World English Bible

Chapter 8

¹It happened at the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the house of Yahweh, and his own house, ²that the cities which Huram had given to Solomon, Solomon built them, and caused the children of Israel to dwell there. ³Solomon went to Hamath Zobah, and prevailed against it. ⁴He built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the storage cities, which he built in Hamath. ⁵Also he built Beth Horon the upper, and Beth Horon the lower, fortified cities, with walls, gates, and bars; ⁶and Baalath, and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and all that Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. ⁷As for all the people who were left of the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel; ⁸of their children who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel didn’t consume, of them did Solomon raise a levy of bondservants to this day. ⁹But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no servants for his work; but they were men of war, and chief of his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen. ¹⁰These were the chief officers of king Solomon, even two hundred fifty, who ruled over the people. ¹¹Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the city of David to the house that he had built for her; for he said, My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places are holy, whereunto the ark of Yahweh has come. ¹²Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to Yahweh on the altar of Yahweh, which he had built before the porch, ¹³even as the duty of every day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the Sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the set feasts, three times in the year, even in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tents. ¹⁴He appointed, according to the ordinance of David his father, the divisions of the priests to their service, and the Levites to their offices, to praise, and to minister before the priests, as the duty of every day required; the doorkeepers also by their divisions at every gate: for so had David the man of God commanded. ¹⁵They didn’t depart from the commandment of the king to the priests and Levites concerning any matter, or concerning the treasures. ¹⁶Now all the work of Solomon was prepared to the day of the foundation of the house of Yahweh, and until it was finished. So the house of Yahweh was completed. ¹⁷Then went Solomon to Ezion Geber, and to Eloth, on the seashore in the land of Edom. ¹⁸Huram sent him by the hands of his servants ships, and servants who had knowledge of the sea; and they came with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and fetched from there four hundred fifty talents of gold, and brought them to king Solomon.