2 Chronicles 7

• 1. When Solomon finished praying, fire flashed down from heaven and burned up the burnt offerings and sacrifices, and the glorious presence of the LORD filled the Temple.
• 2. The priests could not even enter the Temple of the LORD because the glorious presence of the LORD filled it.
• 3. When all the people of Israel saw the fire coming down and the glorious presence of the LORD filling the Temple, they fell face down on the ground and worshiped and praised the LORD, saying, "He is so good! His faithful love endures forever!"
• 4. Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices to the LORD.
• 5. King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. And so the king and all the people dedicated the Temple of God.
• 6. The priests took their assigned positions, and so did the Levites who were singing, "His faithful love endures forever!" They accompanied the singing with music from the instruments King David had made for praising the LORD. On the other side of the Levites, the priests blew the trumpets, while all Israel stood.
• 7. Solomon then dedicated the central area of the courtyard in front of the LORD's Temple so they could present burnt offerings and the fat from peace offerings there. He did this because the bronze altar he had built could not handle all the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and sacrificial fat.
• 8. For the next seven days they celebrated the Festival of Shelters with huge crowds gathered from all the tribes of Israel. They came from as far away as Lebo-hamath in the north, to the brook of Egypt in the south.
• 9. On the eighth day they had a closing ceremony, for they had celebrated the dedication of the altar for seven days and the Festival of Shelters for seven days.
• 10. Then at the end of the celebration, Solomon sent the people home. They were all joyful and happy because the LORD had been so good to David and Solomon and to his people Israel.
• 11. So Solomon finished building the Temple of the LORD, as well as the royal palace. He completed everything he had planned to do.
• 12. Then one night the LORD appeared to Solomon and said, "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this Temple as the place for making sacrifices.
• 13. At times I might shut up the heavens so that no rain falls, or I might command locusts to devour your crops, or I might send plagues among you.
• 14. Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.
• 15. I will listen to every prayer made in this place,
• 16. for I have chosen this Temple and set it apart to be my home forever. My eyes and my heart will always be here.
• 17. "As for you, if you follow me as your father, David, did and obey all my commands, laws, and regulations,
• 18. then I will not let anyone take away your throne. This is the same promise I gave your father, David, when I said, `You will never fail to have a successor who rules over Israel.'
• 19. "But if you abandon me and disobey the laws and commands I have given you, and if you go and worship other gods,
• 20. then I will uproot the people of Israel from this land of mine that I have given them. I will reject this Temple that I have set apart to honor my name. I will make it a spectacle of contempt among the nations.
• 21. And though this Temple is impressive now, it will become an appalling sight to all who pass by. They will ask, `Why has the LORD done such terrible things to his land and to his Temple?'
• 22. And the answer will be, `Because his people abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and they worshiped other gods instead. That is why he brought all these disasters upon them.'"

2 Chronicles 8

• 1. It was now twenty years since Solomon had become king, and the great building projects of the LORD's Temple and his own royal palace were completed.
• 2. Solomon now turned his attention to rebuilding the towns that King Hiram had given him, and he settled Israelites in them.
• 3. It was at this time, too, that Solomon fought against the city of Hamath-zobah and conquered it.
• 4. He rebuilt Tadmor in the desert and built towns in the region of Hamath as supply centers.
• 5. He fortified the cities of Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon, rebuilding their walls and installing barred gates.
• 6. He also rebuilt Baalath and other supply centers at this time and constructed cities where his chariots and horses could be kept. He built to his heart's content in Jerusalem and Lebanon and throughout the entire realm.
• 7. There were still some people living in the land who were not Israelites, including Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
• 8. These were descendants of the nations that Israel had not completely destroyed. So Solomon conscripted them for his labor force, and they serve in the labor force to this day.
• 9. But Solomon did not conscript any of the Israelites for forced labor. Instead, he assigned them to serve as fighting men, officers in his army, commanders of his chariots, and charioteers.
• 10. King Solomon also appointed 250 of them to supervise the various projects.
• 11. Solomon moved his wife, Pharaoh's daughter, from the City of David to the new palace he had built for her. He said, "My wife must not live in King David's palace, for the Ark of the LORD has been there, and it is holy ground."
• 12. Then Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar he had built in front of the foyer of the Temple.
• 13. The number of sacrifices varied from day to day according to the commands Moses had given. Extra sacrifices were offered on the Sabbaths, on new moon festivals, and at the three annual festivals--the Passover celebration, the Festival of Harvest, and the Festival of Shelters.
• 14. In assigning the priests to their duties, Solomon followed the regulations of his father, David. He also assigned the Levites to lead the people in praise and to assist the priests in their daily duties. And he assigned the gatekeepers to their gates by their divisions, following the commands of David, the man of God.
• 15. Solomon did not deviate in any way from David's commands concerning the priests and Levites and the treasuries.
• 16. So Solomon made sure that all the work related to building the Temple of the LORD was carried out, from the day its foundation was laid to the day of its completion.
• 17. Later Solomon went to Ezion-geber and Elath, ports in the land of Edom, along the shore of the Red Sea.
• 18. Hiram sent him ships commanded by his own officers and manned by experienced crews of sailors. These ships sailed to the land of Ophir with Solomon's men and brought back to Solomon almost seventeen tons of gold.

