and make his throne mightier than your throne,' and the king bowed down on his bed.
And Adonijah feared Solomon and rose up and went and took hold of the horns of the altar.
And it was told to Solomon, saying, "Behold, Adonijah fears King Solomon, for he has taken hold of the horns of the altar, saying, 'Let King Solomon swear to me that he will not slay his servant with the sword.
And Solomon said, "If he proves to be a righteous man, not a hair of his head shall fall to the ground, but if wickedness is found in him, he shall die."
And King Solomon sent [soldiers], and they brought him [Adonijah] down from the altar, and he came and humbled himself before King Solomon. And Solomon said to him, "Go to your house."
When the days of David's death drew near, he gave Solomon the following instructions and said:
And Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his kingdom was made very stable (fully established). [Literally: "made his kingdom very stable," there were no internal or external conflicts, so the kingdom could take shape and be established. The same phrase without the word "very" recurs in .]
And Adonijah, the son of Haggith, came to Bathsheba, Solomon's mother, and she said, "Do you come in peace?"
And he said, "Peace." [Here Bathsheba uses the word shalom in the definite form, and Adonijah responds with shalom in the indefinite form.]
And he said, "Speak, I pray thee, to Solomon the king—for he will not turn away his face from thee—that he give me Abishag the Shunammite to be my wife." []
And Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him on behalf of Adonijah. And the king rose and bowed down to her, and sat on his throne, and had a throne set for the king's mother, and she sat on his right hand.
And King Solomon answered his mother and said, "Why do you ask for Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for the kingdom for him also, for he is my older brother, and for him and for Abiathar the priest and for Joab the son of Zeruiah."
And King Solomon swore by the Lord (Yahweh), saying, "May God (Elohim) do so to me and more, if Adonijah has not spoken these words against his own soul.
And King Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and he came upon him so that he died.
And Solomon dismissed (expelled) Abiathar from being a priest of the Lord (Yahweh), so that the word of the Lord (Yahweh) might be fulfilled, as he had spoken concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh. []
And it was told Solomon, "Joab has fled to the tent of the Lord (Yahweh), and behold, he is by the altar." And Solomon sent Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, saying, "Fall upon him (kill him)."
And it was told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had returned.
But King Solomon shall be blessed, and David's throne shall be established before the Lord (Yahweh) forever."
And the king commanded Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and he went out and fell upon him (killed him) so that he died. And the kingdom was established (formed) in Solomon's hand.
And Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, through marriage, and took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her to the city of David, until he had finished building his house and the house of the Lord (Yahweh) and the wall around Jerusalem.
And Solomon loved the Lord (Yahweh) and walked in the statutes (literally "things engraved") of his father David, except that he sacrificed in the high places.
And the king went to Gibeon and offered there, for that was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on the altar.
At Gibeon [ten miles northwest of Jerusalem, where the largest sacrificial mound in the land was located before the temple was completed], the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night [the same day he sacrificed there, see ].
God said, "Ask for whatever you want, and I will give it to you."
Solomon replied, "You have already shown great kindness (caring love, faithfulness—Hebr. chesed) to your servant, my father David, because he walked before you in truth, in righteousness, and with an honest heart [all the days of his life]. You have continued to show him this great kindness (loving-kindness, faithfulness) by giving him a son who now reigns on his throne.
That Solomon asked for this (had asked about this matter) was pleasing to the Lord (was good in the eyes of Adonai),
And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream, and he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord (Yahweh) and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings and made a feast for all his servants.
And King Solomon was king over all Israel. [All later kings ruled only over parts of the country.]
And Solomon had 12 chiefs over all Israel, who provided food for the king's household, each man providing for one month each year.
the son of Avinadav – all the territory of Dor, he had Solomon's daughter Tafat as his wife;
Achimat – in Naphtali, he took Solomon's daughter Basmat as his wife;
[Here in begins chapter 5 in the Hebrew text:]
And Solomon reigned over all the kingdom from the river to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.
And Solomon's daily provisions [to feed all the thousands of people who were in his service] were
30 kor [30 barrels; equivalent to 12 cubic meters (8 tons)] of fine flour
and 60 kor [60 barrels; equivalent to 24 cubic meters (16 tons)] of coarse flour,
And Judah and Israel lived in safety, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.
And Solomon had 40,000 stalls for his chariots and 12,000 horsemen.
And these leaders [of the twelve regions] provided King Solomon and all who came to the king's table with provisions, each man his month, they let nothing be lacking. [Over time, the burden becomes too great, and the people ask Solomon's successor to lighten the tax burden, see . The words of Moses serve as a warning.]
And God (Elohim) gave Solomon wisdom and very great knowledge and a large (literally expanded, enlarged) heart, like the sand on the seashore.
And Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt,
And all kinds of people came to hear Solomon's wisdom, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.
And Hiram, king of Tyre, sent his servant to Solomon, for he had heard that they had anointed him king after his father David, for he had loved David all his days.
And Solomon sent messengers to Hiram, saying [writing the following text in a letter]:
And it came to pass, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he was very glad, and said, "Blessed be the Lord (Yahweh) today, who has given David a wise son over this great people."
