2 CHRONICLES 6-9
2 Chronicles 6:1-42 1 It was then that Sol´o·mon said: “Jehovah himself said he was to reside in the thick gloom; 2 and I, for my part, have built a house of lofty abode for you and an established place for you to dwell in to time indefinite.”
3 Then the king turned his face and began to bless all the congregation of
12 And he began standing before the altar of Jehovah in front of all the congregation of , and he now spread out his palms. 13 (For Sol´o·mon had made a platform of copper and then put it in the middle of the enclosure. Its length was five cubits, and its width five cubits, and its height three cubits; and he kept standing upon it.) And he proceeded to kneel upon his knees in front of all the congregation of and to spread his palms out to the heavens. 14 And he went on to say: “O Jehovah the God of Israel, there is no God like you in the heavens or on the earth, keeping the covenant and the loving-kindness toward your servants who are walking before you with all their heart; 15 you who have kept toward your servant David my father what you promised him, so that you made the promise with your mouth, and with your own hand you have made fulfillment as at this day. 16 And now, O Jehovah the God of Israel, keep toward your servant David my father what you promised him, saying, ‘There will not be cut off a man of yours from before me to sit upon the throne of Israel, if only your sons will take care of their way by walking in my law, just as you have walked before me.’ 17 And now, O Jehovah the God of , let your promise that you have promised to your servant David prove trustworthy.
18 “But will God truly dwell with mankind upon the earth? Look! Heaven, yes, the heaven of the heavens themselves, cannot contain you; how much less, then, this house that I have built? 19 And you must turn toward the prayer of your servant and to his request for favor, O Jehovah my God, by listening to the entreating cry and to the prayer with which your servant is praying before you, 20 that your eyes may prove to be opened toward this house day and night, toward the place where you said you would put your name, by listening to the prayer with which your servant prays toward this place. 21 And you must listen to the entreaties of your servant and of your people when they pray toward this place, that you yourself may hear from the place of your dwelling, from the heavens; and you must hear and forgive.
22 “If a man sins against his fellowman and he actually lays a cursing upon him to bring him under liability to the curse, and he actually comes [within] the curse before your altar in this house, 23 then may you yourself hear from the heavens, and you must act and judge your servants so as to pay back the wicked by putting his course upon his own head and by pronouncing the righteous one righteous by giving to him according to his own righteousness.
24 “And if your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they kept sinning against you, and they indeed return and laud your name and pray and make request for favor before you in this house, 25 then may you yourself hear from the heavens, and you must forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the ground that you gave to them and their forefathers.
26 “When the heavens are shut up so that no rain occurs because they kept sinning against you, and they actually pray toward this place and laud your name [and] from their sin they turn back because you kept afflicting them, 27 then may you yourself hear from the heavens, and you must forgive the sin of your servants, even of your people Israel, because you instruct them regarding the good way in which they should walk; and you must give rain upon your land that you have given to your people as a hereditary possession.
28 “In case a famine occurs in the land, in case a pestilence occurs, in case scorching and mildew, locusts and cockroaches occur; in case their enemies besiege them in the land of their gates—any sort of plague and any sort of malady— 29 whatever prayer, whatever request for favor there may occur on the part of any man or of all your people Israel, because they know each one his own plague and his own pain; when he actually spreads out his palms toward this house, 30 then may you yourself hear from the heavens, the place of your dwelling, and you must forgive and give to each one according to all his ways, because you know his heart (for you yourself alone well know the heart of the sons of mankind); 31 to the end that they may fear you by walking in your ways all the days that they are alive upon the surface of the ground that you gave to our forefathers.
32 “And also to the foreigner who is no part of your people Israel and who actually comes from a distant land by reason of your great name and your strong hand and your stretched-out arm, and they actually come and pray toward this house, 33 then may you yourself listen from the heavens, from your established place of dwelling, and you must do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you; in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and may fear you the same as your people Israel do, and may know that your name has been called upon this house that I have built.
