2 Chronicles 2; 2 Chronicles 3; 2 Chronicles 4; 2 Chronicles 5; 2 Chronicles 6; 2 Chronicles 7; 2 Chronicles 8

2 Chronicles 2

1 And Solomon determined to build a house to the name of the Lord, and a palace for himself.

2 And he numbered out seventy thousand men to bear burdens, and eighty thousand to hew stones in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred to oversee them.

3 He sent also to Hiram king of Tyre, saying: As thou didst with David my father, and didst send him cedars, to build him a house, in which he dwelt:

4 So do with me that I may build a house to the name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to burn incense before him, and to perfume with aromatical spices, and for the continual setting forth of bread, and for the holocausts, morning and evening, and on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and the solemnities of the Lord our God for ever, which are commanded for Israel.

5 For the house which I desire to build, is great: for our God is great above all gods.

6 Who then can be able to build him a worthy house? if heaven, and the heavens of heavens cannot contain him: who am I that I should be able to build him a house? but to this end only, that incense may be burnt before him.

7 Send me therefore a skilful man, that knoweth how to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, and in iron, in purple, in scarlet and in blue, and that hath skill in engraving, with the artificers, which I have with me in Judea and Jerusalem, whom David my father provided.

8 Send me also cedars, and fir trees, and pine trees from Libanus: for I know that thy servants are skilful in cutting timber in Libanus, and my servants shall be with thy servants,

9 To provide me timber in abundance. For the house which I desire to build, is to be exceeding great, and glorious.

10 And I will give thy servants the workmen that are to cut down the trees, for their food twenty thousand cores of wheat, and as many cores of barley, and twenty thousand measures of wine, and twenty thousand measures of oil.

11 And Hiram king of Tyre sent a letter to Solomon, saying: Because the Lord hath loved his people, therefore he hath made thee king over them.

12 And he added, saying: Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who hath given to king David a wise and knowing son, endued with understanding and prudence, to build a house to the Lord, and a palace for himself.

13 I therefore have sent thee my father Hiram, a wise and most skilful man,

14 The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, whose father was a Tyrian, who knoweth how to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, and in iron, and in marble, and in timber, in purple also, and violet, and silk and scarlet: and who knoweth to grave all sort of graving, and to devise ingeniously all that there may be need of in the work with thy artificers, and with the artificers of my lord David thy father.

15 The wheat therefore, and the barley and the oil, and the wine, which thou, my lord, hast promised, send to thy servants.

16 And we will cut down as many trees out of Libanus, as thou shalt want, and will convey them in floats by sea to Joppe: and it will be thy part to bring them thence to Jerusalem.

17 And Solomon numbered all the proselytes in the land of Israel, after the numbering which David his father had made, and they were found a hundred and fifty-three thousand and six hundred.

18 And he set seventy thousand of them to carry burdens on their shoulders, and eighty thousand to hew stones in the mountains: and three thousand and six hundred to be overseers of the work of the people.

2 Chronicles 3

1 And Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, in mount Moria, which had been shewn to David his father, in the place which David had prepared in the thrashingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

2 And he began to build in the second month, in the fourth year of his reign.

3 Now these are the foundations, which Solomon laid, to build the house of God, the length by the first measure sixty cubits, the breadth twenty cubits.

4 And the porch in the front, which was extended in length according to the measure of the breadth of the house, twenty cubits: and the height was a hundred and twenty cubits: and he overlaid it within with pure gold.

5 And the greater house he ceiled with deal boards, and overlaid them with plates of fine gold throughout: and he graved in them palm trees, and like little chains interlaced with one another.

6 He paved also the floor of the temple with most precious marble, of great beauty.

7 And the gold of the plates with which he overlaid the house, and the beams thereof, and the posts, and the walls, and the doors was of the finest: and he graved cherubims on the walls.

8 He made also the house of the holy of holies: the length of it according to the breadth of the temple, twenty cubits, and the breadth of it in like manner twenty cubits: and he overlaid it with plates of gold, amounting to about six hundred talents.

9 He made also nails of gold, and the weight of every nail was fifty sicles: the upper chambers also he overlaid with gold.