And Hiram sent [messengers] to Solomon, saying:
"I have heard what you have sent to me. I will do (fulfill) all your wishes concerning cedar timber and cypress timber.
And Hiram gave Solomon cedar timber and cypress timber according to all his desires.
And Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 kor [barrels; equivalent to 7,800 cubic meters (5,000 tons)] of wheat as food for his house, and 20 kor [barrels] of pressed olive oil; this Solomon gave to Hiram year by year.
And the Lord (Yahweh) gave Solomon wisdom as he had promised, and there was peace (shalom) between Hiram and Solomon, and they made a covenant together.
And King Solomon levied a service tax on all Israel, and those who were conscripted were 30,000 men.
And Solomon had 70,000 who carried burdens and 80,000 who were stonecutters in the mountains,
besides Solomon's overseers of the work, 3,300, who ruled (coordinated) over the people who participated in the work.
And Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the Gileadites shaped them and prepared the timber and stones for the building of the house.
And it came to pass in the 480th year after the sons of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv [corresponding to April/May], which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord (Yahweh).
[This verse, together with the 300 years in , indicates that the exodus took place in the 14th century BC. It is common to date the dedication of the temple to 966 BC, which then gives the year of the exodus as 1446 BC. Those who argue for a later date for the exodus (around 1260 BC) see the number 480 as symbolic of 12 generations of the twelve judges (40 x 12 = 480). The Greek translation Septuagint writes the number 440.
Here and in , the unusual name Ziv is used for the second month. The word comes from the word for light (Hebr. ohr) and alludes to the fact that it is becoming spring and lighter. The expression "second month" is otherwise used, see ; ; ; . In the modern Jewish calendar, the name Iyar is used.]
The house that Solomon built for the Lord (Yahweh) was
60 cubits [27 meters] long,
20 cubits [9 meters] wide, and
30 cubits [13.5 meters] high.
[The measurements are according to the royal cubit, which is about 52 cm long, see ]
And the word of the Lord (Yahweh) came to Solomon, saying:
And Solomon built the house and finished it.
And Solomon overlaid the house inside with pure gold, and he drew gold chains across the wall in front of the Holy of Holies, and he overlaid it with gold.
And Solomon built [then, after seven years] his own house [the royal palace] in 13 years, and he completed his entire house. [A total of 20 years of construction, see .]
And his house where he lived, by the second court behind the throne room, was made in the same way. He also built a house for Pharaoh's daughter, whom Solomon had taken as his wife, in the same way as the throne room.
And King
Solomon sent and brought Hiram out of
Tyre.
He was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man from
Tyre, a coppersmith
(literally, "one who plows/engraves in bronze"). And he
[Hiram] was full of wisdom and knowledge and skill to do all kinds of work in bronze. And he came to King
Solomon and did all his work.
And Hiram made the vessels and the shovels and the basins.
So Hiram finished all the work that he did for Solomon on the house of the Lord (Yahweh):
and the vessels and the shovels and the bowls. All the utensils that Hiram made for King Solomon in the house of the Lord (Yahweh) were of polished bronze.
And Solomon left all the utensils unweighed, for they were too many; the weight of the bronze could not be calculated.
And Solomon made all the utensils that were in the house of the Lord (Yahweh):
the golden altar
and the table of showbread were of gold,
And all the work was completed as King Solomon had done in the house of the Lord (Yahweh). And Solomon brought in the objects that David, his father, had set apart (consecrated), the silver and the gold and the utensils, and placed them in the treasury of the house of the Lord (Yahweh).
[This is the central chapter of chapters 3-11, which is a chiasm. Chapter 8 is also formed in a chiasm with seven sections, with Solomon's prayer as the central part:
A Introduction (verses 1-2)
B Dedication (verses 3-13)
C Solomon blesses the people (verses 14-21)
D Solomon's prayer (verses 22-54)
C´ Solomon blesses the people (verses 55-61)
B´ Dedication (verses 62-64)
A´ Conclusion (verses 65-66)
The completion of the temple is Solomon's greatest achievement. This building both embodies and symbolizes Israel's bond with God. In the midst of all this, it is also quite obvious that the God of heaven cannot dwell in a house built by humans, something that Solomon also mentions in his prayer, see and .]
At that time (since), Solomon gathered the elders of Israel and all the heads (leaders) of the tribes, the princes of the houses of the fathers of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord (Yahweh) from the city of David, which is Zion.
And all the men of Israel gathered to King Solomon at the feast [Feast of Tabernacles] in the month (Hebr. jerach) of Ethanim [in the Canaanite calendar], which is [equivalent to] the 7th month (Hebr. chodesh) [Tishri – Sept/Oct]. [The dedication takes place 11 months after the temple was completed. This occurs during the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), which is the most joyful feast of all, see .]
And King Solomon and all the assembly of Israel that was gathered with him were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted for they were so many.
Then Solomon said, "The Lord (Yahweh) has said that he will dwell in the thick (dark) cloud. [The word arafel means a thick, powerful thundercloud and can therefore also be translated as darkness.]
[The account in also tells us that Solomon stood on a pulpit.]
And Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord (Yahweh) in front of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven
And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished praying to the Lord (Yahweh) all these prayers and supplications, that he arose from before the altar of the Lord (Yahweh), from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread out toward heaven.
And Solomon offered peace offerings (communion offerings) which he offered to the Lord (Yahweh), 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the sons of Israel consecrated (dedicated) the house of the Lord (Yahweh).
And
Solomon held a feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly from the entrance of Hamath to the
stream of Egypt, before the Lord our God
(Yahweh Elohim), seven days and seven days, fourteen days.
[This episode concludes the book's account of Solomon's first 20 years as ruler, see . He had previously received a word from the Lord to build the temple in Gibeon, see . This word from the Lord probably occurred the night after the dedication of the temple described in the previous chapter, see .]
And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord (Yahweh) and the king's house, and all that Solomon desired (willingly committed himself to do, Hebr. chesheq), what pleased him (he himself took pleasure in – Hebr. chafets) to do,
that the Lord (Yahweh) appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. []
And it came to pass at the end of the twentieth year, when Solomon had built the two houses: the house of the Lord (Yahweh) [the temple, which took 7.5 years] and the king's house [his palace, which took 13 years, see ],
that Hiram, king of
Tyre, had supplied
Solomon with cedar and cypress wood and with gold, according to all his desires, then
(at that time) King
Solomon gave Hiram 20 cities in the land of Galilee.
[Probably in the northwestern part, near Tyre.]And Hiram came from
Tyre to see the cities that
Solomon had given him, but they did not please his eyes.
And this is the reason for the labor force (tax, compulsory labor, forced laborers – Hebr. ) that King Solomon gathered to build
the house of the Lord (Yahweh)
and his own house
and Millo [the defensive wall and fortification for the palace]
and the wall of Jerusalem
and [the cities] Hazor [north of the Sea of Galilee]
and Megiddo [in the Jezreel Valley]
and Gezer [the trading city halfway between Joppa and Jerusalem].
[Archaeological finds from these cities show how the construction of these gates is special and distinct from other cities. This speaks to a master builder who left his mark with measurements, proportions, and design.]
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, had gone up and taken Gezer [a trading city halfway between Joppa and Jerusalem] and burned it with fire and smitten the Canaanites who dwelt in the city and given it as a portion to his daughter, Solomon's wife. [He married her early, see . The fact that she was given her own house shows her special position among Solomon's 700 wives, see ; .]
And Solomon built Gezer and Beit-Choron, the lower one,
and all the store cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired (willingly committed himself to do – Hebr. chesheq) to build for his satisfaction (Hebr. chashaq) in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and throughout the land over which he ruled. [30,000 were recruited for these projects, see ; .]
the sons who remained after them in the land, whom the sons of Israel could not utterly destroy, from them Solomon took tribute until this day.
But Solomon did not make any of the sons of Israel slaves; they were his warriors, his servants, his princes, his commanders, and the commanders of his chariots and horsemen.
These are the chief officers over Solomon's work, 550 who were overseers of the people who did the work.
And three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he had built for the Lord (Yahweh) and sacrificed there on the altar [] before the Lord (Yahweh) []. Thus he completed the house. [Three times a year is at the three pilgrimage festivals of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot, see ; .]
And King Solomon made (had made) a fleet at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth [present-day Eilat] on the shore of the Sea of Reeds (Hebr. yam sof) [Aqaba Gulf – the eastern arm of the Red Sea] in the land of Edom.
And Hiram sent his servants to the fleet, sailors who had knowledge of the sea, together with Solomon's servants.
And they came to Ophir [a region known for its gold, see Job 28:16; Isaiah 13:12; probably south of the Red Sea] and bought gold from there, 420 talents [16 tons – equivalent to 1,152 gold bars weighing 12.5 kg each], and brought it to King Solomon.
[This chapter is thematically linked in chiastic parallelism with , where two women come to Solomon and he judges with wisdom.]
When the queen of Sheba (Hebr. Sheva) heard the rumors about Solomon and the name of the Lord [the connection between his glory and his relationship with God, his moral and spiritual wisdom], she came to test him with difficult questions (proverbs, problems).
[Sheba was probably located in southern Arabia and was a large kingdom that may have stretched across the Red Sea all the way to Ethiopia. The distance to Israel through desert and mountainous terrain is over 2,000 kilometers.]
She came to Jerusalem with a very large entourage, camels loaded with fragrant spices, gold in abundance, and precious stones. She visited Solomon and spoke with him about everything that was on her mind.
Solomon answered all her questions (literally: "Solomon told her all her words"). No words [answers to her complex questions and proverbs] were hidden from the king that he could not tell her.
[At that time, it was common to discuss practical, existential, and ethical problems through proverb-like questions and answers. This storytelling tradition is still common today in Hebrew culture as well as throughout the Middle East. The use of the word "tell" (Hebr. nagad) in shows that Solomon and the queen engaged in this storytelling tradition, which was very typical of the time and region. This is in contrast to the later Greek tradition, exemplified by Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, where refined conversation was to be conducted explicitly with questions and answers. In the Hebrew storytelling tradition, it is instead the use of proverbs and other clever formulations, riddles, and sometimes subtleties that characterizes sophisticated conversation. Straightforward questions and simplified answers do not exist in this way of conversing. Instead, the conversation ebbs and flows like a story, where the different meanings of words are emphasized with anecdotes and proverbs. Many of these are written down in the Book of Proverbs. An example of a question the queen could have asked was: "Which part of the body is the strongest?" Solomon would then have answered: "The tongue, because it has power over life and death," see .]