34 “In case your people go out to the war against their enemies in the way that you send them, and they indeed pray to you in the direction of this city that you have chosen and the house that I have built to your name, 35 you must also hear from the heavens their prayer and their request for favor, and you must execute judgment for them.
36 “In case they sin against you (for there is no man that does not sin), and you have to be incensed at them and abandon them to an enemy, and their captors actually carry them off captive to a land distant or nearby; 37 and they indeed come to their senses in the land where they have been carried off captive, and they actually return and make request to you for favor in the land where they are captives, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have erred and we have acted wickedly’; 38 and they indeed return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land where they are captives of those who carried them off captive, and they indeed pray in the direction of their land that you gave to their forefathers and the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built to your name; 39 you must also hear from the heavens, from your established place of dwelling, their prayer and their requests for favor, and you must execute judgment for them and forgive your people who have sinned against you.
40 “Now, O my God, please, let your eyes prove to be opened and your ears attentive to the prayer respecting this place. 41 And now do rise up, O Jehovah God, into your rest, you and the of your strength. Let your priests themselves, O Jehovah God, be clothed with salvation, and let your loyal ones themselves rejoice in goodness. 42 O Jehovah God, do not turn back the face of your anointed one. O do remember the loving-kindnesses to David your servant.”
2 Chronicles 7:1-22 1 Now as soon as Sol´o·mon finished praying, the fire itself came down from the heavens and proceeded to consume the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and Jehovah’s glory itself filled the house. 2 And the priests were unable to enter into the house of Jehovah because Jehovah’s glory had filled the house of Jehovah. 3 And all the sons of were spectators when the fire came down and the glory of Jehovah was upon the house, and they immediately bowed low with their faces to the earth upon the pavement and prostrated themselves and thanked Jehovah, “for he is good, for his loving-kindness is to time indefinite.”
4 And the king and all the people were offering sacrifice before Jehovah. 5 And King Sol´o·mon went on offering the sacrifice of twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. Thus the king and all the people inaugurated the house of the [true] God. 6 And the priests were standing at their posts of duty, and the Levites with the instruments of song to Jehovah that David the king had made to thank Jehovah, “for his loving-kindness is to time indefinite,” when David would render praise by their hand; and the priests were loudly sounding the trumpets in front of them, while all the Israelites were standing.
7 Then Sol´o·mon sanctified the middle of the courtyard that was before the house of Jehovah, because there he rendered up the burnt offerings and the fat pieces of the communion sacrifices, for the copper altar that Sol´o·mon had made was itself not able to contain the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat pieces. 8 And Sol´o·mon proceeded to hold the festival at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation from the entering in of Ha´math down to the torrent valley of Egypt. 9 But on the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, because the inauguration of the altar they had held for seven days and the festival for seven days. 10 And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their homes, joyful and feeling good at heart over the goodness that Jehovah had performed toward David and toward Sol´o·mon and toward Israel his people.
11 Thus Sol´o·mon finished the house of Jehovah and the house of the king; and in everything that had come into Sol´o·mon’s heart to do regarding the house of Jehovah and his own house he proved successful. 12 Jehovah now appeared to Sol´o·mon during the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and I have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 When I shut up the heavens that no rain may occur and when I command the grasshoppers to eat up the land and if I send a pestilence among my people, 14 and my people upon whom my name has been called humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn back from their bad ways, then I myself shall hear from the heavens and forgive their sin, and I shall heal their land. 15 Now my own eyes will prove to be opened and my ears attentive to prayer at this place. 16 And now I do choose and sanctify this house that my name may prove to be there to time indefinite, and my eyes and my heart will certainly prove to be there always.
