2 Chronicles - Chapter 8

¹ At the end of the twenty years which it took Solomon to build the Temple of Yahweh and his own palace,

² and to rebuild the towns which Huram had given him and settle them with Israelites,

³ Solomon mounted an expedition against Hamath-Zobah and captured it.

⁴ He also fortified Tadmor in the desert and all the storage towns which he had built in Hamath.

⁵ He also built Upper Beth-Horon and Lower Beth-Horon as fortified towns with walls and gates and bars,

⁶ also Baalath and all Solomon's storage towns, all the towns for his chariots and horses, and everything which Solomon was pleased to build in Jerusalem, in the Lebanon and throughout the territory under his rule.

⁷ All those who survived of the Hittite, Amorite, Perizzite, Hivite and Jebusite peoples, who did not belong to Israel-

⁸ those of their descendants still remaining in the country, whom the Israelites had not exterminated, these Solomon levied for forced labour, as is still the case today.

⁹ Solomon did not, however, impose forced labour on the Israelites for his work -- for they were soldiers, his senior officers and his chariot and cavalry commanders.

¹⁰ There were two hundred and fifty of King Solomon's officials in charge of the foremen who supervised the people.

¹¹ Solomon moved Pharaoh's daughter up from the City of David to the palace which he had built for her. 'I must not be responsible', he said, 'for a woman living in the palace of David king of Israel, for these buildings to which the ark of Yahweh has come are sacred.'

¹² Thereafter, Solomon made burnt offerings to Yahweh on the altar of Yahweh which he had built in front of the portico,

¹³ in accordance with the regular prescriptions for burnt sacrifice as commanded by Moses, on the Sabbaths, New Moons and the three annual feasts; the feast of Unleavened Bread, the feast of Weeks and the feast of Shelters.

¹⁴ Following the prescriptions of his father David, he assigned the orders of priests to their duties and the Levites to their tasks of praise and of assisting the priests in accordance with day-to-day requirements; as also the gatekeepers in their various orders to each gate- for cush was the command of David, man of God.

¹⁵ Nor was there deviation on any point from the king's command as regards the priests, the Levites or even the storehouses.

¹⁶ Thus, all the work was over which Solomon had put in hand when the Temple of Yahweh was founded until it was finished. The Temple of Yahweh was complete in every detail.

¹⁷ Solomon then mounted an expedition to Ezion-Geber and Elath on the sea-coast of Edom.

¹⁸ Huram sent him ships through his agents, as well as experienced sailors, who went to Ophir with men in Solomon's service, where they took on four hundred and fifty talents of gold, which they brought back to King Solomon.