1 Kings 9:1-13

The Lord's Response

1 When Solomon finished building the temple of the Lord, the royal palace, and all that Solomon desired to do,

2 the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time just as He had appeared to him at Gibeon.^[a]

3 The Lord said to him: I have heard your prayer and petition you have made before Me. I have consecrated this temple you have built, to put My name there forever; My eyes and My heart will be there at all times.

4 As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances,

5 I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David: You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.

6 If you or your sons turn away from following Me and do not keep My commands-My statutes that I have set before you-and if you go and serve other gods and worship them,

7 I will cut off Israel from the land I gave them, and I will reject^[b] the temple I have sanctified for My name. Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.

8 Though this temple is [now] exalted,^[c] every passerby will be appalled and will hiss. They will say: Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?

9 Then they will say: Because they abandoned the Lord their God who brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt. They clung to other gods and worshiped and served them. Because of this, the Lord brought all this ruin on them.^[d]

King Hiram's 20 Towns

10 At the end of 20 years during which Solomon had built the two houses, the Lord's temple and the royal palace^[e]-

11 Hiram king of Tyre having supplied him with cedar and cypress logs and gold for his every wish-King Solomon gave Hiram 20 towns in the land of Galilee.

12 So Hiram went out from Tyre to look over the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them.

13 So he said, "What are these towns you've given me, my brother?" So he called them the Land of Cabul,^[f] as they are [still called] today.

1 Kings 9:1-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 9

This chapter relates a second vision Solomon had at Gibeon, in which he received an answer to his prayer in the preceding chapter, 1Ki 9:1-9 that passed between him and Hiram king of Tyre, 1Ki 9:10-14, the places that Solomon built or repaired, 1Ki 9:15-19, the Canaanitish people that became bondmen to him, and the officers he had among the children of Israel, 1Ki 9:20-23 the removal of Pharaoh's daughter to the house built for her, 1Ki 9:24. Solomon's attention to religious services, 1Ki 9:25 and the navy of ships he employed, which brought him in great riches, 1Ki 9:26-28.

Footnotes

• [a]. 1 Kg 3:5
• [b]. Lit send from My presence
• [c]. Some ancient versions read temple will become a ruin
• [d]. 2 Ch 7:11-22
• [e]. 2 Ch 8:1
• [f]. Like Nothing