17 “And if you yourself will walk before me, just as David your father walked, even by doing according to all that I have commanded you, and you will keep my regulations and my judicial decisions, 18 I will also establish the throne of your kingship, just as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘There will not a man of yours be cut off from ruling over Israel.’ 19 But if YOU yourselves turn back and actually leave my statutes and my commandments that I have put before YOU, and YOU actually go and serve other gods and bow down to them, 20 I will also uproot them from off my ground that I have given them; and this house that I have sanctified for my name, I shall throw away from before my face, and I shall make it a proverbial saying and a taunt among all the peoples. 21 As for this house that had become heaps of ruins, everyone passing by it will stare in amazement and be certain to say, ‘For what reason did Jehovah do like that to this land and to this house?’ 22 And they will have to say, ‘It was for the reason that they left Jehovah the God of their forefathers who had brought them out of the , and they proceeded to take hold of other gods and bow down to them and serve them. That is why he brought upon them all this calamity.’”
2 Chronicles 8:1-18 1 And it came about at the end of twenty years, in which Sol´o·mon had built the house of Jehovah and his own house, 2 that the cities that Hi´ram had given to Sol´o·mon—Sol´o·mon rebuilt them and then caused the sons of to dwell there. 3 Furthermore, Sol´o·mon went to Ha´math-zo´bah and prevailed over it. 4 Then he rebuilt Tad´mor in the wilderness and all the storage cities that he had built in Ha´math. 5 And he went on to build Upper Beth-ho´ron and Lower Beth-ho´ron, fortified cities with walls, doors and bar, 6 and Ba´al·ath and all the storage cities that had become Sol´o·mon’s and all the chariot cities and the cities for the horsemen and every desirable thing of Sol´o·mon that he had desired to build in Jerusalem and in Leb´a·non and in all the land of his dominion.
7 As for all the people that were left over of the Hit´tites and the Am´or·ites and the Per´iz·zites and the Hi´vites and the Jeb´u·sites, who were no part of Israel, 8 from their sons that had been left behind them in the land, whom the sons of Israel had not exterminated, Sol´o·mon kept levying men for forced labor until this day. 9 But there were none out of the sons of that Sol´o·mon constituted slaves for his work; for they were warriors and chiefs of his adjutants and chiefs of his charioteers and of his horsemen. 10 These were the chiefs of the deputies that belonged to King Sol´o·mon, two hundred and fifty, the foremen over the people.
11 And Phar´aoh’s daughter Sol´o·mon brought up out of the City of David to the house that he had built for her, for he said: “Although a wife of mine, she should not dwell in the house of David the king of Israel, for the places to which the ark of Jehovah has come are something holy.”
12 It was then that Sol´o·mon offered up burnt sacrifices to Jehovah upon the altar of Jehovah that he had built before the porch, 13 even as a daily matter of course to make offerings according to the commandment of Moses for the sabbaths and for the new moons and for the appointed festivals three times in the year, at the festival of unfermented cakes and at the festival of the weeks and at the festival of the booths. 14 Further, he set the divisions of the priests over their services according to the rule of David his father, and the Levites at their posts of duty, to praise and to minister in front of the priests as a daily matter of course, and the gatekeepers in their divisions for the different gates, for such was the commandment of David the man of the [true] God. 15 And they did not turn aside from the king’s commandment to the priests and the Levites concerning any matter and concerning the supplies. 16 So Sol´o·mon’s work was all in a prepared state from the day of the foundation-laying of the house of Jehovah until it was finished. [So] the house of Jehovah was complete.
17 It was then that Sol´o·mon went to E´zi·on-ge´ber and to E´loth upon the shore of the sea in the land of E´dom. 18 And Hi´ram regularly sent to him by means of his servants ships and servants having a knowledge of the sea, and they would come with Sol´o·mon’s servants to O´phir and take from there four hundred and fifty talents of gold and bring it to King Sol´o·mon.
2 Chronicles 9:1-31 1 And the queen of She´ba herself heard the report about Sol´o·mon, and she proceeded to come to test Sol´o·mon with perplexing questions at Jerusalem, along with a very impressive train and camels carrying balsam oil, and gold in great quantity, and precious stones. At length she came in to Sol´o·mon and spoke with him about everything that happened to be close to her heart. 2 Sol´o·mon, in turn, went on to tell her all her matters, and no matter was hidden from Sol´o·mon that he did not tell her.
