2 Chronicles 5-10

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

5 Thus all the work that Solomon did for the house of the Lord was finished. Solomon brought in the things that his father David had dedicated and stored the silver, the gold, and all the vessels in the treasuries of the house of God.^(A)

The Ark Brought into the Temple

² Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the ancestral houses of the people of Israel, in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion.^{(B) 3} And all the Israelites assembled before the king at the festival that is in the seventh month. ⁴ And all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites carried the ark.^{(C) 5} So they brought up the ark, the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up. ⁶ King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had assembled before him, were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be numbered or counted. ⁷ Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, in the inner sanctuary of the house, in the most holy place, underneath the wings of the cherubim. ⁸ For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim made a covering above the ark and its poles. ⁹ The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place^[a] in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside; they are there to this day.^{(D) 10} There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant^[b] with the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt.^(E)

¹¹ Now when the priests came out of the holy place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, without regard to their divisions),^{(F) 12} all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, their sons and kindred, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, stood east of the altar with one hundred twenty priests who were trumpeters.^{(G) 13} It was the duty of the trumpeters and singers together to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord,

the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud,^{(H) 14} so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.^(I)

Dedication of the Temple

6 Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he would reside in thick darkness.^{(J) 2} I have built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell forever.”

³ Then the king turned around and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel stood. ⁴ And he said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who with his hand has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to my father David, saying, ⁵ ‘Since the day that I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from any of the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, so that my name might be there, and I chose no one as ruler over my people Israel, ⁶ but I have chosen Jerusalem in order that my name may be there, and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.’^{(K) 7} My father David had it in mind to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.^{(L) 8} But the Lord said to my father David, ‘You did well to consider building a house for my name; ⁹ nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name.’ ¹⁰ Now the Lord has fulfilled his promise that he made, for I have succeeded my father David and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised, and have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹¹ There I have set the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord that he made with the people of Israel.”^(M)

Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication

¹² Then Solomon^[c] stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands.^{(N) 13} Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high and had set it in the court, and he stood on it. Then he knelt on his knees in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven.^{(O) 14} He said, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and steadfast love with your servants who walk before you with all their heart^(P)— ¹⁵ you who have kept for your servant, my father David, what you promised to him. Indeed, you promised with your mouth and this day have fulfilled with your hand.^{(Q) 16} Therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, keep for your servant my father David that which you promised him, saying, ‘There shall never fail you a successor before me to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children keep to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.’^{(R) 17} Therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, let your word be confirmed that you promised to your servant David.

¹⁸ “But will God indeed dwell with mortals on earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built!^{(S) 19} Regard your servant’s prayer and his plea, O Lord my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant prays to you. ²⁰ May your eyes be open day and night toward this house, the place where you promised to set your name, and may you heed the prayer that your servant prays toward this place. ²¹ And hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place; may you hear from heaven your dwelling place; hear and forgive.^(T)

²² “If someone sins against a neighbor and is required to take an oath and comes and swears before your altar in this house,^{(U) 23} may you hear from heaven, and act, and judge your servants, repaying the guilty by bringing their conduct on their own heads and vindicating the righteous by rewarding them according to their righteousness.

²⁴ “When your people Israel, having sinned against you, are defeated before an enemy but turn again to you, confess your name, pray and plead with you in this house,^{(V) 25} then hear from heaven, forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land that you gave to them and to their ancestors.

²⁶ “When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you and then they pray toward this place, confess your name, and turn from their sin because you punish them,^{(W) 27} then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk, and grant rain on your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance.

²⁸ “If there is famine in the land, if there is plague, blight, mildew, locust, or caterpillar; if their enemies besiege them in any of the settlements of the lands; whatever suffering, whatever sickness there is;^{(X) 29} whatever prayer, whatever plea there is from any individual or from all your people Israel, all knowing their own suffering and their own sorrows so that they stretch out their hands toward this house; ³⁰ then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, forgive, and render to all whose hearts you know, according to all their ways, for only you know the human heart.^{(Y) 31} Thus may they fear you and walk in your ways all the days that they live in the land that you gave to our ancestors.

³² “Likewise when foreigners, who are not of your people Israel, come from a distant land because of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm, when they come and pray toward this house,^{(Z) 33} then hear from heaven your dwelling place and do whatever the foreigners ask of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and so they may know that your name has been invoked on this house that I have built.^(AA)

³⁴ “If your people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to you toward this city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, ³⁵ then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea and maintain their cause.

