1 Kings 9:10-20

10 It took Solomon 20 years to build the two houses (the LORD's house and the royal palace).

11 [When King Solomon had finished,] he gave King Hiram of Tyre 20 cities in Galilee. (Hiram had supplied Solomon with as much cedar and cypress lumber and gold as he wanted.)

12 Hiram left Tyre to see the cities Solomon gave him. However, they didn't please him.

13 "What kind of cities have you given me, brother?" he asked. So he named it the region of Cabul [Good for Nothing]. ([They're] still [called] that today.)

14 Hiram had sent the king 9,000 pounds of gold.

15 This is the record of the forced laborers whom King Solomon drafted to build the LORD's house, his own house, the Millo, the walls of Jerusalem, and [the cities of] Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

16 (The king of Egypt captured Gezer, burned it down, and killed the Canaanites living there. Then he gave it to his daughter, Solomon's wife, as a wedding present.)

17 So Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth Horon,

18 Baalath, Tadmor in the desert (inside the country), and

19 all the storage cities that he owned. He also built cities for his chariots, cities for his war horses, and whatever [else] he wanted to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, or the entire territory that he governed.

20 The Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites had been left [in the land] because the Israelites had not been able to claim them for God by destroying them. They were not Israelites,

1 Kings 9:10-20 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.