[1] Now at the end of twenty years, in which time Solomon had put up the
house of the Lord and a house for himself, [2] He took in hand the building
up of the towns which Huram had given him, causing the children of Israel
to make living-places for themselves there. [3] And Solomon went to
Hamath-zobah and overcame it. [4] And he put up the buildings of Tadmor in
the waste land, and of all the store-towns in Hamath; [5] And of Beth-horon
the higher and the lower, walled towns with walls and doorways and locks;
[6] And of Baalath, and all the store-towns which Solomon had, and the
towns where he kept his war-carriages and his horse men, and everything
which it was his pleasure to put up in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all
the land under his rule. [7] As for all the rest of the Hittites and the
Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not
of Israel: [8] Their men who were still living in the land, and whom the
children of Israel had not put an end to, these Solomon put to forced work,
as is done to this day; [9] But Solomon did not make use of the children of
Israel as servants for his work; they were men of war, his chiefs and his
captains, and captains of his war-carriages and his horsemen. [10] Now
these were the chief men in authority whom King Solomon had: two hundred
and fifty of them, in authority over the people. [11] Then Solomon made
Pharaoh's daughter come up from the town of David to the house which he had
made for her; for he said, I will not have my wife living in the house of
David, king of Israel, because those places where the ark of the Lord has
come are holy. [12] Then Solomon made burned offerings to the Lord on the
altar of the Lord which he had put up in front of the covered way, [13]
Offering every day what had been ordered by Moses, on the Sabbaths and at
the new moon and at the regular feasts three times a year, that is at the
feast of unleavened bread, the feast of weeks, and the feast of tents. [14]
And he gave the divisions of the priests their places for their work, as
ordered by his father David, and to the Levites he gave their work of
praise and waiting on the priests, to do what was needed day by day; and he
gave the door-keepers their places in turn at every door; for so David, the
man of God, had given orders. [15] All the orders given by the king to the
priests and Levites, in connection with any business or stores, were done
with care. [16] And all the work of Solomon was complete, from the day when
he put the base of the Lord's house in position, till Solomon had come to
the end of building the Lord's house. [17] Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber
and to Eloth by the sea in the land of Edom. [18] And Huram sent him, by
his servants, ships and experienced seamen, who went with the servants of
Solomon to Ophir and came back with four hundred and fifty talents of gold,
which they took to King Solomon.