³⁶ “If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to a land far off or near,^{(AB) 37} then if they come to their senses in the land to which they have been taken captive and repent and plead with you in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned and have done wrong; we have acted wickedly,’^{(AC) 38} if they repent with all their heart and soul in the land of their captivity, to which they were taken captive, and pray toward their land that you gave to their ancestors, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name, ³⁹ then hear from heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their pleas, maintain their cause, and forgive your people who have sinned against you. ⁴⁰ Now, O my God, let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to prayer from this place.^(AD)

Solomon Dedicates the Temple

7 When Solomon had ended his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.^{(AF) 2} The priests could not enter the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house. ³ When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground and worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying,

⁴ Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the Lord.^{(AH) 5} King Solomon offered as a sacrifice twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. ⁶ The priests stood at their posts, the Levites also, with the instruments for music to the Lord that King David had made for giving thanks to the Lord—for his steadfast love endures forever—whenever David offered praises through their playing. Opposite them the priests sounded trumpets, and all Israel stood.^(AI)

⁷ Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was in front of the house of the Lord, for there he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the offerings of well-being because the bronze altar Solomon had made could not hold the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat parts.^(AJ)

⁸ At that time Solomon held the festival for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from Lebo-hamath to the Wadi of Egypt.^{(AK) 9} On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for they had observed the dedication of the altar seven days and the festival seven days.^{(AL) 10} On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their homes, joyful and in good spirits because of the goodness that the Lord had shown to David and to Solomon and to his people Israel.^(AM)

¹¹ Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king’s house; all that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the Lord and in his own house he successfully accomplished.^(AN)

God’s Second Appearance to Solomon

¹² Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.^{(AO) 13} When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain or command the locust to devour the land or send pestilence among my people,^{(AP) 14} if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.^{(AQ) 15} Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.^{(AR) 16} For now I have chosen and consecrated this house so that my name may be there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time.^{(AS) 17} As for you, if you walk before me as your father David walked, doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and my ordinances,^{(AT) 18} then I will establish your royal throne, as I made a covenant^[d] with your father David saying, ‘You shall never lack a successor to rule over Israel.’^(AU)

¹⁹ “But if you^[e] turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you and go and serve other gods and worship them,^{(AV) 20} then I will pluck you^[f] up from the land that I have given you,^[g] and this house, which I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.^{(AW) 21} And regarding this house, now exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this house?’^{(AX) 22} Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord the God of their ancestors who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they embraced other gods and worshiped them and served them; therefore he has brought all this calamity upon them.’ ”

Various Activities of Solomon

8 At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon had built the house of the Lord and his own house,^{(AY) 2} Solomon rebuilt the cities that Huram had given to him and settled the people of Israel in them.

³ Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and captured it. ⁴ He built Tadmor in the wilderness and all the storage towns that he built in Hamath. ⁵ He also built Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon, fortified cities, with walls, gates, and bars,^{(AZ) 6} and Baalath, as well as all Solomon’s storage towns, and all the towns for his chariots, the towns for his cavalry, and whatever Solomon desired to build, in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. ⁷ All the people who were left of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel, ⁸ from their descendants who were still left in the land, whom the people of Israel had not destroyed—these Solomon conscripted for forced labor, as is still the case today.^{(BA) 9} But of the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves for his work; they were soldiers and his officers, the commanders of his chariotry and cavalry. ¹⁰ These were the chief officers of King Solomon, two hundred fifty of them, who exercised authority over the people.

¹¹ Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter from the city of David to the house that he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not live in the house of King David of Israel, for the places to which the ark of the Lord has come are holy.”^(BB)

¹² Then Solomon offered up burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord that he had built in front of the vestibule,^{(BC) 13} as the duty of each day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the three annual festivals: the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Booths.^{(BD) 14} According to the ordinance of his father David, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their offices of praise and ministry alongside the priests as the duty of each day required, and the gatekeepers in their divisions for the several gates, for so David the man of God had commanded.^{(BE) 15} They did not turn away from what the king had commanded the priests and Levites regarding anything at all or regarding the treasuries.

¹⁶ Thus all the work of Solomon was accomplished, from^[h] the day the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid until the house of the Lord was finished completely.

