Solomon’s Palace
1Now Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house. 2He built the house of the forest of Lebanon; its length was 100 cubits and its width 50 cubits and its height 30 cubits, on four rows of cedar pillars with cedar beams on the pillars. 3It was paneled with cedar above the side chambers which were on the 45 pillars, 15 in each row. 4There were artistic window frames in three rows, and window was opposite window in three ranks. 5All the doorways and doorposts had squared artistic frames, and window was opposite window in three ranks.
6Then he made the hall of pillars; its length was 50 cubits and its width 30 cubits, and a porch was in front of them and pillars and a threshold in front of them.
7He made the hall of the throne where he was to judge, the hall of judgment, and it was paneled with cedar from floor to floor.
8His house where he was to live, the other court inward from the hall, was of the same workmanship. He also made a house like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom Solomon had married.
9All these were of costly stones, of stone cut according to measure, sawed with saws, inside and outside; even from the foundation to the coping, and so on the outside to the great court.
10The foundation was of costly stones, even large stones, stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits. 11And above were costly stones, stone cut according to measure, and cedar. 12So the great court all around had three rows of cut stone and a row of cedar beams even as the inner court of the house of YHVH, and the porch of the house.
1 Kings 7:1-11
God’s Promise and Warning
1Now it came about when Solomon had finished building the house of YHVH, and the king’s house, and all that Solomon desired to do, 2that YHVH appeared to Solomon a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3YHVH said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your supplication, which you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built by putting My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. 4“As for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My ordinances, 5then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father David, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’
6“But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, 7then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and the house which I have consecrated for My name, I will cast out of My sight. So Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 8“And this house will become a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by will be astonished and hiss and say, ‘Why has YHVH done thus to this land and to this house?’ 9“And they will say, ‘Because they forsook YHVH their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them, therefore YHVH has brought all this adversity on them.’”
Cities Given to Hiram
10It came about at the end of twenty years in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of YHVH and the king’s house 11(Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold according to all his desire), then King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.12So Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, and they did not please him. 13He said, “What are these cities which you have given me, my brother?” So they were called the land of Cabul to this day. 14And Hiram sent to the king 120 talents of gold.
15This is the account of the forced labor that KingSolomon imposed to build the house of YHVH, 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, Solomon’s wife.…
1 Kings 9:1-15
1Now at the end of the twenty years during which Solomon had built the house of YHVH and his own palace,2Solomon rebuilt the cities Hiramahad given him and settled Israelites there.
3Then Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and captured it. 4He built Tadmor in the wilderness, along with all the store cities that he had built in Hamath. 5He rebuilt Upper and Lower Beth-horon as fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars, 6as well as Baalath, all the store cities that belonged to Solomon, all the cities for his chariots and horsesb—whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout the land of his dominion.
7As for all the people who remained of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites (the people who were not Israelites)— 8their descendants who remained in the land, those whom the Israelites were unable to destroy—Solomon conscripted these people to be forced laborers, as they are to this day.
9But Solomon did not consign any of the Israelites to slave labor, because they were his men of war, his officers and captains, and the commanders of his chariots and cavalry. 10They were also the chief officers for King Solomon: 250 supervisors.
11Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh up from the City of David to the palace he had built for her. For he said, “My wife must not live in the house of David king of Israel, because the places the ark of YHVH has entered are holy.”