When the Queen of Sheba herself saw all Solomon's wisdom, she saw the house he had built [his own palace or temple],
And she gave the king 120 talents [4 tons] of gold and spices in very large quantities and precious stones, and never again was there such a large quantity of spices as the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
And King Solomon gave the Queen of Sheba all she desired—whatever she asked for, besides what King Solomon freely gave her (literally: gave according to his hand). And she turned and went to her country, she and her servants.
[There are various interpretations of this verse. A Jewish legend claims that Solomon fathered a son by the queen, which was her "desire." The Ethiopian tradition is similar to the Jewish one and claims that the royal Abyssinian line was founded by the offspring of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Neither of these traditions has any historical basis, nor can they be substantiated by the biblical text. Jesus uses the queen as an example of the effort one should be willing to make to hear God's word (). She traveled over 2,000 miles to ask Solomon, but Jesus' listeners refused to listen to God's own Son.]
The weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold [23 tons – 1,827 gold bars weighing 12.5 kg each],
And King Solomon made 200 long shields (Hebr. tsinah) of hammered gold. 600 weight units [shekels – 6.9 kg] of gold were used for one shield. [The shield was made of wood and covered with gold.]
And all King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the utensils in the forest house of Lebanon were of pure gold; nothing was of silver, for it was not considered valuable in the days of Solomon.
And King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.
And all the earth sought Solomon's face to hear his wisdom, which God (Elohim) had put in his heart.
And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen, and he had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, whom he placed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.
And Solomon's horses were brought from Egypt [in the south] and from Qove [corresponding to Cilicia in present-day southeastern Turkey, the horses here were known for their strength and endurance]. The king's merchants bought them from Qove at a fixed price.
[This passage frames the chiasmus in chapters 3-11. It was precisely the marriages to foreign women that he was not to do (; ), and this proved to be his downfall. In recent years, archaeologists have begun to analyze fingerprints on clay shards. In excavations where there are Canaanite temples (including Tell Burna 2022), it has been seen that idols, figurines, masks, and vessels for religious use were made by female potters, while ordinary vessels were made by men. Here, archaeology confirms that foreign women were involved in creating these occult objects.]
And King Solomon loved many foreign women, in addition to (besides) the daughter of Pharaoh [who is excluded, see ] – Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites –
from the peoples of whom the Lord (Yahweh) said to the sons of Israel, "You shall not intermarry with them, nor shall they intermarry with you, for they will surely turn your hearts away after their gods [if you do so]." [; ] Solomon held fast to these [Canaanite women] in love.
And it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not perfect (wholehearted) with the Lord (Yahweh), his God (Elohim), as was the heart of his father David. [The word perfect here is shalem and shares its root with the word shalom, which refers to having both peace and harmony with God, but also to being complete, wholly devoted, and "single-hearted."]
And Solomon went after Ashtoreth [Ishtar – goddess of love and war; queen of heaven, wife of Baal], goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom [also called Molech, see ], the abomination of the Ammonites.
So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord (Yahweh), he did not fully follow (literally: "did not fulfill after" – was not loyal to) the Lord (Yahweh) as David, his father, had done.
At that time Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab [], on the mountain east of Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the Ammonites.
And the Lord (Yahweh) was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the Lord (Yahweh), the God (Elohim) of Israel, who had appeared (shown himself) to him twice,
And the Lord (Yahweh) said to Solomon, "Because this is in your mind, and you have not kept (guarded, protected, preserved) my covenant and my statutes (literally "things engraved") which I commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servants.
And the Lord (Yahweh) raised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite, who was of the royal family of Edom (a descendant of the king of Edom).
And he was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, besides the troubles that Hadad caused, and he hated Israel and reigned over Aram.
And Jeroboam (Hebr. Jarovam), the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite from Zeredah, a servant of Solomon whose mother was Zeruah, a widow, also raised his hand against the king.
And this was the reason why he lifted up his hand against the king: Solomon built Millo and repaired the breaches in the city of his father David.
And the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor, and Solomon saw that the young man was diligent, and he gave him charge over all the laborers of the house of Joseph.
And he said to Jeroboam, "Take ten pieces, for thus says the Lord (Yahweh), the God (Elohim) of Israel: 'Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to you,
Solomon therefore sought to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt, to Shishak, king of Egypt, and remained in Egypt until Solomon's death.
The rest of the acts of Solomon, all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon?
And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years.
And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David, and Rehoboam (Hebr. Rechavam), his son, reigned in his place.
And it came to pass, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was still in Egypt, whither he had fled from the presence of King Solomon), that Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt,
And Rehoboam took counsel from the elders who had stood before Solomon his father while he was still alive, and said, "What counsel do you give me to answer this people?"
