2Chroniques (NAB) 1







SECOND BOOK OF CHRONICLES


Solomon Requests Wisdom

1 1 Solomon, son of David, strengthened his hold on the kingdom, for the LORD, his God, was with him, constantly making him more renowned.
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He sent a summons to all Israel, to the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, the judges, the princes of all Israel, and the family heads;3 and, accompanied by the whole assembly, he went to the high place at Gibeon, because the meeting tent of God, made in the desert by Moses, the LORD'S servant, was there.4 (The ark of God, however, David had brought up from Kiriath-jearim to Jerusalem, where he had provided a place and pitched a tent for it.)5 The bronze altar made by Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, he put in front of the LORD'S Dwelling on the high place. There Solomon and the assembly consulted the LORD, 6 and Solomon offered sacrifice in the LORD'S presence on the bronze altar at the meeting tent; he offered a thousand holocausts upon it.
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That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, "Make a request of me, and I will grant it to you."8 Solomon answered God: "You have shown great favor to my father David, and you have allowed me to succeed him as king.9 Now, LORD God, may your promise to my father David be fulfilled, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth.10 Give me, therefore, wisdom and knowledge to lead this people, for otherwise who could rule this great people of yours?"
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God then replied to Solomon: "Since this has been your wish and you have not asked for riches, treasures and glory, nor for the life of those who hate you, nor even for a long life for yourself, but have asked for wisdom and knowledge in order to rule my people over whom I have made you king,12 wisdom and knowledge are given you; but I will also give you riches, treasures and glory, such as kings before you never had, nor will those have them who come after you."
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Solomon returned to Jerusalem from the high place at Gibeon, from the meeting tent, and became king over Israel.


Solomon's Military and Commercial Activity

14 He gathered together chariots and drivers, so that he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand drivers he could station in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.15 The king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones, while cedars became as numerous as the sycamores of the foothills.16 Solomon also imported horses from Egypt and Cilicia. The king's agents would acquire them by purchase from Cilicia, 17 and would then bring up chariots from Egypt and export them at six hundred silver shekels, with the horses going for a hundred and fifty shekels. At these rates they served as middlemen for all the Hittite and Aramean kings.18 Solomon gave orders for the building of a house to honor the LORD and also of a house for his own royal estate.


Preparations for Building the Temple

2 1 He conscripted seventy thousand men to carry stone and eighty thousand to cut the stone in the mountains, and over these he placed three thousand six hundred overseers.
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Moreover, Solomon sent this message to Huram, king of Tyre: "As you dealt with my father David, sending him cedars to build a house for his dwelling, so deal with me.


Alliance with Huram of Tyre

3 I intend to build a house for the honor of the LORD, my God, and to consecrate it to him, for the burning of fragrant incense in his presence, for the perpetual display of the showbread, for holocausts morning and evening, and for the sabbaths, new moons, and festivals of the LORD, our God: such is Israel's perpetual obligation.4 And the house I intend to build must be large, for our God is greater than all other gods.5 Yet who is really able to build him a house, since the heavens and even the highest heavens cannot contain him? And who am I that I should build him a house, unless it be to offer incense in his presence?6 Now, send me men skilled at work in gold, silver, bronze and iron, in purple, crimson, and violet fabrics, and who know how to do engraved work, to join the craftsmen who are with me in Judah and Jerusalem, whom my father David appointed.7 Also send me boards of cedar, cypress and cabinet wood from Lebanon, for I realize that your servants know how to cut the wood of the Lebanon. My servants will labor with yours8 in order to prepare for me a great quantity of wood, since the house I intend to build must be lofty and wonderful.9 I will furnish as food for your servants, the hewers who cut the wood, twenty thousand kors of wheat, twenty thousand kors of barley, twenty thousand measures of wine, and twenty thousand measures of oil."10 Huram, king of Tyre, wrote an answer which he sent to Solomon: "Because the LORD loves his people, he has placed you over them as king."
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He added: "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, for having given King David a wise son of intelligence and understanding, who will build a house for the LORD and also a house for his royal estate.12 I am now sending you a craftsman of great skill, Huram-abi,13 son of a Danite woman and of a father from Tyre; he knows how to work with gold, silver, bronze and iron, with stone and wood, with purple, violet, fine linen and crimson, and also how to do all kinds of engraved work and to devise every type of artistic work that may be given him and your craftsmen and the craftsmen of my lord David your father. 14 And now, let my lord send to his servants the wheat, barley, oil and wine which he has promised.15 For our part, we will cut trees on Lebanon, as many as you need, and float them down to you at the port of Joppa, whence you may take them up to Jerusalem."16 Thereupon Solomon took a census of all the alien men who were in the land of Israel (following the census David his father had taken of them), who were found to number one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred.17 Of these he made seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand cutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred overseers to keep the people working.


