1 Kings 9:10-20

10 It took Solomon twenty years to build the LORD ’s Temple and his own royal palace. At the end of that time,

11 he gave twenty towns in the land of Galilee to King Hiram of Tyre. (Hiram had previously provided all the cedar and cypress timber and gold that Solomon had requested.)

12 But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the towns Solomon had given him, he was not at all pleased with them.

13 “What kind of towns are these, my brother?” he asked. So Hiram called that area Cabul (which means “worthless”), as it is still known today.

14 Nevertheless, Hiram paid Solomon 9,000 pounds of gold.

15 This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon conscripted to build the LORD ’s Temple, the royal palace, the supporting terraces, the wall of Jerusalem, and the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

16 (Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had attacked and captured Gezer, killing the Canaanite population and burning it down. He gave the city to his daughter as a wedding gift when she married Solomon.

17 So Solomon rebuilt the city of Gezer.) He also built up the towns of Lower Beth-horon,

18 Baalath, and Tamar in the wilderness within his land.

19 He built towns as supply centers and constructed towns where his chariots and horses could be stationed. He built everything he desired in Jerusalem and Lebanon and throughout his entire realm.

20 There were still some people living in the land who were not Israelites, including Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or For Hiram had paid.
• [b]. Hebrew 120 talents [4,000 kilograms].
• [c]. Hebrew the millo; also in 9:24 . The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
• [d]. An alternate reading in the Masoretic Text reads Tadmor.
• [e]. Or and charioteers.