And when Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 chosen men who were warriors, gathered together to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom back to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon.
"Speak to Rehoboam, son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, saying,
[Rehoboam was the first ruler of the Southern Kingdom (reigned 930-913 BC).]
And Rehoboam, Solomon's son, reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was 41 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord (Yahweh) had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there, and his mother [queen mother] was Naamah the Ammonite.
And he took away the treasures (riches) from the house of the Lord (Yahweh) and the treasures from the king's house. He took away everything, and he took away all the shields of gold that Solomon had made.
And he placed the carved Asherah [pole for idol worship] that he had made in the house about which the Lord (Yahweh) had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will place my name forever,
And the high places that were in front of (east of) Jerusalem, to the right [the southern hill] of the Mount of Destruction [a play on words for "Mount of Anointing," i.e., the Mount of Olives], which Solomon, king of Israel, had built for
Ashtoret [Ishtar – goddess of love and war; queen of heaven and wife of Baal], the abomination of the Sidonians, King of Israel, had built for Ashtoreth [Ishtar – goddess of love and war; queen of heaven and wife of Baal], the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom [also called Molech], the abomination of the sons of Ammon,
the king defiled himself.
And he carried away all the treasures of the house of the Lord (Yahweh), and the treasures of the king's house, and broke in pieces all the vessels of gold that Solomon, king of Israel, had made in the temple of the Lord (Yahweh), which the Lord (Yahweh) had spoken (according to the Lord's instruction).
The two pillars, the single sea, and the bases that Solomon had made for the house of the Lord (Yahweh), the copper from all the utensils had no (missing) [measured] weight.
These sons were born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon, four in all, by Bat-Shua, the daughter of Ammiel.
Solomon's son was Rehoboam (Hebr. Rechavam),
his son Avijah,
his son Asa,
his son Jehoshaphat,
Jochanan became the father of Azariah, who was a priest in the temple Solomon built in Jerusalem.
Until Solomon built the house of the Lord (Yahweh) in Jerusalem, they performed this service in front of the tabernacle (the tent of meeting, the dwelling place – Hebr. mishkan óhel móed), and they performed their duties according to the order that applied to them.
These are the names of the sons he had in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,
From Hadadezer's cities of Tibhat and Kun, David took a great quantity of copper. Solomon used it to make the bronze sea, the pillars, and the bronze vessels.
David said (thinking to himself), "My son Solomon is young and weak, and the house to be built for the Lord must be very large so that it will be famous and praised in all countries. Therefore, I will make preparations for it." So David made many preparations before his death.
He called his son Solomon and commanded him to build a house for the Lord (Yahweh), the God of Israel.
David said to his son Solomon, "I myself had intended to build a house for the name of the Lord (Yahweh), my God (Elohim).
But behold, a son shall be born to you. He shall be a man of peace, and I will give him peace with all his enemies around him. His name shall be Solomon, and I will give Israel peace in his days.
Then David commanded all the leaders of Israel to help his son Solomon. He said:
When David was old and satisfied with life, he made his son Solomon king over Israel.
Among all my sons—for the Lord has given me many sons—he chose my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the Lord and rule over Israel.
He said to me, 'Your son Solomon is the one who will build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father.
And you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father and serve him with a devoted heart and a willing soul, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all intentions and thoughts. If you seek him, he will let himself be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.
David gave his son Solomon a pattern of the front porch and the temple buildings and the storehouses, the upper chambers and the inner rooms and the room for the mercy seat.
David said to his son Solomon, "Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, will be with you. He will not leave you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord (Yahweh) is finished.
King David said to the whole assembly, "My son Solomon, the only one chosen by God, is young and weak, and the work is great, for this palace is not for man but for the Lord God.
Give my son Solomon a devoted heart to keep your commandments, your testimonies, and your statutes, and to do all these things and build the temple that I have prepared."
They ate and drank with great joy before the Lord that day, and for the second time they made Solomon, son of David, king. They anointed him prince of the Lord and Zadok priest.
So Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord as king after his father David, and he prospered. All Israel obeyed him.
All the leaders and heroes, and all the sons of King David, submitted to King Solomon.
And the Lord made Solomon very great before all Israel and gave him such royal glory as no one before him had had as king over Israel.
He died at a good age [over 70], satisfied with his life and satisfied with wealth and honor. His son Solomon became king after him.
Solomon (Hebr. Shlomo) [related to Hebr. shalom – peace, tranquility, and wholeness], son of David, strengthened his royal power in his kingdom (literally: "strengthened himself over his kingdom"), for the Lord (Yahweh) his God (Elohim) was with him and made him very great.
Solomon spoke to all Israel, to the commanders and officers, to the judges and to all the princes of Israel, the heads of the families.
Then he went with the whole assembly to the high place at Gibeon [just north of Jerusalem, see ], for that was where the tent of meeting with God was, which Moses the servant of the Lord had made in the wilderness.
And the bronze altar that Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur (Hebr. Chor) [], had made stood there before the tabernacle of the Lord, and Solomon and the assembly went there.
There Solomon went up before the Lord to the bronze altar that was before the tent of meeting, and he offered a thousand burnt offerings on it.