Solomon Builds the Temple

3 1 Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, which had been pointed out to his father David, on the spot which David had selected, the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 2 He began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign.
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These were the specifications laid down by Solomon for building the house of God: the length was sixty cubits according to the old measure, and the width was twenty cubits;4 the porch which lay before the nave along the width of the house was also twenty cubits, and it was twenty cubits high. He overlaid its interior with pure gold.
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The nave he overlaid with cypress wood which he covered with fine gold, embossing on it palms and chains.6 He also decorated the building with precious stones.7 The house, its beams and thresholds, as well as its walls and its doors, he overlaid with gold, and he engraved cherubim upon the walls. (The gold was from Parvaim.)
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He also made the room of the holy of holies. Its length corresponded to the width of the house, twenty cubits, and its width was also twenty cubits. He overlaid it with fine gold to the amount of six hundred talents.9 The weight of the nails was fifty gold shekels. The upper chambers he likewise covered with gold.
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For the room of the holy of holies he made two cherubim of carved workmanship, which were then overlaid with gold.11 The wings of the cherubim spanned twenty cubits:12 one wing of each cherub, five cubits in length, extended to a wall of the building, while the other wing, also five cubits in length, touched the corresponding wing of the second cherub.13 The combined wingspread of the two cherubim was thus twenty cubits. They stood upon their own feet, facing toward the nave.
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He made the veil of violet, purple, crimson and fine linen, and had cherubim embroidered upon it.
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In front of the building he set two columns thirty-five cubits high; the capital topping each was of five cubits.16 He worked out chains in the form of a collar with which he encircled the capitals of the columns, and he made a hundred pomegranates which he set on the chains.17 He set up the columns to correspond with the nave, one for the right side and the other for the left, and he called the one to the right Jachin and the one to the left Boaz.


Furnishings of the Temple

4 1 Then he made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high.2 He also made the molten sea. It was perfectly round, ten cubits in diameter, five in depth, and thirty in circumference;3 below the rim a ring of figures of oxen encircled the sea, ten to the cubit, all the way around; there were two rows of these cast in the same mold with the sea. 4 It rested on twelve oxen, three facing north, three west, three south, and three east, with their haunches all toward the center; the sea rested on their backs.5 It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like that of a cup, being lily-shaped. It had a capacity of three thousand measures.
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Then he made ten basins for washing, placing five of them to the right and five to the left. Here were cleansed the victims for the holocausts; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.
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He made the lampstands of gold, ten of them as was prescribed, and placed them in the nave, five to the right and five to the left.
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He made ten tables and had them set in the nave, five to the right and five to the left; and he made a hundred golden bowls.9 He made the court of the priests and the great courtyard and the gates of the courtyard; the gates he overlaid with bronze.10 The sea was placed off to the southeast from the right side of the temple.
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Huram also made the pots, the shovels and the bowls. Huram thus completed the work he had to do for King Solomon in the house of God:12 two columns, two nodes for the capitals topping these two columns, and two networks covering the nodes of the capitals topping the columns;13 also four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, with two rows of pomegranates to each network, to cover the two nodes of the capitals topping the columns.14 He made the stands, and the basins on the stands;15 one sea, and the twelve oxen under it;16 likewise the pots, the shovels and the forks. Huram-abi made all these articles for King Solomon from polished bronze for the house of the LORD.17 The king had them cast in the Jordan region, in the clayey ground between Succoth and Zeredah.18 Solomon made all these vessels, so many in number that the weight of the bronze was not ascertained.19 Solomon had all these articles made for the house of God: the golden altar, the tables on which the showbread lay,20 the lampstands and their lamps of pure gold which were to burn according to prescription before the sanctuary,21 flowers, lamps and gold tongs (this was the purest gold),22 snuffers, bowls, cups and firepans of pure gold. As for the entry to the house, its inner doors to the holy of holies, as well as the doors to the nave, were of gold.


