Bible-Reading.comII Chronicles 6
1Then Solomon declared: “The LORD has said that He would dwell in the thick cloud;
2and I have built You an exalted house, a place for You to dwell forever.”
3And as the whole assembly of Israel stood there, the king turned around and blessed them all
4and said: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who has fulfilled with His own hand what He spoke with His mouth to my father David, saying,
5‘Since the day I brought My people out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house so that My Name would be there, nor have I chosen anyone to be ruler over My people Israel.
6But now I have chosen Jerusalem for My Name to be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.’
7Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a house for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
8But the LORD said to my father David, ‘Since it was in your heart to build a house for My Name, you have done well to have this in your heart.
9Nevertheless, you are not the one to build it; but your son, your own offspring, will build the house for My Name.’
10Now the LORD has fulfilled the word that He spoke. I have succeeded my father David, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised. I have built the house for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
11And there I have provided a place for the ark, which contains the covenant of the LORD that He made with the children of Israel.”
12Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands.
13Now Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had placed it in the middle of the courtyard. He stood on it, knelt down before the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven,
14and said: “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven or on earth, keeping Your covenant of loving devotion with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts.
15You have kept Your promise to Your servant, my father David. What You spoke with Your mouth You have fulfilled with Your hand this day.
16Therefore now, O LORD, God of Israel, keep for Your servant, my father David, what You promised when You said: ‘You will never fail to have a man to sit before Me on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants guard their way to walk in My law as you have walked before Me.’
17And now, O LORD, God of Israel, please confirm what You promised to Your servant David.
18But will God indeed dwell with man upon the earth? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.
19Yet regard the prayer and plea of Your servant, O LORD my God, so that You may hear the cry and the prayer that Your servant is praying before You.
20May Your eyes be open toward this temple day and night, toward the place where You said You would put Your Name, so that You may hear the prayer that Your servant prays toward this place.
21Hear the plea of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray toward this place. May You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place. May You hear and forgive.
22When a man sins against his neighbor and is required to take an oath, and he comes to take an oath before Your altar in this temple,
23then may You hear from heaven and act. May You judge Your servants, condemning the wicked man by bringing down on his own head what he has done, and justifying the righteous man by rewarding him according to his righteousness.
24When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they return to You and confess Your name, praying and pleading before You in this temple,
25then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel. May You restore them to the land You gave to them and their fathers.
26When the skies are shut and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and they turn from their sins because You have afflicted them,
27then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, so that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk. May You send rain on the land that You gave Your people as an inheritance.
28When famine or plague comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemies besiege them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come,
29then may whatever prayer or petition Your people Israel make—each knowing his own afflictions and spreading out his hands toward this temple—
30be heard by You from heaven, Your dwelling place. And may You forgive and repay each man according to all his ways, since You know his heart—for You alone know the hearts of men—
31so that they may fear You and walk in Your ways all the days they live in the land that You gave to our fathers.
32And as for the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of Your great name and Your mighty hand and outstretched arm—when he comes and prays toward this temple,
33then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You. Then all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and they will know that this house I have built is called by Your Name.
34When Your people go to war against their enemies, wherever You send them, and when they pray to You in the direction of the city You have chosen and the house I have built for Your Name,
35then may You hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and may You uphold their cause.
36When they sin against You—for there is no one who does not sin—and You become angry with them and deliver them to an enemy who takes them as captives to a land far or near,
37and when they come to their senses in the land to which they were taken, and they repent and plead with You in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong; we have acted wickedly,’
38and when they return to You with all their heart and soul in the land of the enemies who took them captive, and when they pray in the direction of the land that You gave to their fathers, the city You have chosen, and the house I have built for Your Name,
39then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, their prayer and petition, and may You uphold their cause. May You forgive Your people who sinned against You.
40Now, my God, may Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.
41Now therefore, arise, O LORD God, and enter Your resting place, You and the ark of Your might. May Your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and may Your godly ones rejoice in goodness.
42O LORD God, do not reject Your anointed one. Remember Your loving devotion to Your servant David.”
II Chronicles 7
1When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.
2The priests were unable to enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled it.
3When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD: “For He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.”
4Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the LORD.
5And King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.
6The priests stood at their posts, as did the Levites with the musical instruments of the LORD, which King David had made for giving thanks to the LORD and with which David had offered praise, saying, “For His loving devotion endures forever.” Across from the Levites, the priests sounded trumpets, and all the Israelites were standing.
7Then Solomon consecrated the middle of the courtyard in front of the house of the LORD, and there he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings, since the bronze altar he had made could not contain all these offerings.
8So at that time Solomon and all Israel with him—a very great assembly of people from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt—kept the feast for seven days.
9On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for the dedication of the altar had lasted seven days, and the feast seven days more.
10On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, Solomon sent the people away to their homes, joyful and glad of heart for the good things that the LORD had done for David, for Solomon, and for His people Israel.
11When Solomon had finished the house of the LORD and the royal palace, successfully carrying out all that was in his heart to do for the house of the LORD and for his own palace,
12the LORD appeared to him at night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.
13If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send a plague among My people,
14and if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
15Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.
16For I have now chosen and consecrated this temple so that My Name may be there forever. My eyes and My heart will be there for all time.
17And as for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, doing all I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances,
18then I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with your father David when I said, ‘You will never fail to have a man to rule over Israel.’
19But if you turn away and forsake the statutes and commandments I have set before you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods,
20then I will uproot Israel from the soil I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.
21And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’
22And others will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—because of this, He has brought all this disaster upon them.’”
II Chronicles 8
1Now at the end of the twenty years during which Solomon had built the house of the LORD and his own palace,
2Solomon rebuilt the cities Hiram had given him and settled Israelites there.