That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, "Ask me what you want me to give you."
Solomon answered God, "You have shown great kindness to my father David and have made me king in his place.
Then God said to Solomon, "Because this was in your heart, and you did not ask for riches, wealth, honor, the life of your enemies, or long life, but asked for wisdom and understanding to judge my people, over whom I have made you king,
After Solomon had been at the high place at Gibeon, he went from the tent of meeting to Jerusalem and reigned over Israel.
Solomon gathered chariots and horses, and he had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses. He stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.
The horses that Solomon bought came from Egypt [in the south] and from Qove [corresponding to Cilicia in present-day southeastern Turkey, where the horses were known for their strength and endurance]. The king's buyers brought them from Qove at a fixed price.
And Solomon now planned to build a house for the name of the Lord (Yahweh) [for worship] and a house for himself as a royal residence.[The entire chapter 2 is formatted as a chiasm. The division of workers (verses 2 and 17-18) followed by Solomon's letter (verses 3-10) and Hiram's letter (verses 11-16).]
Therefore Solomon assigned (literally: counted) 70,000 men to be carriers, 80,000 to be stonecutters in the mountains, and 3,600 to be overseers over them.
[The total workforce was 153,600 (70,000 + 80,000 + 3,600), see verses 17-18, which repeat the numbers and also add them up. There were 42-43 people in each group. The number of supervisors in is 3,300. In Assyria and Babylon, the workers consisted of slaves recruited during military raids. One report mentions how Ashurbanipal (who ruled Assyria from 884-859 BC) enlisted the help of 50,000 workers to build the capital city of Kalhu.]
And Solomon sent messengers to Hiram [alternative spelling of Hiram (), who ruled from 980 to 947 BC], king of Tyre, saying:
"Do to me as you did to my father David, when you sent him cedar wood to build a house for himself to dwell in. []
King Choram of Tyre replied with a letter he sent to Solomon:
"Because the Lord loves his people, he has made you king over them."
Solomon counted all the foreigners in the land of Israel, just as his father David had done before him. It turned out that there were 153,600 of them.
[There is an interesting parallel in the first part of the number of workers to build the temple, which is 153, and the numerical value of Bezalel, the craftsman who built the tabernacle (), which is also 153. Jesus, who was called "the craftsman's son" (), is himself the ark and the atonement, see also where the number 153 recurs.]
Solomon began to build the house of the Lord (Yahweh) in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, on the site that David had prepared, the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
When Solomon built the house of God (Elohim), he laid the foundation so that it was 60 cubits [27 meters] long and 20 cubits [9 meters] wide according to the old cubit measurement. [The older royal cubit was longer than the new one. This note is not found in .]
In addition, Choram [Choram-Avi] made the ash pans, the shovels, and the bowls.
Thus Hiram [Choram-Avi] completed the work he was to do for King Solomon in the house of God.
[Here the spellings Choram and Hiram are used, but both refer to the same person, Choram-Avi, see . He should not be confused with the king of Tyre, who also goes by the same two names, Choram/Chiram, see ; .]
The ash pans, the shovels, the forks, and all the utensils that belonged to them, Choram-Aviv made for King Solomon for the house of the Lord (Yahweh). Everything was of polished copper.
And Solomon made all these objects in such large numbers that the weight of the copper could not be determined.
Solomon made all the objects that were to be in the house of God (Elohim):
the golden altar,
the tables on which the showbread was to be placed,
When all the work that Solomon had done for the house of the Lord (Yahweh) was finished, Solomon brought in what his father David had dedicated to the Lord (Yahweh): the silver, the gold, and all the vessels. He put these in the treasuries of the house of God.
Then Solomon gathered the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the heads of the families of the children of Israel, to Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord (Yahweh) from the city of David, that is, Zion.
And King Solomon stood before the ark with the whole assembly of Israel, which had gathered around him. They sacrificed sheep and oxen in such abundance that they could not be counted or estimated.
Then Solomon said:
The Lord has said
that he wants to dwell in darkness (a thick dark cloud) [].
He had made a pulpit of bronze, five cubits [2.25 meters] long, five cubits [2.25 meters] wide, and three cubits [1.35 meters] high, and placed it in the middle of the outer courtyard, and he now stood on the pulpit. Then he knelt before the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven
When Solomon had finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory (honor, weight – Hebr. kavod) of the Lord (Yahweh) filled the house.
King Solomon sacrificed 22,000 bulls and 120,000 sheep and goats. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.
And Solomon consecrated the middle part of the courtyard in front of the house of the Lord (Yahweh). There he offered the burnt offerings and the fat portions of the fellowship offering, because the bronze altar that Solomon had made could not hold the burnt offering, the food offering, and the fat portions.
At that time,
Solomon celebrated the feast for seven days, and all Israel with him. It was a very large assembly, from the place where the road goes to Hamath
[in present-day southern Syria, not far from Tell Dan, see ] all the way to
the brook of Egyptravine
[Wadi el-Arish, Israel's border with Sinai in the southwest, see ].
But on the 23rd day of the 7th month [Tishri – Sept/Oct], he sent the people home to their tents, and they were filled with joy and gladness over the good that the Lord had done for David and Solomon and for his people Israel.
