The LORD’s Response to Solomon
(2 Chronicles 7:11–22)
Now when Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and the royal palace, and had achieved all that he had desired to do, 2Ch 7:111Ki 9:191Ki 6:371Ki 7:511Ki 9:11Ecc 2:10Ecc 2:4Ecc 6:9 the LORD appeared to him a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. 1Ki 3:52Ch 7:121Ki 11:92Ch 1:7-12 And the LORD said to him: 1Jn 5:141Ki 8:292Ki 20:5Psa 10:17Psa 116:1Deu 11:122Ch 6:40Psa 132:13-14
“I have heard your prayer and petition before Me. I have consecrated this temple you have built by putting My Name there forever; My eyes and My heart will be there for all time.
And as for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and uprightness, doing all I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances, 1Ki 15:51Ki 3:14Gen 17:11Ki 11:41Ki 11:61Ki 11:381Ki 14:8Deu 28:1 then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David when I said, ‘You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’ 1Ki 2:41Ki 6:122Sa 7:122Sa 7:161Ch 22:9-101Ki 8:151Ki 8:20Psa 132:11-12
But if indeed you or your sons turn away from following Me and do not keep the commandments and statutes I have set before you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods, 1Ch 28:92Sa 7:14-161Ki 11:4-101Sa 2:302Ch 15:22Ch 7:19-22Jos 23:15-16Psa 89:30 then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples. Jer 24:9Psa 44:14Deu 28:37Deu 4:262Ki 25:212Ki 25:9Lev 18:24-28Luk 21:24
And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, 1 all who pass by it will be appalled and will hiss and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ Deu 29:24-26Jer 22:8-92Ch 7:21Jer 19:8Jer 22:28Dan 9:12Isa 64:11Jer 49:17 And others will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—because of this, the LORD has brought all this disaster upon them.’” Jer 2:19Jer 5:192Ch 7:22Deu 29:25-28Jer 2:10-13Ezk 36:17-20Jer 12:7-8Jer 16:10-13
Solomon’s Additional Achievements
(2 Chronicles 8:1–18)
Now at the end of the twenty years during which Solomon built these two houses, the house of the LORD and the royal palace, 1Ki 6:371Ki 9:12Ch 8:1-18 King Solomon gave twenty towns in the land of Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, who had supplied him with cedar and cypress 2logs and gold for his every desire. 2Ch 8:21Ki 5:6-102Ch 2:162Ch 2:8-10Jos 20:7 So Hiram went out from Tyre to inspect the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them. Jdg 14:3Num 22:34
“What are these towns you have given me, my brother?” asked Hiram, and he called them the Land of Cabul, 3 as they are called to this day. Jos 19:27Amo 1:91Ki 5:1-2
And Hiram had sent the king 120 talents of gold. 4 1Ki 9:111Ki 10:101Ki 10:141Ki 10:211Ki 9:28
This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon imposed to build the house of the LORD, his own palace, the supporting terraces, 5 and the wall of Jerusalem, as well as Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. 1Ki 5:131Ki 9:242Sa 5:9Jos 17:11Jos 11:1Jos 19:36Jdg 1:29Jos 16:10
Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and given it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. 1Ki 3:11Ki 7:81Ki 9:24Jos 16:10 So Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth-horon, Jos 16:3Jos 21:222Ch 8:4-18Jos 10:10Jos 19:44 Baalath, and Tamar 6in the Wilderness of Judah, 7 Jos 19:442Ch 8:4 as well as all the store cities that Solomon had for his chariots and horses 8—whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout the land of his dominion. 1Ki 9:11Ki 10:261Ki 4:26-282Ch 1:14Ecc 2:10Ecc 6:9Exo 1:11
As for all the people who remained of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites (the people who were not Israelites)— 2Ch 8:7-18Deu 7:1-3Exo 23:23Exo 23:28-33Exo 34:11-12Gen 15:19-21 their descendants who remained in the land, those whom the Israelites were unable to devote to destruction 9—Solomon conscripted these people to be forced laborers, as they are to this day. Jdg 1:21Jos 15:63Jos 17:12Gen 9:25-26Ezr 2:55-58Neh 11:3Neh 7:571Ki 5:13
But Solomon did not consign any of the Israelites to slavery, because they were his men of war, his servants, his officers, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and cavalry. Lev 25:391Ki 4:1-271Sa 8:11-122Ch 8:9-10 They were also the chief officers over Solomon’s projects: 550 supervisors over the people who did the work. 1Ki 5:162Ch 8:102Ch 2:18
As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace that Solomon had built for her, he built the supporting terraces. 1Ki 7:81Ki 11:272Ch 32:52Sa 5:91Ki 3:11Ki 9:15-162Ch 8:11
Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he had built for the LORD, burning incense with them before the LORD. So he completed the temple. 2Ch 8:12-132Ch 8:16Deu 16:16Exo 23:14-171Ch 23:131Ki 6:382Ch 26:16-212Ch 29:11
King Solomon also assembled a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth 10in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea. 11 1Ki 22:48Deu 2:8Num 33:352Ch 8:11-122Ch 8:17-182Ki 14:22 And Hiram sent his servants, men who knew the sea, to serve in the fleet with Solomon’s servants. 1Ki 10:111Ki 5:61Ki 5:91Ki 22:492Ch 20:36-37 They sailed to Ophir and imported gold from there—420 talents 12—and delivered it to Solomon. 1Ch 29:42Ch 8:181Ki 10:11Isa 13:12Job 22:24Job 28:16Psa 45:92Ch 9:10