3 When the queen of She´ba got to see Sol´o·mon’s wisdom and the house that he had built, 4 and the food of his table and the sitting of his servants and the table service of his waiters and their attire and his drinking service and their attire, and his burnt sacrifices that he regularly offered up at the house of Jehovah, then there proved to be no more spirit in her. 5 So she said to the king: “True was the word that I heard in my own land about your matters and about your wisdom. 6 And I did not put faith in their words until I had come that my own eyes might see; and, look! there has not been told me the half of the abundance of your wisdom. You have surpassed the report that I have heard. 7 Happy are your men, and happy are these servants of yours who are standing before you constantly and listening to your wisdom. 8 May Jehovah your God come to be blessed, who has taken delight in you by putting you upon his throne as king for Jehovah your God; because your God loved Israel, to make it stand to time indefinite, so that he put you over them as king to execute judicial decision and righteousness.”
9 Then she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and balsam oil in very great quantity, and precious stones; and there had not come to be the like of that balsam oil which the queen of She´ba gave to King Sol´o·mon.
10 And, besides, the servants of Hi´ram and the servants of Sol´o·mon who brought gold from O´phir brought timbers of algum trees and precious stones. 11 And the king proceeded to make out of the timbers of the algum trees stairs for the house of Jehovah and for the king’s house and also harps and stringed instruments for the singers, and the like of them had never been seen before in the .
12 And King Sol´o·mon himself gave the queen of She´ba all her delight for which she had asked, besides [the value of] what she brought to the king. So she turned about and went to her own land, she together with her servants .
13 And the weight of the gold that came to Sol´o·mon in one year amounted to six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold, 14 aside from the men of travel and the merchants who were bringing in and all the kings of the Arabs and the governors of the land who were bringing in gold and silver to Sol´o·mon.
15 And King Sol´o·mon went on to make two hundred large shields of alloyed gold (six hundred [shekels] of alloyed gold he proceeded to lay upon each large shield), 16 and three hundred bucklers of alloyed gold (three mi´nas of gold he proceeded to lay upon each buckler). Then the king put them in the House of the ·non.
17 Further, the king made a great ivory throne and overlaid it with pure gold. 18 And there were six steps to the throne, and there was a footstool in gold to the throne (they were attached), and there were armrests on this side and on that side by the place of sitting, and two lions were standing beside the armrests. 19 And there were twelve lions standing there upon the six steps on this side and on that side. No other kingdom had any made just like it. 20 And all the drinking vessels of King Sol´o·mon were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the ·non were of pure gold. There was nothing of silver; it was considered as nothing at all in the days of Sol´o·mon. 21 For ships belonging to the king were going to Tar´shish with the servants of Hi´ram. Once every three years ships of Tar´shish would come in, carrying gold and silver, ivory, and apes and peacocks.
22 So King Sol´o·mon was greater than all the other kings of the earth in riches and wisdom . 23 And all the kings of the earth were seeking the face of Sol´o·mon to hear his wisdom, which the [true] God had put in his heart. 24 And they were bringing each his gift, articles of silver and articles of gold and garments, armor and balsam oil, horses and mules as a yearly matter of course. 25 And Sol´o·mon came to have four thousand stalls of horses and chariots and twelve thousand steeds, and he kept them stationed in the chariot cities and close by the king in . 26 And he came to be ruler over all the kings from the River down to the land of the Phi·lis´tines and down to the boundary of . 27 Furthermore, the king made the silver in like the stones; and cedarwood he made like the sycamore trees that are in the She·phe´lah for abundance. 28 And there were those bringing out horses to Sol´o·mon from and from all the other lands.
29 As for the rest of the affairs of Sol´o·mon, the first and the last, are they not written among the words of Nathan the prophet and in the prophecy of A·hi´jah the Shi´lo·nite and in the record of visions of Id´do the visionary concerning Jer·o·bo´am the son of Ne´bat? 30 And Sol´o·mon continued to reign in over all for forty years. 31 Finally Sol´o·mon lay down with his forefathers. So they buried him in the City of his father; and Re·ho·bo´am his son began to reign in place of him.