The LORD’s Response to Solomon (2 Chronicles 7:11–22)
1 UST After Solomon’ s workers had finished building the temple and his palace and everything else that Solomon wanted them to build, BSB BSB: Now when Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and the royal palace, and had achieved all that he had desired to do,
2 UST Yahweh appeared to him{ in a dream}. That was the same way in which he had appeared to him earlier at the city of Gibeon. BSB BSB: the LORD appeared to him a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon.
3 UST Yahweh said to him,“I agree to do what asked me to do when you prayed to me at the temple. I have made the temple you built a place where I will be present in a special way so that people can always worship me there. I will always pay attention to what people pray when they face the temple, and I will always care deeply about what happens there. BSB BSB: And 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.
4 UST And as for you, conduct your life as I want you to, just as your father David did. Obey very sincerely all the laws that I have commanded you to obey{ as an Israelite}. If you do that, BSB BSB: And 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,
5 UST then I will make sure that you are the king of Israel for your whole life and that your descendants reign as king after you. That is what I promised to your father David. I promised him that one of his descendants would always rule Israel. BSB BSB: then 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.’
6 UST But suppose that you or one of your descendants who becomes king stops worshiping me. Suppose you disobey the laws that I have given to you to obey. Suppose that you start to live as people live who worship other gods live. Suppose you even bow down to idols that represent those gods. BSB BSB: But 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,
7 UST If you do that, then I will allow an enemy to take the Israelite people away from this land that I have given to them. I will also allow an enemy to destroy this temple that I have made a place where I will be especially present. Then people throughout the world will use the Israelites as an example of a very bad thing happening to a nation. They will even mock other people by saying that they are like the Israelites. BSB BSB: then 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.
8 UST Even though this temple is now very beautiful,{ if you disobey me and worship other gods,} someday everyone who sees where it used to be will wonder whatever happened to it. They will hiss{ in contempt} and they will ask,‘Why did Yahweh allow an enemy to take the Israelite people away from this land and destroy their temple?’ BSB BSB: And 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?’
9 UST Other people will reply,‘This happened because the Israelite people abandoned Yahweh their God. He was the one who rescued their ancestors from slavery in Egypt. But they became loyal to other gods instead. They lived the way people who worship those other gods live. They even bowed down to idols that represented those gods. That is why Yahweh caused them to experience all these disasters.’” BSB BSB: And 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.’”
Solomon’s Additional Achievements (2 Chronicles 8:1–18)
10 UST Solomon’ s workers spent 20 years building Yahweh’ s temple and Solomon’ s palace. BSB BSB: Now at the end of the twenty years during which Solomon built these two houses, the house of the LORD and the royal palace,
11 UST Hiram, the king of the city of Tyre, had arranged for his workers to provide Solomon with cedar and pine logs and with gold. That enabled Solomon to build everything he wanted to build.{ In gratitude, after his workers had completed the building projects,} King Solomon gave Hiram 20 cities in the region of Galilee. BSB BSB: King 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.
12 UST Hiram traveled from Tyre{ to Galilee} to visit the cities that Solomon had given to him. When he saw them, he did not like them. BSB BSB: So Hiram went out from Tyre to inspect the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them.
13 UST He said to Solomon,“My friend, those cities that you gave me are worthless.” Because of that, Hiram called that region the Land of Cabul. That is still the name of that region now. BSB BSB: “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.
14 UST Hiram{ was so upset because he} had provided Solomon with about 4, 000 kilograms of gold{ for the temple and for his palace}. BSB BSB: And Hiram had sent the king 120 talents of gold.
15 UST This is an account of how King Solomon forced some of the men who lived in the land of Israel to work hard on his building projects. He forced them to work on the temple, his palace, the Millo, and the wall around Jerusalem. He also forced them to work to make the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer into fortresses. BSB BSB: This 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. 16 UST The city of Gezer belonged to Solomon because Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had sent his army to attack Gezer and capture it. His soldiers had burned all the houses in the city and killed all the people who lived there. They were Canaanites. Pharaoh then gave that city to his daughter as a gift when she married Solomon. BSB BSB: Pharaoh 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.
17 UST Then Solomon’ s workers rebuilt Gezer{ as a border fortress city}. They also built up{ as border fortress cities} Lower Beth Horon, BSB BSB: So Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth-horon,
18 UST Baalath, and Tamar in the desolate area in the southern part of Judah. BSB BSB: Baalath, and Tamar in the Wilderness of Judah,
20 UST There were many people still living in Solomon’s kingdom who were not Israelites. Rather, they were Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. BSB BSB: As for all the people who remained of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites (the people who were not Israelites)—
21 UST These people were descendants of members of those people groups whom the Israelites were not able to kill{ when they defeated those groups and occupied the land of Canaan}. It was those people whom Solomon forced to work hard on his building projects. The Israelites still require those people to work for them. BSB BSB: their 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.
22 UST But Solomon did not force any Israelite people to become slaves. Instead, some of them became his soldiers, officials, army commanders, army officers, and leaders of his chariot forces and troops who rode on horses. BSB BSB: But 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.
23 UST Solomon also had 550 officials who supervised the men who commanded the workers whom he forced to build all those places. BSB BSB: They were also the chief officers over Solomon’s projects: 550 supervisors over the people who did the work.
24 UST Solomon had his workers build a palace for his wife, who was the daughter of the king of Egypt. After she moved there from the City of David{, where she had been living,} Solomon had his workers build the Millo. BSB BSB: As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace that Solomon had built for her, he built the supporting terraces.
25 UST Three times each year, on the altar that he had built for Yahweh in front of the temple, Solomon offered sacrifices that the priests burned completely on the altar and fellowship sacrifices. He also brought incense for the priests to burn with these sacrifices. In that way Solomon made the temple the place where the Israelites would come to worship Yahweh. BSB BSB: Three 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.
26 UST King Solomon also had his workers build a fleet of ships at the city of Ezion Geber. That city is near the city of Elath on the shore of the Sea of Reeds in the territory of the Edomites. BSB BSB: King Solomon also assembled a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea.
27 UST Some of King Hiram’ s subjects were experienced sailors who knew well how to sail in the ocean. He had them go on these ships with Solomon’ s men. BSB BSB: And Hiram sent his servants, sailors who knew the sea, to serve in the fleet with Solomon’s servants.
28 UST They sailed together to the region of Ophir, and from there they brought back to Solomon about 14 metric tons of gold. BSB BSB: They sailed to Ophir and imported gold from there—420 talents—and delivered it to Solomon.
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