10 He made also in the house of the holy of holies two cherubims of image work: and he overlaid them with gold.

11 The wings of the cherubims were extended twenty cubits, so that one wing was five cubits long, and reached to the wall of the house: and the other was also five cubits long, and reached to the wing of the other cherub.

12 In like manner the wing of the other cherub, was five cubits long, and reached to the wall: and his other wing was five cubits long, and touched the wing of the other cherub.

13 So the wings of the two cherubims were spread forth, and were extended twenty cubits: and they stood upright on their feet, and their faces were turned toward the house without.

14 He made also a veil of violet, purple, scarlet, and silk: and wrought in it cherubims.

15 He made also before the doors of the temple two pillars, which were five and thirty cubits high: and their chapiters were five cubits.

16 He made also as it were little chains in the oracle, and he put them on the heads of the pillars: and a hundred pomegranates, which he put between the little chains.

17 These pillars he put at the entrance of the temple, one on the right hand, and the other on the left: that which was on the right hand, he called Jachin: and that on the left hand, Booz.

2 Chronicles 4

1 He made also an altar of brass twenty cubits long, and twenty cubits broad, and ten cubits high.

2 Also a molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass: it was five cubits high, and a line of thirty cubits compassed it round about.

3 And under it there was the likeness of oxen, and certain engravings on the outside of ten cubits compassed the belly of the sea, as it were with two rows.

4 And the oxen were cast: and the sea itself was set upon the twelve oxen, three of which looked toward the north, and other three toward the west: and other three toward the south, and the other three that remained toward the east, and the sea stood upon them: and the hinder parts of the oxen were inward under the sea.

5 Now the thickness of it was a handbreadth, and the brim of it was like the brim of a cup, or of a crisped lily: and it held three thousand measures.

6 He made also ten lavers: and he set five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them all such things as they were to offer for holocausts: but the sea was for the priests to wash in.

7 And he made ten golden candlesticks, according to the form which they were commanded to be made by: and he set them in the temple, five on the right hand, and five on the left.

8 Moreover also ten tables: and he set them in the temple, five on the right side, and five on the left. Also a hundred bowls of gold.

9 He made also the court of the priests, and a great hall, and doors in the hall, which he covered with brass.

10 And he set the sea on the right side over against the east toward the south.

11 And Hiram made caldrons, and fleshhooks, and bowls: and finished all the king’s work the house of God:

12 That is to say, the two pillars, and the pommels, and the chapiters, and the network, to cover the chapiters over the pommels.

13 And four hundred pomegranates, and two wreaths of network, so that two rows of pomegranates were joined to each wreath, to cover the pommels, and the chapiters of the pillars.

14 He made also bases, and lavers, which he set upon the bases:

15 One sea, and twelve oxen under the sea;

16 And the caldrons, and fleshhooks, and bowls. All the vessels did Hiram his father make for Solomon in the house of the Lord of the finest brass.

17 In the country near the Jordan did the king cast them, in a clay ground between Sochot and Saredatha.

18 And the multitude of vessels was innumerable, so that the weight of the brass was not known.

19 And Solomon made all the vessels for the house of God, and the golden altar, and the tables, upon which were the loaves of proposition,

20 The candlesticks also of most pure gold with their lamps to give light before the oracle, according to the manner.

21 And certain flowers, and lamps, and golden tongs: all were made of the finest gold.

22 The vessels also for the perfumes, and the censers, and the bowls, and the mortars, of pure gold. And he graved the doors of the inner temple, that is, for the holy of holies: and the doors of the temple without were of gold. And thus all the work was finished which Solomon made in the house of the Lord.

2 Chronicles 5

1 Then Solomon brought in all those things that David his father had vowed, the silver, and the gold, and all the vessels he put among the treasures of the house of God.

2 And after this he gathered together the ancients of Israel and all the princes of the tribes, and the heads of the families, of the children of Israel to Jerusalem, to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Sion.

3 And all the men of Israel came to the king in the solemn day of the seventh month.

4 And when all the ancients of Israel were come, the Levites took up the ark,

5 And brought it in, together with all the furniture of the tabernacle. And the priests with the Levites carried the vessels of the sanctuary, which were in the tabernacle.

6 And king Solomon and all the assembly of Israel and all that were gathered together before the ark, sacrificed rams, and oxen without number: so great was the multitude of the victims.

7 And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord into its place, that is, to the oracle of the temple, into the holy of holies under the wings of the cherubims:

8 So that the cherubims spread their wings over the place, in which the ark was set, and covered the ark itself and its staves.

9 Now the ends of the staves wherewith the ark was carried, because they were some thing longer, were seen before the oracle: but if a man were a little outward, he could not see them. So the ark has been there unto this day.

10 And there was nothing else in the ark but the two tables which Moses put there at Horeb when the Lord gave the law to the children of Israel, at their coming out of Egypt.

11 Now when the priests were come out of the sanctuary, for all the priests that could be found there, were sanctified: and as yet at that time the courses and orders of the ministries were not divided among them,

12 Both the Levites and the singing men, that is, both they that were under Asaph, and they that were under Heman, and they that were under Idithun, with their sons, and their brethren, clothed with fine linen, sounded with cymbals, and psalteries, and harps, standing on the east side of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests, sounding with trumpets.

13 So when they all sounded together, both with trumpets, and voice, and cymbals, and organs, and with divers kind of musical instruments, and lifted up their voice on high: the sound was heard afar off, so that when they began to praise the Lord, and to say: Give glory to the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever: the house of God was filled with a cloud.

14 Nor could the priests stand and minister by reason of the cloud. For the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.

2 Chronicles 6

1 Then Solomon said: The Lord promised that he would dwell in a cloud.

2 But I have built a house to his name, that he might dwell there for ever.

3 And the king turned his face, and blessed all the multitude of Israel for all the multitude stood attentive and he said:

4 Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, who hath accomplished in deed that which he spoke to David my father, saying:

5 From the day that I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel, for a house to be built in it to my name: neither chose I any other man, to be the ruler of my people Israel.

6 But I chose Jerusalem, that my name might be there: and I chose David to set him over my people Israel.

7 And whereas David my father had a mind to build a house to the name of the Lord the God of Israel,

8 The Lord said to him: Forasmuch as it was thy will to build a house to my name, thou hast done well indeed in having such a will:

9 But thou shalt not build the house, but thy son, who shall come out of thy loins, he shall build a house to my name.

10 The Lord therefore hath accomplished his word which he spoke: and I am risen up in the place of David my father, and sit upon the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised: and have built a house to the name of the Lord God of Israel.

11 And I have put in it the ark, wherein is the covenant of the Lord, which he made with the children of Israel.

12 And he stood before the altar of the Lord, in presence of all the multitude of Israel, and stretched forth his hands.

13 For Solomon had made a brazen scaffold, and had set it in the midst of the temple, which was five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high: and he stood upon it: then kneeling down in the presence of all the multitude of Israel, and lifting up his hands towards heaven,

14 He said: O Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee in heaven nor in earth: who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants, that walk before thee with all their hearts:

15 Who hast performed to thy servant David my father all that thou hast promised him: and hast accomplished in fact, what thou hast spoken with thy mouth, as also the present time proveth.

16 Now then, O Lord God of Israel, fulfil to thy servant David my father, whatsoever thou hast promised him, saying: There shall not fail thee a man in my sight, to sit upon the throne of Israel: yet so that thy children take heed to their ways, and walk in my law, as thou hast walked before me.

17 And now, Lord God of Israel, let thy word be established which thou hast spoken to thy servant David.

18 Is it credible then that God should dwell with men on the earth? If heaven and the heavens of heavens do not contain thee, how much less this house, which I have built?

19 But to this end only it is made, that thou mayest regard the prayer of thy servant and his supplication, O Lord my God: and mayest hear the prayers which thy servant poureth out before thee.

20 That thou mayest open thy eyes upon this house day and night, upon the place wherein thou hast promised that thy name should be called upon,

21 And that thou wouldst hear the prayer which thy servant prayeth in it: hearken then to the prayers of thy servant, and of thy people Israel. Whosoever shall pray in its place, hear thou from thy dwelling place, that is, from heaven, and shew mercy.

