2 Chronicles 7:15-9:13

2 Chronicles 7:15-9:13      NASB

CH. 7

¹⁵ Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the ^[e]prayer offered in this place. ¹⁶ For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name may be there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. ¹⁷ As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, even to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep My statutes and My ordinances, ¹⁸ then I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with your father David, saying, ‘^[f]You shall not lack a man to be ruler in Israel.’

¹⁹ “But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, ²⁰ then I will uproot you from My land which I have given ^[g]you, and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. ²¹ As for this house, which was exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ ²² And they will say, ‘Because they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers who brought them from the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this adversity on them.’”

CH. 8

1 Now it came about at the end of the twenty years in which Solomon had built the house of the Lord and his own house ² that he built the cities which Huram had given to ^[h]him, and settled the sons of Israel there.

³ Then Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and captured it. ⁴ He built Tadmor in the wilderness and all the storage cities which he had built in Hamath. ⁵ He also built upper Beth-horon and lower Beth-horon, fortified cities with walls, gates and bars; ⁶ and Baalath and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for ^[i]his chariots and cities for ^[j]his horsemen, and all that it pleased Solomon to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land ^[k]under his rule.

⁷ All of the people who were left of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel, ⁸ namely, from their descendants who were left after them in the land whom the sons of Israel had not destroyed, them Solomon raised as forced laborers to this day. ⁹ But Solomon did not make slaves for his work from the sons of Israel; they were men of war, his chief captains and commanders of his chariots and his horsemen. ¹⁰ These were the chief ^[l]officers of King Solomon, two hundred and fifty who ruled over the people.

¹¹ Then Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter up from the city of David to the house which he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because ^[m]the places are holy where the ark of the Lord has entered.”

¹² Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord which he had built before the porch; ¹³ and did so according to the daily rule, offering them up according to the commandment of Moses, for the sabbaths, the new moons and the three annual feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Booths.

¹⁴ Now according to the ordinance of his father David, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their duties of praise and ministering before the priests according to the daily rule, and the gatekeepers by their divisions at every gate; for David the man of God had so commanded. ¹⁵ And they did not depart from the commandment of the king to the priests and Levites in any manner or concerning the storehouses.

¹⁶ Thus all the work of Solomon was carried out ^[n]from the day of the foundation of the house of the Lord, and until it was finished. So the house of the Lord was completed.

¹⁷ Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and to Eloth on the seashore in the land of Edom. ¹⁸ And Huram by his servants sent him ships and servants who knew the sea; and they went with Solomon’s servants to Ophir, and took from there four hundred and fifty talents of gold and brought them to King Solomon.

CH. 9

1Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with difficult questions. She had a very large retinue, with camels carrying spices and a large amount of gold and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was on her heart. ² Solomon ^[o]answered all her questions; nothing was hidden from Solomon which he did not ^[p]explain to her. ³ When the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, the house which he had built, ⁴ the food at his table, the seating of his servants, the attendance of his ministers and their attire, his cupbearers and their attire, and ^[q]his stairway by which he went up to the house of the Lord, she was breathless. ⁵ Then she said to the king, “It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. ⁶ Nevertheless I did not believe their reports until I came and my eyes had seen it. And behold, the half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told me. You surpass the report that I heard. ⁷ How ^[r]blessed are your men, how ^[s]blessed are these your servants who stand before you continually and hear your wisdom. ⁸ Blessed be the Lord your God who delighted in you, setting you on His throne as king for the Lord your God; because your God loved Israel establishing them forever, therefore He made you king over them, to do justice and righteousness.” ⁹ Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold and a very great amount of spices and precious stones; there had never been spice like that which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹⁰ The servants of Huram and the servants of Solomon who brought gold from Ophir, also brought algum trees and precious stones. ¹¹ From the algum trees the king made steps for the house of the Lord and for the king’s palace, and lyres and harps for the singers; and none like that was seen before in the land of Judah.

¹² King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire which she requested besides a return for what she had brought to the king. Then she turned and went to her own land with her servants.

¹³ Now the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold,