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2 Chronicles
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Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom, and
Yahweh his God was with him,
and magnified him exceedingly.
Solomon spoke to all Israel, to the captains of thousands and of
hundreds, and to the judges, and to every prince in all Israel,
the heads of the fathers’ houses.
So Solomon, and all the assembly with him, went to the high
place that was at Gibeon; for there was the Tent of Meeting of
God, which Moses the servant of Yahweh had made in the
wilderness.
But David had brought the ark of God up from Kiriath Jearim to
the place that David had prepared for it; for he had pitched a
tent for it at Jerusalem.
Moreover the bronze altar, that Bezalel the son of Uri, the son
of Hur, had made, was there before the tabernacle of Yahweh: and
Solomon and the assembly were seeking counsel there.
Solomon went up there to the bronze altar before Yahweh, which
was at the Tent of Meeting, and offered one thousand burnt
offerings on it.
In that night God appeared to Solomon, and said to him, “Ask
what I shall give you.”
Solomon said to God, “You have shown great loving kindness to
David my father, and have made me king in his place.
Now, Yahweh God, let your promise to David my father be
established; for you have made me king over a people like the
dust of the earth in multitude.
Now give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in
before this people; for who can judge this your people, that is
so great?”
God said to Solomon, “Because this was in your heart, and you
have not asked riches, wealth, or honor, nor the life of those
who hate you, neither yet have asked long life; but have asked
wisdom and knowledge for yourself, that you may judge my people,
over whom I have made you king:
wisdom and knowledge is granted to you. I will give you riches,
wealth, and honor, such as none of the kings have had who have
been before you; neither shall there any after you have the
like.”
So Solomon came from the high place that was at Gibeon, from
before the Tent of Meeting, to Jerusalem; and he reigned over
Israel.
Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen: and he had one thousand
four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, that he
placed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem.
The king made silver and gold to be in Jerusalem as stones, and
cedars made he to be as the sycamore trees that are in the
lowland, for abundance.
The horses which Solomon had were brought out of Egypt and from
Kue; the king’s merchants purchased them from Kue.
They brought up and brought out of Egypt a chariot for six
hundred pieces of silver, and a horse for one hundred fifty: and
so for all the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of Syria,
did they bring them out by their means.
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1:1 “Yahweh” is
God’s proper Name, sometimes rendered “LORD” (all caps) in other
translations.
1:1 The Hebrew word rendered
“God” is “Elohim.”
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2 Chronicles 2 |
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Now Solomon purposed to build a house for the name of Yahweh,
and a house for his kingdom.
Solomon counted out seventy thousand men to bear burdens, and
eighty thousand men who were stone cutters in the mountains, and
three thousand and six hundred to oversee them.
Solomon sent to Huram the king of Tyre, saying, “As you dealt
with David my father, and sent him cedars to build him a house
in which to dwell, even so deal with me.
Behold, I am about to build a house for the name of Yahweh my
God, to dedicate it to him, and to burn before him incense of
sweet spices, and for the continual show bread, and for the
burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths, and on the
new moons, and on the set feasts of Yahweh our God. This is an
ordinance forever to Israel.
“The house which I build is great; for our God is great above
all gods.
But who is able to build him a house, since heaven and the
heaven of heavens can’t contain him? who am I then, that I
should build him a house, except just to burn incense before
him?
“Now therefore send me a man skillful to work in gold, and in
silver, and in brass, and in iron, and in purple, and crimson,
and blue, and who knows how to engrave all kinds of engravings,
to be with the skillful men who are with me in Judah and in
Jerusalem, whom David my father did provide.
“Send me also cedar trees, fir trees, and algum trees, out of
Lebanon; for I know that your servants know how to cut timber in
Lebanon: and behold, my servants shall be with your servants,
even to prepare me timber in abundance; for the house which I am
about to build shall be great and wonderful.
Behold, I will give to your servants, the cutters who cut
timber, twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, and twenty
thousand measures of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine,
and twenty thousand baths of oil.”
Then Huram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent
to Solomon, “Because Yahweh loves his people, he has made you
king over them.”
Huram continued, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, that
made heaven and earth, who has given to David the king a wise
son, endowed with discretion and understanding, that should
build a house for Yahweh, and a house for his kingdom.
Now I have sent a skillful man, endowed with understanding, of
Huram my father’s,
the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan; and his father was a
man of Tyre, skillful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass,
in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in
fine linen, and in crimson, also to engrave any kind of
engraving, and to devise any device; that there may be a place
appointed to him with your skillful men, and with the skillful
men of my lord David your father.
“Now therefore the wheat and the barley, the oil and the wine,
which my lord has spoken of, let him send to his servants:
and we will cut wood out of Lebanon, as much as you shall need;
and we will bring it to you in floats by sea to Joppa; and you
shall carry it up to Jerusalem.”
Solomon numbered all the foreigners who were in the land of
Israel, after the numbering with which David his father had
numbered them; and they were found one hundred fifty-three
thousand six hundred.
He set seventy thousand of them to bear burdens, and eighty
thousand who were stone cutters in the mountains, and three
thousand six hundred overseers to set the people at work.
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2 Chronicles 3 |
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Then Solomon began to build the house of Yahweh at Jerusalem
on Mount Moriah, where Yahweh appeared to David his father,
which he prepared in the place that David had appointed, in the
threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
He began to build in the second day of the second month, in the
fourth year of his reign.
Now these are the foundations which Solomon laid for the
building of the house of God. The length by cubits after the
first measure was sixty cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits.