22 If any man sin against his neighbour, and come to swear against him, and bind himself with a curse before the altar in this house:

23 Then hear thou from heaven, and do justice to thy servants, so to requite the wicked by making his wickedness fall upon his own head, and to revenge the just, rewarding him according to his justice.

24 If thy people Israel be overcome by their enemies, (for they will sin against thee,) and being converted shall do penance, and call upon thy name, and pray to thee in this place,

25 Then hear thou from heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel and bring them back into the land which thou gavest to them, and their fathers.

26 If the heavens be shut up, and there fall no rain by reason of the sin of the people, and they shall pray to thee in this place, and confess to thy name, and be converted from their sins, where thou dost afflict them,

27 Then hear thou from heaven, O Lord, and forgive the sins of thy servants and of thy people Israel and teach them the good way in which they may walk: and give rain to thy land which thou hast given to thy people to possess.

28 If a famine arise in the land, or a pestilence or blasting, or mildew, or locusts, or caterpillars: or if their enemies waste the country, and besiege the cities, whatsoever scourge or infirmity shall be upon them:

29 Then if any of thy people Israel, knowing his own scourge and infirmity shall pray, and shall spread forth his hands in this house,

30 Hear thou from heaven, from thy high dwelling place, and forgive, and render to every one according to his ways, which thou knowest him to have in his heart: for thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men:

31 That they may fear thee, and walk in thy ways all the days that they live upon the face of the land, which thou hast given to our fathers.

32 If the stranger also, who is not of thy people Israel, come from a far country, for the sake of thy great name, and thy strong hand, and thy stretched out arm, and adore in this place:

33 Hear thou from heaven thy firm dwelling place, and do all that which that stranger shall call upon thee for: that all the people of the earth may know thy name, and may fear thee, as thy people Israel, and may know, that thy name is invoked upon this house, which I have built.

34 If thy people go out to war against their enemies, by the way that thou shalt send them, and adore thee towards the way of this city, which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built to thy name:

35 Then hear thou from heaven their prayers, and their supplications, and revenge them.

36 And if they sin against thee (for there is no man that sinneth not) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them up to their enemies, and they lead them away captive to a land either afar off, or near at hand,

37 And if they be converted in their heart in the land to which they were led captive, and do penance, and pray to thee in the land of their captivity saying: We have sinned, we have done wickedly, we have dealt unjustly:

38 And return to thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their captivity, to which they were led away, and adore thee towards the way of their own land which thou gavest their fathers, and of the city, which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built to thy name:

39 Then hear thou from heaven, that is, from thy firm dwelling place, their prayers, and do judgment, and forgive thy people, although they have sinned:

40 For thou art my God: let thy eyes, I beseech thee, be open, and let thy ears be attentive to the prayer, that is made in this place.

41 Now therefore arise, O Lord God, into thy resting place, thou and the ark of thy strength: let thy priests, O Lord God, put on salvation, and thy saints rejoice in good things.

42 O Lord God, turn not away the face of thy anointed: remember the mercies of David thy servant.

2 Chronicles 7

1 And when Solomon had made an end of his prayer, fire came down from heaven, and consumed the holocausts and the victims: and the majesty of the Lord filled the house.

2 Neither could the priests enter into the temple of the Lord, because the majesty of the Lord had filled the temple of the Lord.

3 Moreover all the children of Israel saw the fire coming down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house: and falling down with their faces to the ground, upon the stone pavement, they adored and praised the Lord: because he is good, because his mercy endureth for ever.

4 And the king and all the people sacrificed victims before the Lord.

5 And king Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand oxen, and one hundred and twenty thousand rams: and the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

6 And the priests stood in their offices: and the Levites with the instruments of music of the Lord, which king David made to praise the Lord: because his mercy endureth for ever, singing the hymns of David by their ministry: and the priests sounded with trumpets before them, and all Israel stood.