5 1 When all the work undertaken by Solomon for the temple of the LORD had been completed, he brought in the dedicated offerings of his father David, putting the silver, the gold and all the other articles in the treasuries of the house of God.


The Ark Brought into the Temple

2 At Solomon's order the elders of Israel and all the leaders of the tribes, the princes of the Israelite ancestral houses, came to Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the LORD'S covenant from the City of David (which is Zion).
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All the men of Israel assembled before the king during the festival of the seventh month.
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When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the Levites took up the ark, 5 and they carried the ark and the meeting tent with all the sacred vessels that were in the tent; it was the levitical priests who carried them.6 King Solomon and the entire community of Israel gathered about him before the ark were sacrificing sheep and oxen so numerous that they could not be counted or numbered.7 The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place beneath the wings of the cherubim in the sanctuary, the holy of holies of the temple.8 The cherubim had their wings spread out over the place of the ark, sheltering the ark and its poles from above.9 The poles were long enough so that their ends could be seen from that part of the holy place nearest the sanctuary; however, they could not be seen beyond. The ark has remained there to this day. 10 There was nothing in it but the two tablets which Moses put there on Horeb, the tablets of the covenant which the LORD made with the Israelites at their departure from Egypt.
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When the priests came out of the holy place (all the priests who were present had purified themselves without reference to the rotation of their various classes),12 the Levites who were singers, all who belonged to Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and brothers, clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps and lyres, stood east of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests blowing trumpets.13 When the trumpeters and singers were heard as a single voice praising and giving thanks to the LORD, and when they raised the sound of the trumpets, cymbals and other musical instruments to "give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever," the building of the LORD'S temple was filled with a cloud.14 The priests could not continue to minister because of the cloud, since the LORD'S glory filled the house of God.


Dedication of the Temple

6 1 Then Solomon said: "The LORD intends to dwell in the dark cloud.2 I have truly built you a princely house and dwelling, where you may abide forever."3 Turning about, the king greeted the whole community of Israel as they stood.4 He said: "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his own mouth made a promise to my father David and by his own hands brought it to fulfillment. He said:5 'Since the day I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen any city from among all the tribes of Israel for the building of a temple to my honor, nor have I chosen any man to be commander of my people Israel;6 but now I choose Jerusalem, where I shall be honored, and I choose David to rule my people Israel.'7 My father David wished to build a temple to the honor of the LORD, the God of Israel,8 but the LORD said to him: 'In wishing to build a temple to my honor, you do well.9 However, you shall not build the temple; rather, your son whom you will beget shall build the temple to my honor.'10 "Now the LORD has fulfilled the promise that he made. I have succeeded my father David and have taken my seat on the throne of Israel, as the LORD foretold, and I have built the temple to the honor of the LORD, the God of Israel.11 And I have placed there the ark, in which abides the covenant of the LORD which he made with the Israelites."