The porch that was before the house, its length, according to
the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits, and the height one
hundred twenty; and he overlaid it within with pure gold.
The greater house he made a ceiling with fir wood, which he
overlaid with fine gold, and ornamented it with palm trees and
chains.
He garnished the house with precious stones for beauty: and the
gold was gold of Parvaim.
He overlaid also the house, the beams, the thresholds, and its
walls, and its doors, with gold; and engraved cherubim on the
walls.
He made the most holy house: its length, according to the
breadth of the house, was twenty cubits, and its breadth twenty
cubits; and he overlaid it with fine gold, amounting to six
hundred talents.
The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. He overlaid
the upper rooms with gold.
In the most holy house he made two cherubim of image work; and
they overlaid them with gold.
The wings of the cherubim were twenty cubits long: the wing of
the one cherub was five cubits, reaching to the wall of the
house; and the other wing was likewise five cubits, reaching to
the wing of the other cherub.
The wing of the other cherub was five cubits, reaching to the
wall of the house; and the other wing was five cubits also,
joining to the wing of the other cherub.
The wings of these cherubim spread themselves forth twenty
cubits: and they stood on their feet, and their faces were
toward the house.
He made the veil of blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine
linen, and ornamented it with cherubim.
Also he made before the house two pillars of thirty-five cubits
high, and the capital that was on the top of each of them was
five cubits.
He made chains in the oracle, and put them on the tops of the
pillars; and he made one hundred pomegranates, and put them on
the chains.
He set up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand,
and the other on the left; and called the name of that on the
right hand Jachin, and the name of that on the left Boaz. |
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2 Chronicles 4 |
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Then he made an altar of brass, twenty cubits its length, and
twenty cubits its breadth, and ten cubits its height.
Also he made the molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim,
round in compass; and its height was five cubits; and a line of
thirty cubits encircled it.
Under it was the likeness of oxen, which encircled it, for ten
cubits, encircling the sea. The oxen were in two rows, cast when
it was cast.
It stood on twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and
three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the
south, and three looking toward the east: and the sea was set on
them above, and all their hinder parts were inward.
It was a handbreadth thick; and its brim was worked like the
brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it received and held
three thousand baths.
He made also ten basins, and put five on the right hand, and
five on the left, to wash in them; such things as belonged to
the burnt offering they washed in them; but the sea was for the
priests to wash in.
He made the ten lampstands of gold according to the ordinance
concerning them; and he set them in the temple, five on the
right hand, and five on the left.
He made also ten tables, and placed them in the temple, five on
the right side, and five on the left. He made one hundred basins
of gold.
Furthermore he made the court of the priests, and the great
court, and doors for the court, and overlaid the doors of them
with brass.
He set the sea on the right side of the house eastward, toward
the south.
Huram made the pots, and the shovels, and the basins. So Huram
made an end of doing the work that he did for king Solomon in
the house of God:
the two pillars, and the bowls, and the two capitals which were
on the top of the pillars, and the two networks to cover the two
bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars,
and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks; two rows
of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the
capitals that were on the pillars.
He made also the bases, and the basins made he on the bases;
one sea, and the twelve oxen under it.
The pots also, and the shovels, and the forks, and all its
vessels, did Huram his father make for king Solomon for the
house of Yahweh of bright brass.
In the plain of the Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay
ground between Succoth and Zeredah.
Thus Solomon made all these vessels in great abundance: for the
weight of the brass could not be found out.
Solomon made all the vessels that were in the house of God, the
golden altar also, and the tables with the show bread on them;
and the lampstands with their lamps, to burn according to the
ordinance before the oracle, of pure gold;
and the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs, of gold, and that
perfect gold;
and the snuffers, and the basins, and the spoons, and the fire
pans, of pure gold: and as for the entry of the house, the inner
doors of it for the most holy place, and the doors of the main
hall of the temple were of gold. |
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2 Chronicles 5 |
Thus all the work that Solomon did for the house of Yahweh was
finished. Solomon brought in the things that David his father
had dedicated, even the silver, and the gold, and all the
vessels, and put them in the treasuries of the house of God.
Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads
of the tribes, the princes of the fathers’ houses of the
children of Israel, to Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the
covenant of Yahweh out of the city of David, which is Zion.
And all the men of Israel assembled themselves to the king at
the feast, which was in the seventh month.
All the elders of Israel came: and the Levites took up the ark;
and they brought up the ark, and the Tent of Meeting, and all
the holy vessels that were in the Tent; these did the priests
the Levites bring up.
King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, that were
assembled to him, were before the ark, sacrificing sheep and
cattle, that could not be counted nor numbered for multitude.
The priests brought in the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to its
place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place,
even under the wings of the cherubim.
For the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the
ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its poles above.
The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from
the ark before the oracle; but they were not seen outside: and
there it is to this day.
There was nothing in the ark except the two tables which Moses
put there at Horeb, when Yahweh made a covenant with the
children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt.
It happened, when the priests were come out of the holy place,
(for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves,
and did not keep their divisions;
also the Levites who were the singers, all of them, even Asaph,
Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and their brothers, arrayed in
fine linen, with cymbals and stringed instruments and harps,
stood at the east end of the altar, and with them one hundred
twenty priests sounding with trumpets;)
it happened, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to
make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking Yahweh; and
when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals
and instruments of music, and praised Yahweh, saying,
- “For he is good;
- for his loving kindness endures forever!”
that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of
Yahweh,
so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the
cloud: for the glory of Yahweh filled the house of God.
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