2 Chronicles
8
- At the end of twenty years, during which
Solomon built the temple of the LORD and his own palace,
- Solomon rebuilt the villages that Hiram
had given him, and settled Israelites in them.
- Solomon then went to Hamath Zobah and captured
it.
- He also built up Tadmor in the desert and
all the store cities he had built in Hamath.
- He rebuilt Upper Beth Horon and Lower Beth
Horon as fortified cities, with walls and with gates and bars,
- as well as Baalath and all his store cities,
and all the cities for his chariots and for his horses -- whatever he desired
to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and throughout all the territory he ruled.
- All the people left from the Hittites, Amorites,
Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites (these peoples were not Israelites),
- that is, their descendants remaining in
the land, whom the Israelites had not destroyed -- these Solomon conscripted
for his slave labor force, as it is to this day.
- But Solomon did not make slaves of the Israelites
for his work; they were his fighting men, commanders of his captains, and
commanders of his chariots and charioteers.
- They were also King Solomon's chief officials
-- two hundred and fifty officials supervising the men.
- Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter up from
the City of David to the palace he had built for her, for he said, "My
wife must not live in the palace of David king of Israel, because the places
the ark of the LORD has entered are holy."
- On the altar of the LORD that he had built
in front of the portico, Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings to the LORD,
- according to the daily requirement for offerings
commanded by Moses for Sabbaths, New Moons and the three annual feasts --
the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles.
- In keeping with the ordinance of his father
David, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their duties, and the
Levites to lead the praise and to assist the priests according to each day's
requirement. He also appointed the gatekeepers by divisions for the various
gates, because this was what David the man of God had ordered.
- They did not deviate from the king's commands
to the priests or to the Levites in any matter, including that of the treasuries.
- All Solomon's work was carried out, from
the day the foundation of the temple of the LORD was laid until its completion.
So the temple of the LORD was finished.
- Then Solomon went to Ezion Geber and Elath
on the coast of Edom.
- And Hiram sent him ships commanded by his
own officers, men who knew the sea. These, with Solomon's men, sailed to Ophir
and brought back four hundred and fifty talents of gold, which they delivered
to King Solomon.
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