Solomon's Prayer of Dedication

12 Solomon then took his place before the altar of the LORD in the presence of the whole community of Israel and stretched forth his hands.13 He had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, which he had placed in the middle of the courtyard. Having ascended it, Solomon knelt in the presence of the whole of Israel and stretched forth his hands toward heaven.
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Thus he prayed: "LORD, God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven or on earth; you keep your covenant and show kindness to your servants who are wholeheartedly faithful to you.15 You have kept the promise you made to my father David, your servant. With your own mouth you spoke it, and by your own hand you have brought it to fulfillment this day.16 Now, therefore, LORD, God of Israel, keep the further promise you made to my father David, your servant, when you said, 'You shall always have someone from your line to sit before me on the throne of Israel, provided only that your descendants look to their conduct so as always to live according to my law, even as you have lived in my presence.'17 Now, LORD, God of Israel, may this promise which you made to your servant David be confirmed.18 "Can it indeed be that God dwells with mankind on earth? If the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you, how much less this temple which I have built!19 Look kindly on the prayer and petition of your servant, O LORD, my God, and listen to the cry of supplication your servant makes before you.20 May your eyes watch day and night over this temple, the place where you have decreed you shall be honored; may you heed the prayer which I your servant offer toward this place.21 Listen to the petitions of your servant and of your people Israel which they direct toward this place. Listen from your heavenly dwelling, and when you have heard, pardon.
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"When any man sins against his neighbor and is required to take an oath of execration against himself, and when he comes for the oath before your altar in this temple,23 listen from heaven: take action and pass judgment on your servants, requiting the wicked man and holding him responsible for his conduct, but absolving the innocent and rewarding him according to his virtue.
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When your people Israel have sinned against you and are defeated by the enemy, but afterward they return and praise your name, and they pray to you and entreat you in this temple,25 listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which you gave them and their fathers.
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When the sky is closed so that there is no rain, because they have sinned against you, but then they pray toward this place and praise your name, and they withdraw from sin because you afflict them,27 listen in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and of your people Israel. But teach them the right way to live, and send rain upon your land which you gave your people as their heritage.
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When there is famine in the land, when there is pestilence, or blight, or mildew, or locusts, or caterpillars; when their enemies besiege them at any of their gates; whenever there is a plague or sickness of any kind;29 when any Israelite of all your people offers a prayer or petition of any kind, and in awareness of his affliction and pain, stretches out his hands toward this temple,30 listen from your heavenly dwelling place, and forgive. Knowing his heart, render to everyone according to his conduct, for you alone know the hearts of men.31 So may they fear you and walk in your ways as long as they live on the land you gave our fathers.
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"For the foreigner, too, who is not of your people Israel, when he comes from a distant land to honor your great name, your mighty power, and your outstretched arm, when they come in prayer to this temple,33 listen from your heavenly dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner entreats you, that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, fearing you as do your people Israel, and knowing that this house which I have built is dedicated to your honor.
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"When your people go forth to war against their enemies, wherever you send them, and pray to you in the direction of this city and of the house I have built to your honor,35 listen from heaven to their prayer and petition, and defend their cause.
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When they sin against you (for there is no man who does not sin), and in your anger against them you deliver them to the enemy, so that their captors deport them to another land, far or near,37 when they repent in the land where they are captive and are converted, when they entreat you in the land of their captivity and say, 'We have sinned and done wrong; we have been wicked,'38 and with their whole heart and with their whole soul they turn back to you in the land of those who hold them captive, when they pray in the direction of their land which you gave their fathers, and of the city you have chosen, and of the house which I have built to your honor,39 listen from your heavenly dwelling place, hear their prayer and petitions, and uphold their cause. Forgive your people who have sinned against you.
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My God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place.41 And now, "Advance, LORD God, to your resting place, you and the ark of your majesty. May your priests, LORD God, be clothed with salvation, may your faithful ones rejoice in good things.42 LORD God, reject not the plea of your anointed, remember the devotion of David, your servant."