2 Chronicles 9

• 1. When the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon's reputation, she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions. She arrived with a large group of attendants and a great caravan of camels loaded with spices, huge quantities of gold, and precious jewels.
• 2. When she met with Solomon, they talked about everything she had on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for him to explain to her.
• 3. When the queen of Sheba realized how wise Solomon was, and when she saw the palace he had built,
• 4. she was breathless. She was also amazed at the food on his tables, the organization of his officials and their splendid clothing, the cup-bearers and their robes, and the burnt offerings Solomon made at the Temple of the LORD.
• 5. She exclaimed to the king, "Everything I heard in my country about your achievements and wisdom is true!
• 6. I didn't believe it until I arrived here and saw it with my own eyes. Truly I had not heard the half of it! Your wisdom is far greater than what I was told.
• 7. How happy these people must be! What a privilege for your officials to stand here day after day, listening to your wisdom!
• 8. The LORD your God is great indeed! He delights in you and has placed you on the throne to rule for him. Because God loves Israel so much and desires this kingdom to last forever, he has made you king so you can rule with justice and righteousness."
• 9. Then she gave the king a gift of nine thousand pounds of gold, and great quantities of spices and precious jewels. Never before had there been spices as fine as those the queen of Sheba gave to Solomon.
• 10. (When the crews of Hiram and Solomon brought gold from Ophir, they also brought rich cargoes of almug wood and precious jewels.
• 11. The king used the almug wood to make steps for the Temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and to construct harps and lyres for the musicians. Never before had there been such beautiful instruments in Judah.)
• 12. King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba whatever she asked for--gifts of greater value than the gifts she had given him. Then she and all her attendants left and returned to their own land.
• 13. Each year Solomon received about 25 tons of gold.
• 14. This did not include the additional revenue he received from merchants and traders. All the kings of Arabia and the governors of the land also brought gold and silver to Solomon.
• 15. King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold, each containing over 15 pounds of gold.
• 16. He also made three hundred smaller shields of hammered gold, each containing about 7 1/2 pounds of gold. The king placed these shields in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.
• 17. Then the king made a huge ivory throne and overlaid it with pure gold.
• 18. The throne had six steps, and there was a footstool of gold attached to it. On both sides of the seat were armrests, with the figure of a lion standing on each side of the throne.
• 19. Solomon made twelve other lion figures, one standing on each end of each of the six steps. No other throne in all the world could be compared with it!
• 20. All of King Solomon's drinking cups were solid gold, as were all the utensils in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon. They were not made of silver because silver was considered of little value in Solomon's day!
• 21. The king had a fleet of trading ships manned by the sailors sent by Hiram. Once every three years the ships returned, loaded down with gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.
• 22. So King Solomon became richer and wiser than any other king in all the earth.
• 23. Kings from every nation came to visit him and to hear the wisdom God had given him.
• 24. Year after year, everyone who came to visit brought him gifts of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules.
• 25. Solomon had four thousand stalls for his chariot horses and twelve thousand horses. He stationed many of them in the chariot cities, and some near him in Jerusalem.
• 26. He ruled over all the kings from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines and the border of Egypt.
• 27. The king made silver as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones. And valuable cedarwood was as common as the sycamore wood that grows in the foothills of Judah.
• 28. Solomon's horses were imported from Egypt and many other countries.
• 29. The rest of the events of Solomon's reign, from beginning to end, are recorded in The Record of Nathan the Prophet and in The Prophecy of Ahijah from Shiloh, and also in The Visions of Iddo the Seer, concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat.
• 30. Solomon ruled in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years.
• 31. When he died, he was buried in the city of his father, David. Then his son Rehoboam became the next king.

New Living Translation: 130 of 324 days.