7 Solomon also sanctified the middle of the court before the temple of the Lord: for he offered there the holocausts, and the fat of the peace offerings: because the brazen altar, which he had made, could not hold the holocausts and the sacrifices and the fat:

8 And Solomon kept the solemnity at that time seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from the entrance of Emath to the torrent of Egypt.

9 And he made on the eighth day a solemn assembly, because he had kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and had celebrated the solemnity seven days.

10 So on the three and twentieth day of the seventh month he sent away the people to their dwellings, joyful and glad for the good that the Lord had done to David, and to Solomon, and to all Israel his people.

11 And Solomon finished the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and all that he had designed in his heart to do, in the house of the Lord, and in his own house, and he prospered.

12 And the Lord appeared to him by night, and said: I have heard thy prayer, and I have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice.

13 If I shut up heaven, and there fall no rain, or if I give orders, and command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people:

14 And my people, upon whom my name is called, being converted, shall make supplication to me, and seek out my face, and do penance for their most wicked ways: then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins and will heal their land.

15 My eyes also shall be open, and my ears attentive to the prayer of him that shall pray in this place.

16 For I have chosen, and have sanctified this place, that my name may be there for ever, and my eyes and my heart may remain there perpetually.

17 And as for thee, if thou walk before me, as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded thee, and keep my justices and my judgments:

18 I will raise up the throne of thy kingdom, as I promised to David thy father, saying: There shall not fail thee a man of thy stock to be ruler in Israel.

19 But if you turn away, and forsake my justices, and my commandments which I have set before you, and shall go and serve strange gods, and adore them,

20 I will pluck you up by the root out of my land which I have given you: and this house which I have sanctified to my name, I will cast away from before my face, and will make it a byword, and an example among all nations.

21 And this house shall be for a proverb to all that pass by, and they shall be astonished and say: Why hath the Lord done thus to this land, and to this house?

22 And they shall answer: Because they forsook the Lord the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on strange gods, and adored them, and worshipped them: therefore all these evils are come upon them.

2 Chronicles 8

1 And at the end of twenty years after Solomon had built the house of the Lord and his own house:

2 He built the cities which Hiram had given to Solomon, and caused the children of Israel to dwell there.

3 He went also into Emath Suba, and possessed it.

4 And he built Palmira in the desert, and he built other strong cities in Emath.

5 And he built Beth-horon the upper, and Beth-horon the nether, walled cities with gates and bars and locks.

6 Balaath also and all the strong cities that were Solomon’s, and all the cities of the chariots, and the cities of the horsemen. All that Solomon had a mind, and designed, he built in Jerusalem and in Libanus, and in all the land of his dominion.

7 All the people that were left of the Hethites, and the Amorrhites, and the Pherezites, and the Hevites, and the Jebusites, that were not of the stock of Israel:

8 Of their children, and of the posterity, whom the children of Israel had not slain, Solomon made to be the tributaries, unto this day.

9 But of the children of Israel he set none to serve in the king’s works: for they were men of war, and chief captains, and rulers of his chariots and horsemen.

10 And all the chief captains of king Solomon’s army were two hundred and fifty, who taught the people.

11 And he removed the daughter of Pharao from the city of David, to the house which he had built for her. For the king said: My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, for it is sanctified: because the ark of the Lord came into it.

12 Then Solomon offered holocausts to the Lord upon the altar of the Lord which he had built before the porch,

13 That every day an offering might be made on it according to the ordinance of Moses, in the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the festival days three times a year, that is to say, in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles.

14 And he appointed according to the order of David his father the offices of the priests in their ministries: and the Levites in their order to give praise, and minister before the priests according to the duty of every day: and the porters in their divisions by gate and gate: for so David the man of God had commanded.

15 And the priests and Levites departed not from the king’s commandments, as to any thing that he had commanded, and as to the keeping of the treasures.

16 Solomon had all charges prepared, from the day that he founded the house of the Lord, until the day wherein he finished it.

17 Then Solomon went to Asiongaber, and to Ailath, on the coast of the Red Sea, which is in the land of Edom.

18 And Hiram sent him ships by the hands of his servants, and skilful mariners, and they went with Solomon’s servants to Ophir, and they took thence four hundred and fifty talents of gold, and brought it to king Solomon.