Solomon Dedicates the Temple

7 1 When Solomon had ended his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the holocaust and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the house.2 But the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.3 All the Israelites looked on while the fire came down and the glory of the LORD was upon the house, and they fell down upon the pavement with their faces to the earth and adored, praising the LORD, "for he is good, for his mercy endures forever."4 The king and all the people were offering sacrifices before the LORD.5 King Solomon offered as sacrifice twenty-two thousand oxen, and one hundred twenty thousand sheep.6 Thus the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. The priests were standing at their stations, as were the Levites, with the musical instruments of the LORD which King David had made for "praising the LORD, for his mercy endures forever," when David used them to accompany the hymns. Across from them the priests blew the trumpets and all Israel stood.
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Then Solomon consecrated the middle part of the court which lay before the house of the LORD; there he offered the holocausts and the fat of the peace offerings, since the bronze altar which Solomon had made could not hold the holocausts, the cereal offerings and the fat.8 On this occasion Solomon and with him all Israel, who had assembled in very large numbers from Labo of Hamath to the Wadi of Egypt, celebrated the festival for seven days.9 On the eighth day they held a special meeting, for they had celebrated the dedication of the altar for seven days and the feast for seven days. 10 On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people back to their tents, rejoicing and glad at heart at the good things the LORD had done for David, for Solomon, and for his people Israel.
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Solomon completed the house of the LORD and the royal palace; he successfully accomplished everything he had planned to do in regard to the house of the LORD and his own house.


God's Second Appearance to Solomon

12 The LORD appeared to Solomon during the night and said to him: "I have heard your prayer, and I have chosen this place for my house of sacrifice.13 If I close heaven so that there is no rain, if I command the locust to devour the land, if I send pestilence among my people,14 and if my people, upon whom my name has been pronounced, humble themselves and pray, and seek my presence and turn from their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven and pardon their sins and revive their land.15 Now my eyes shall be open and my ears attentive to the prayer of this place.16 And now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever; my eyes and my heart also shall be there always.17 "As for you, if you live in my presence as your father David did, doing all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and ordinances,18 I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with your father David when I said, 'There shall never be lacking someone of yours as ruler in Israel.'19 But if you turn away and forsake my statutes and commands which I placed before you, if you proceed to venerate and worship strange gods,20 then I will uproot the people from the land I gave them; I will cast from my sight this house which I have consecrated to my honor, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.21 This temple which is so exalted-- everyone passing by it will be amazed and ask: 'Why has the LORD done this to this land and to this house?'22 And men will answer: 'They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they adopted strange gods and worshiped them and served them. That is why he has brought down upon them all this evil.'"


Various Activities of Solomon

8 1 After the twenty years during which Solomon built the house of the LORD and his own house,2 he built up the cities which Huram had given him, and settled Israelites there. 3 Then Solomon went to Hamath of Zoba and conquered it.4 He built Tadmor in the desert region and all the supply cities, which he built in Hamath. 5 He built Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon, fortified cities with walls, gates and bars;6 also Baalath, all the supply cities belonging to Solomon, and all the cities for the chariots, the cities for the horsemen, and whatever else Solomon decided should be built in Jerusalem, in the Lebanon, and in the entire land under his dominion.7 All the people that remained of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not of Israel-- 8 that is, their descendants remaining in the land, whom the Israelites had not destroyed-- Solomon subjected to forced labor, as they continue to this day.9 But Solomon did not enslave the Israelites for his works. They became soldiers, commanders of his warriors, and commanders of his chariots and his horsemen.10 They were also King Solomon's two hundred and fifty overseers who had charge of the people.11 Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh up from the City of David to the palace which he had built for her, for he said, "No wife of mine shall dwell in the house of David, king of Israel, for the places where the ark of the LORD has come are holy."
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In those times Solomon offered holocausts to the LORD upon the altar of the LORD which he had built in front of the porch,13 as was required day by day according to the command of Moses, and in particular on the sabbaths, at the new moons, and on the fixed festivals three times a year: on the feast of the Unleavened Bread, the feast of Weeks and the feast of Booths.14 And according to the ordinance of his father David he appointed the various classes of the priests for their service, and the Levites according to their functions of praise and ministry alongside the priests, as the daily duty required. The gatekeepers of the various classes stood guard at each gate, since such was the command of David, the man of God.15 There was no deviation from the king's command in any respect relating to the priests and Levites or the treasuries.16 All of Solomon's work was carried out successfully from the day the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid until the house of the LORD had been completed in every detail.
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In those times Solomon went to Ezion-geber and to Elath on the seashore of the land of Edom.18 Huram, through his servants, sent him ships and crewmen acquainted with the sea, who accompanied Solomon's servants to Ophir and brought back from there four hundred and fifty talents of gold to King Solomon.