[Now follows the Lord's answer to Solomon's prayer. The content is the same as in , but here in verses 11-12 it is described in more detail.]
So Solomon completed the house of the Lord (Yahweh) and the royal palace. Everything Solomon had planned to do in the house of the Lord (Yahweh) and in his own house was successful.
And the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a place of sacrifice.
When Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord (Yahweh) and his own house in 20 years,
he built the cities that Hiram had given him, and he settled the children of Israel there.
And Solomon went to Hamath-Zobah and subdued it.
as well as Baalath and all the cities where he kept his supplies, his chariots, and his horses, and everything else he wanted to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and throughout the land under his rule.
the descendants of all those whom the Israelites had not destroyed but who remained in the land, Solomon made them subject to forced labor, as they are to this day.
But Solomon did not make any of the children of Israel slaves for his work, but they became warriors and commanders of his army, or commanders of his chariots and horses.
King Solomon had 250 chief officers who commanded the people.
And Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter from the city of David to the house he had built for her, for he said, "My wife shall not dwell in the house of David, king of Israel, for it is a holy place, since the ark of the Lord has come there."
Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord, which he had built in front of the porch.
So all Solomon's work was done, first until the day the foundation of the house of the Lord (Yahweh) was laid, and then until it was completed. Thus the house of the Lord (Yahweh) was completed.
At that time Solomon went to Ezion-geber [a port city near Eilat/Aqaba, possibly Coral Island 13 km south of Eilat] and to Eilat on the seashore in the land of Edom.
And Hiram [the king of Tyre] sent him by his servants ships and men skilled in sailing. They went with Solomon's servants to Ophir and brought back 450 talents [15 tons] of gold, which they brought to King Solomon.
When the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test him with difficult questions. She came with a very large retinue and with camels carrying fragrant spices, a large quantity of gold, and precious stones. When she came before Solomon, she spoke with him about everything that was on her mind.
Solomon answered all her questions (literally: "Solomon told her all her words"). No words [answers to her complex questions and proverbs] were hidden from the king that he could not tell her.
When the queen of Sheba saw Solomon's wisdom and saw the house he had built,
She gave the king 120 talents [4 tons] of gold, a large quantity of fragrant spices, and precious stones. Fragrant spices of the kind that the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon have never been found again.
When Hiram's people and Solomon's people brought gold from Ophir, they also brought back some almug wood and precious stones.
King Solomon gave the Queen of Sheba everything she desired and requested, except for gifts in return for what she had brought to the king. Then she turned and returned home with her servants to her country.
The gold that came to Solomon each year weighed 666 talents [23 tons],
in addition to what traveling merchants and other traders brought in. All the kings of Arabia and the governors of the land also brought gold and silver to Solomon.
King Solomon had 200 large shields made of hammered gold and used 600 shekels [6.9 kg] of hammered gold for each shield
All King Solomon's drinking vessels were made of gold, and all the vessels in the Lebanon Forest House were made of pure gold. Silver was considered worthless in Solomon's time.
King Solomon became greater than any other king on earth, both in wealth and in wisdom.
All the kings of the earth came to visit Solomon and hear the wisdom that God had put in his heart.
Solomon had 4,000 stalls for horses and chariots and 12,000 riding horses, which he kept in the chariot cities and in Jerusalem with the king himself.
And horses were brought to Solomon from Egypt and from all other countries.
The rest of Solomon's deeds, from his early days to his final days, are recorded in the chronicles of the prophet Nathan, in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of the seer (prophet – Hebr. chozeh) Iddo concerning Jeroboam, son of Nebat.
Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel for 40 years.
And Solomon rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David his father. His son Rehoboam succeeded him as king.
When Jeroboam, son of Nebat, king of the Northern Kingdom, heard this while he was in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon, he returned from Egypt.
Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime, and he said, "What advice do you give me to give this people?"
"Tell Rehoboam, son of Solomon, king of Judah, and all the Israelites in Judah and Benjamin:
For three years they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and made the reign of Solomon's son Rehoboam strong, for three years they walked in the ways of David and Solomon.
So Shishak, king of Egypt, went up to Jerusalem. He took the treasures from the house of the Lord (Yahweh) and the treasures from the royal palace. He took everything. He also took the gold shields that Solomon had made.
But Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, the servant of David's son Solomon, rose up and rebelled against his master.
A crowd of loose people joined him, evil men who became too strong for Rehoboam, Solomon's son. Rehoboam was young and anxious and therefore could not resist them.
There was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon, king of Israel, son of David, nothing like this had happened in Jerusalem.
He placed the idol he had made in the house of God, about which God had said to David and his son Solomon: "In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.
He said to the Levites who taught all Israel and who were consecrated to the Lord (Yahweh): "Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, has built. It shall no longer be a burden on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord (Yahweh) your God (Elohim) and his people Israel.
Prepare yourselves according to your families, in your divisions, as King David of Israel and his son Solomon have prescribed.
The children of Solomon's servants:
The sons of Sotai, the sons of Hassoferet, the sons of Peroda,
All the temple servants [the Nethinim, see verses 43-54] and the sons of Solomon's servants were 392.