3Then Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and captured it.
4He built Tadmor in the wilderness, in addition to all the store cities that he had built in Hamath.
5He rebuilt Upper and Lower Beth-horon as fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars,
6as well as Baalath, all the store cities that belonged to Solomon, and all the cities for his chariots and horses —whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout the land of his dominion.
7As for all the people who remained of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites (the people who were not Israelites)—
8their descendants who remained in the land, those whom the Israelites were unable to destroy—Solomon conscripted these people to be forced laborers, as they are to this day.
9But Solomon did not consign any of the Israelites to slave labor, because they were his men of war, his officers and captains, and the commanders of his chariots and cavalry.
10They were also the chief officers for King Solomon: 250 supervisors.
11Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh up from the City of David to the palace he had built for her. For he said, “My wife must not live in the house of David king of Israel, because the places the ark of the LORD has entered are holy.”
12At that time Solomon offered burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar of the LORD he had built in front of the portico.
13He observed the daily requirement for offerings according to the commandment of Moses for Sabbaths, New Moons, and the three annual appointed feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles.
14In keeping with the ordinances of his father David, Solomon appointed the divisions of the priests over their service, and the Levites for their duties to offer praise and to minister before the priests according to the daily requirement. He also appointed gatekeepers by their divisions at each gate, for this had been the command of David, the man of God.
15They did not turn aside from the king’s command regarding the priests or the Levites or any matter concerning the treasuries.
16Thus all the work of Solomon was carried out, from the day the foundation was laid for the house of the LORD until it was finished. So the house of the LORD was completed.
17Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and to Eloth on the coast of Edom.
18So Hiram sent him ships captained by his servants, along with crews of experienced sailors. They went with Solomon’s servants to Ophir and acquired from there 450 talents of gold, which they delivered to King Solomon.
II Chronicles 9
1Now when the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon, she came to test him with difficult questions. She arrived in Jerusalem with a very large caravan—with camels bearing spices, gold in abundance, and precious stones. So she came to Solomon and spoke with him about all that was on her mind.
2And Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too difficult for him to explain.
3When the queen of Sheba saw the wisdom of Solomon, the palace he had built,
4the food at his table, the seating of his servants, the service and attire of his attendants and cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he presented at the house of the LORD, it took her breath away.
5She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your words and wisdom is true.
6But I did not believe the reports until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not half of the greatness of your wisdom was told to me. You have far exceeded the report I heard.
7How blessed are your men! How blessed are these servants of yours who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom!
8Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delighted in you to set you on His throne to be king for the LORD your God. Because your God loved Israel enough to establish them forever, He has made you king over them to carry out justice and righteousness.”
9Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, a great quantity of spices, and precious stones. There had never been such spices as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
10(The servants of Hiram and of Solomon who brought gold from Ophir also brought algum wood and precious stones.
11The king made the algum wood into steps for the house of the LORD and for the king’s palace, and into lyres and harps for the singers. Never before had anything like them been seen in the land of Judah.)
12King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired—whatever she asked—far more than she had brought the king. Then she left and returned to her own country, along with her servants.
13The weight of gold that came to Solomon each year was 666 talents,
14not including the revenue from the merchants and traders. And all the Arabian kings and governors of the land also brought gold and silver to Solomon.
15King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of hammered gold went into each shield.
16He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold; three hundred shekels of gold went into each shield. And the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.
17Additionally, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold.
18The throne had six steps, and a footstool of gold was attached to it. There were armrests on both sides of the seat, with a lion standing beside each armrest.
19Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one at either end of each step. Nothing like this had ever been made for any kingdom.
20All King Solomon’s drinking cups were gold, and all the utensils of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. There was no silver, because it was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon.
21For the king had the ships of Tarshish that went with Hiram’s servants, and once every three years the ships of Tarshish would arrive bearing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.
22So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.
23All the kings of the earth sought an audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom that God had put in his heart.
24Year after year, each visitor would bring his tribute: articles of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules.
25Solomon had 4,000 stalls for horses and chariots, and 12,000 horses, which he stationed in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem.
26He reigned over all the kings from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt.
27The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as abundant as sycamore in the foothills.
28Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and from all the lands.
29As for the rest of the acts of Solomon, from beginning to end, are they not written in the Records of Nathan the Prophet, in the Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the Visions of Iddo the Seer concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat?
30Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years.
31And Solomon rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David. And his son Rehoboam reigned in his place.
II Chronicles 10
1Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king.
2When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about this, he returned from Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon.
3So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and all Israel came to Rehoboam and said,
4“Your father put a heavy yoke on us. But now you should lighten the burden of your father’s service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”
5Rehoboam answered, “Come back to me in three days.” So the people departed.
6Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How do you advise me to respond to these people?” he asked.
7They replied, “If you will be kind to these people and please them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”
8But Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders; instead, he consulted the young men who had grown up with him and served him.
9He asked them, “What message do you advise that we send back to these people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”
10The young men who had grown up with him replied, “This is how you should answer these people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you should make it lighter.’ This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist!
11Whereas my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.’”
12After three days, Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, since the king had said, “Come back to me on the third day.”
13And the king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders
14and spoke to them as the young men had advised, saying, “Whereas my father made your yoke heavy, I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.”
15So the king did not listen to the people, and indeed this turn of events was from God, in order that the LORD might fulfill the word that He had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.
16When all Israel saw that the king had refused to listen to them, they answered the king: “What portion do we have in David, and what inheritance in the son of Jesse? To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, O David!” So all the Israelites went home,
17but Rehoboam still reigned over the Israelites living in the cities of Judah.
18Then King Rehoboam sent out Hadoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. And King Rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste and escaped to Jerusalem.
19So to this day Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David.