¹⁷ Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and Eloth on the shore of the sea, in the land of Edom.^{(BF) 18} Huram sent him, in the care of his servants, ships and servants familiar with the sea. They went to Ophir together with the servants of Solomon and imported from there four hundred fifty talents of gold and brought it to King Solomon.^(BG)

Visit of the Queen of Sheba

9 When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test him with riddles, having a very great retinue and camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. When she came to Solomon, she discussed with him all that was on her mind.^{(BH) 2} Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from Solomon that he could not explain to her. ³ When the queen of Sheba had observed the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built,^{(BI) 4} the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, and their clothing, his valets, and their clothing, and his burnt offerings^[i] that he offered at the house of the Lord, it took her breath away.

⁵ So she said to the king, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your accomplishments and of your wisdom,^{(BJ) 6} but I did not believe the^[j] reports until I came and my own eyes saw it. Not even half of the greatness of your wisdom had been told to me; you far surpass the report that I had heard. ⁷ Happy are your people! Happy are these your servants who continually attend you and hear your wisdom! ⁸ Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on his throne as king for the Lord your God. Because your God loved Israel and would establish them forever, he has made you king over them, that you may execute justice and righteousness.”^{(BK) 9} Then she gave the king one hundred twenty talents of gold, a very great quantity of spices, and precious stones; there were no spices such as those that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.^(BL)

¹⁰ Moreover, the servants of Huram and the servants of Solomon who brought gold from Ophir brought algum wood and precious stones.^{(BM) 11} From the algum wood, the king made steps^[k] for the house of the Lord and for the king’s house, lyres also and harps for the singers; there never was seen the like of them before in the land of Judah.

¹² Meanwhile, King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba every desire that she expressed, well beyond what she had brought to the king. Then she returned to her own land with her servants.

Solomon’s Great Wealth

¹³ The weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred sixty-six talents of gold,^{(BN) 14} besides that which the traders and merchants brought, and all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the land brought gold and silver to Solomon. ¹⁵ King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold; six hundred shekels^[l] of beaten gold went into each large shield. ¹⁶ He made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three hundred shekels^[m] of gold went into each shield, and the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. ¹⁷ The king also made a great ivory throne and overlaid it with pure gold. ¹⁸ The throne had six steps and a footstool of gold, which were attached to the throne, and on each side of the seat were arm rests and two lions standing beside the arm rests,^{(BO) 19} while twelve lions were standing, one on each end of a step on the six steps. The like of it was never made in any kingdom.^{(BP) 20} All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon. ²¹ For the king’s ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram; once every three years the ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.^[n](BQ)

²² Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom.^{(BR) 23} All the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind. ²⁴ Every one of them brought a present, objects of silver and gold, garments, weaponry, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year. ²⁵ Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.^{(BS) 26} He ruled over all the kings from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the territory of Egypt.^{(BT) 27} The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone and cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah.^{(BU) 28} Horses were imported for Solomon from Egypt and from all lands.^(BV)

Death of Solomon

²⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, from first to last, are they not written in the history of the prophet Nathan and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite and in the visions of the seer Iddo concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat?^{(BW) 30} Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years.^{(BX) 31} Solomon slept with his ancestors and was buried in the city of his father David, and his son Rehoboam succeeded him.^(BY)

The Revolt against Rehoboam

10 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.^{(BZ) 2} When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard of it (for he was in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), then Jeroboam returned from Egypt.^{(CA) 3} They sent and called him, and Jeroboam and all Israel came and said to Rehoboam, ⁴ “Your father made our yoke heavy. Now, therefore, lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke that he placed on us, and we will serve you.” ⁵ He said to them, “Come to me again in three days.” So the people went away.

⁶ Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the older men who had attended his father Solomon while he was still alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?”^{(CB) 7} They answered him, “If you will be kind to this people and please them and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.” ⁸ But he rejected the advice that the older men gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and now attended him. ⁹ He said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?”^{(CC) 10} The young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus should you speak to the people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must lighten it for us’; tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. ¹¹ Now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’ ”

¹² So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had said, “Come to me again the third day.”^{(CD) 13} The king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the advice of the older men; ¹⁴ he spoke to them in accordance with the advice of the young men, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.” ¹⁵ So the king did not listen to the people because it was a turn of affairs brought about by God so that the Lord might fulfill his word that he had spoken by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.^(CE)

¹⁶ When all Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king,

So all Israel departed to their tents.^{(CF) 17} But Rehoboam reigned over the people of Israel who were living in the cities of Judah. ¹⁸ When King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was taskmaster over the forced labor, the people of Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam hurriedly mounted his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.^(CG)