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The Book of 2 Chronicles

Chapter 8

  

Solomon’s Other Achievements

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the end of twenty years, during which Solomon had built the House of the Lord and his own palace,  2  Solomon rebuilt the cities that Hiram gave him, and settled Israelites in them.  3  Solomon then went to Hamath-zobah and seized it.  4  He built Tadmor in the wilderness and all the storage cities that he built in Hamath.  5  He also built Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon as fortified cities with walls, and with gates and bars,  6  also Baalath, and all the storage cities that belonged to Solomon, and all the cities for his chariots, the cities for his cavalry, and everything Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

7 All the people who remained of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and were not Israelites—  8  but were their descendants remaining in the land, whom the Israelites had not destroyed—these Solomon conscripted for forced labour, as it is to this day.  9  But Solomon did not consign any of the Israelites as slaves for his work; but they were soldiers, commanders of his captains, and commanders of his chariots and his cavalry.  10  These were King Solomon’s chief officers, two hundred and fifty who ruled over the people.

11  Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh from the City of David to the house he had built for her, for he said, “My wife must not live in the house of David king of Israel, because the places to which the ark of the Lord has come are holy.”

12  Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord that he had built in front of the portico,  13  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.  14  According to the ordinances of his father David, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their duties of praise and ministry before the priests according to the daily requirement, and of the gatekeepers by their divisions at each gate; because this was what David the man of God had commanded.  15  They did not turn aside from the king’s commands to the priests and Levites in any matter or concerning the treasuries.

16  All Solomon’s work was carried out, from the day the foundation was laid for the Lord’s temple until its completion. So the House of the Lord was finished.

17  At that time Solomon went to Ezion-geber and to Eloth on the coast in the land of Edom.  18  And Hiram sent him ships commanded by his own officers and crewed by men who knew the sea. They sailed with Solomon’s servants to Ophir and acquired from there four hundred and fifty talents of gold, which they delivered to King Solomon.