8
Everyone passing by this temple, as impressive as it is, will be appalled. They will gasp and ask, 'Why did the LORD do these things to this land and this temple?'
9
They will answer [themselves], 'They abandoned the LORD their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt. They adopted other gods, worshiped, and served them. That is why the LORD brought this disaster on them.'"
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