Solomon’s Additional Achievements

(2 Chronicles 8:1–18)

10 Now at the end of the twenty years during which Solomon built these two houses, the house of the LORD and the royal palace, 11 King Solomon gave twenty towns in the land of Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, who had supplied him with cedar and cypress [fn] logs and gold for his every desire. 12 So Hiram went out from Tyre to inspect the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them.

13 “What are these towns you have given me, my brother?” asked Hiram, and he called them the Land of Cabul,[fn] as they are called to this day.

14 And Hiram had sent the king 120 talents of gold.[fn]

15 This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon imposed to build the house of the LORD, his own palace, the supporting terraces,[fn] and the wall of Jerusalem, as well as Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

16 Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and given it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. 17 So Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth-horon, 18 Baalath, and Tamar [fn] in the Wilderness of Judah,[fn] 19 as well as all the store cities that Solomon had for his chariots and horses [fn]—whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout the land of his dominion.

20 As for all the people who remained of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites (the people who were not Israelites)—21 their descendants who remained in the land, those whom the Israelites were unable to devote to destruction [fn]—Solomon conscripted these people to be forced laborers, as they are to this day.

22 But Solomon did not consign any of the Israelites to slavery, because they were his men of war, his servants, his officers, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and cavalry. 23 They were also the chief officers over Solomon’s projects: 550 supervisors over the people who did the work.

24 As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace that Solomon had built for her, he built the supporting terraces.

25 Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he had built for the LORD, burning incense with them before the LORD. So he completed the temple.

26 King Solomon also assembled a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth [fn] in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea.[fn] 27 And Hiram sent his servants, men who knew the sea, to serve in the fleet with Solomon’s servants. 28 They sailed to Ophir and imported gold from there—420 talents [fn]—and delivered it to Solomon.