Visit of the Queen of Sheba

9 1 When the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon's fame, she came to Jerusalem to test him with subtle questions, accompanied by a very numerous retinue and by camels bearing spices, much gold, and precious stones. She came to Solomon and questioned him on every subject in which she was interested.2 Solomon explained to her everything she asked about, and there remained nothing hidden from Solomon that he could not explain to her.
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When the queen of Sheba witnessed Solomon's wisdom, the palace he had built,4 the food at his table, the seating of his ministers, the attendance of his servants and their dress, his cupbearers and their dress, and the holocausts he offered in the house of the LORD, it took her breath away.5 "The account I heard in my country about your deeds and your wisdom is true," she told the king.6 "Yet I did not believe the report until I came and saw with my own eyes. I have discovered that they did not tell me the half of your great wisdom; you have surpassed the stories I heard.7 Happy are your men, happy these servants of yours, who stand before you always and listen to your wisdom.8 Blessed be the LORD, your God, who has been so pleased with you as to place you on his throne as king for the LORD, your God. Because your God has so loved Israel as to will to make it last forever, he has appointed you over them as king to administer right and justice."
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Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty gold talents and a very large quantity of spices, as well as precious stones. There was no other spice like that which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
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The servants of Huram and of Solomon who brought gold from Ophir also brought cabinet wood and precious stones.11 With the cabinet wood the king made stairs for the temple of the LORD and the palace of the king; also lyres and harps for the chanters. The like of these had not been seen before in the land of Judah.
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King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she desired and asked him for, more than she had brought to the king. Then she returned to her own country with her servants.


Solomon's Great Wealth

13 The gold that Solomon received each year weighed six hundred and sixty-six gold talents,14 in addition to what was collected from travelers and what the merchants brought. All the kings of Arabia also, and the governors of the country, brought gold and silver to Solomon.
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Moreover, King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold, six hundred shekels of beaten gold going into each shield,16 and three hundred bucklers of beaten gold, three hundred shekels of gold going into each buckler; these the king put in the hall of the Forest of Lebanon.17 King Solomon also made a large ivory throne which he overlaid with fine gold.18 The throne had six steps; a footstool of gold was fastened to it, and there was an arm on each side of the seat, with two lions standing beside the arms.19 Twelve other lions also stood there, one on either side of each step. Nothing like this had ever been produced in any other kingdom.20 Furthermore, all of King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the utensils in the hall of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; silver was not considered of value in Solomon's time.21 For the king had ships that went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram. Once every three years the fleet of Tarshish would return with a cargo of gold and silver, ivory, apes and monkeys.22 Thus King Solomon surpassed all the other kings of the earth in riches as well as in wisdom.23 All the kings of the earth sought audience with Solomon, to hear from him the wisdom which God had put in his heart.24 Year in and year out, each one would bring his tribute-silver and gold articles, garments, weapons, spices, horses and mules.25 Solomon also had four thousand stalls of horses, chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, which he assigned to the chariot cities and to the king in Jerusalem.26 He was ruler over all the kings from the River to the land of the Philistines and down to the border of Egypt.27 The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, while cedars became as numerous as the sycamores of the foothills.28 Horses were imported for Solomon from Egypt and from all the lands.


Death of Solomon

29 The rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are written, as is well known, in the acts of Nathan the prophet, in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer which concern Jeroboam, son of Nebat.30 Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years.31 He rested with his ancestors; he was buried in his father's City of David, and his son Rehoboam succeeded him as king.


The Revolt against Rehoboam


2Chroniques (NAB) 1