The sons of Solomon's servants:
The sons of Sotai, the sons of Soferet, the sons of Perida,
All the temple servants [the Nethinim] and the sons of Solomon's servants: 392.
These are the leaders of the province who lived in Jerusalem. But in the cities of Judah, each man lived in the city where he had his ancestral property: ordinary Israelites, priests, Levites, and temple servants, as well as the descendants of Solomon's servants.
They observed what was to be observed in the worship service and in the purifications, and even the singers and gatekeepers performed their duties as David and his son Solomon had commanded.
Was it not just like this that Solomon, king of Israel, sinned? Among the many pagan peoples there was no king like him, and he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. But even he was seduced into sin by foreign women.
God, give the king your judgments (the ability to judge fairly),
give the king's son your righteousness (let him be qualified for his mission).
Unless the Lord (Yahweh) builds the house (family; temple – Hebr. bajit) [Solomon built the temple, see ]
those who build it labor in vain (in emptiness; futility).
Unless the Lord (Yahweh) guards (protects; watches over) the city,
the watchmen guard (watch) in vain.
[Their efforts will be unsuccessful and of no use unless God is with them.]
These are proverbs (parables, images, sayings, truths – Hebr. mashal)
by Solomon, king of Israel, son of David.
Proverbs of Solomon. [The numerical value of the Hebrew letters in the word Solomon is 375 (300 + 30 + 40 + 5) – the exact number of verses in . The section consists of short proverbs dealing with right and wrong, sometimes grouped together, but mostly standing alone.]
A wise son (child) is a joy to his father,
but a self-confident fool of a son (child) is a sorrow (grief, pain, burden) to his mother.
[The following section, chapters 25-29, consists of proverbs written by Solomon. King Hezekiah () and his associates then compiled them in the 700s BC. They can be divided into 130 proverbs, which corresponds to the numerical value of the Hebrew letters in the name Hezekiah (Hebr. Chizqijah; 8 + 7 + 100 + 10 + 5 = 130) as spelled here.]
These proverbs are also by Solomon,
which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, have copied (transcribed).
Sing the songs that belong to Solomon!
[This verse is usually translated as "The Song of Songs by Solomon," but this is a possible alternative translation. An invitation to sing Solomon's songs. The name Solomon appears seven times in this book and points to the perfect king, Jesus.]
I am black (sunburned) [having worked outdoors], but beautiful—you daughters of Jerusalem,
[black] like the [dark] tents of Kedar [woven from black goat hair],
[beautiful] like Solomon's curtains (tents).
Behold, it is Solomon's litter,
60 warriors of the mighty men (heroes) of Israel walk around it.
[Some in front, some behind, and some on the sides in good order.]
King Solomon has made himself a litter
of wood from Lebanon.
[Probably cedar wood, which is Lebanon's national symbol.]
Go out, daughters of Zion, and see King Solomon,
and also see the crown [perhaps a wreath of flowers]
with which his mother crowned him on his wedding day,
the day of his heart's joy.
Solomon has a vineyard in Baal-Hamon.
He gives the vineyard to stewards.
Each was expected to yield fruit
equivalent to 1,000 pieces of silver (coins). [Compare with the parables about the stewards in the Gospels, see ; ; .]
My vineyard, which is mine, existed before me.
You, Solomon, shall have a thousand
and those who take care of the fruit two hundred.
The two pillars, the single sea, and the twelve bronze oxen under the bases that Solomon had made for the house of the Lord (Yahweh), the bronze from all these utensils had no (missing) [measured] weight.
Jishai begot David, the king. [Both "David" and "king" are in the definite form in Greek, which gives extra emphasis. Literally: "Davidthe, kingthe".]
[The second part has fourteen links between Solomon and Jehoiachin, David is mentioned again but is not counted as a link. Thirty names are mentioned, including the repetition of David and Bathsheba's husband Uriah, who is not included in the family tree. Of these, 29 are men and one is a woman.]
David begot Solomon, whose mother [Bathsheba; Hebr. Batsheva] was the wife of Uriah [whom David stole from him, see ],
Solomon begot Rehoboam (Rechavam),
Rehoboam begot Abijah (Avijam),
Abijah begot Asa,
I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor (glory) was dressed like one of them.
The queen of the South [; ] will rise at the judgment
together with this generation and be its judgment. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear Solomon's wisdom, but here is something greater than Solomon."
The Queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them. She [a pagan] came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon [she saw no signs] – and here is more [wisdom] than Solomon!
Consider (examine carefully, learn from) the lilies (wildflowers), how they grow.
They do not labor (work hard to the point of exhaustion)
or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor (majesty) was dressed like one of them [].
and Jesus was walking in Solomon's colonnade in the temple area.
Now, while the man stayed close to Peter and John, people came running and gathered around them in the passageway called Solomon's Colonnade [which was along the eastern side of the temple area]. They were completely beside themselves with amazement.
[Now the answer to the prayer in comes:] Through the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were done among the people, and they were all together in Solomon's portico [which was along the east side of the temple area].
But it was Solomon who built a house for him. []
