Solomon’s works
1Solomon spent twenty years in building Yahweh’s House and his own palace. 2Then he rebuilt the towns that Huram had given him and settled Israelites in them. 3He went against Hamath of Zobah and conquered it: 4he built Tadmor in the wilderness and all the storing towns which he built in Hamath. 5He rebuilt Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon, fortified towns with walls and gates and bars, 6also Baalath and all the storing towns owned by Solomon, all the towns for his chariots and horses, and all it pleased Solomon to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and in all the countries subject to him. 7Solomon employed for forced labor all those who remained of the Hittite, Amorite, Perizzite, Hivite and Jebusite peoples, that is the non-Israelites 8whose descendants were left in the country and had not been killed by the Israelites. Their descendants continue to be slaves down to the present time. 9Upon the Israelites, however, Solomon did not impose slave labor; these served as fighting men; they were officers of his chariots and commanders of horsemen.
10Solomon appointed two hundred and fifty overseers to make all these people work.
11Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter from the City of David up to the house he had built for her. For he said, “I can’t let a woman live in the palace of David king of Israel; these are holy places where the ark of Yahweh has been.”
12Solomon then offered burnt offerings to Yahweh on Yahweh’s altar which he had built in front of the porch. 13Observing the daily rule for burnt offerings according to the requirements of Moses for sabbaths, New Moon and the three annual feasts: the feast of Unleavened Bread, the feast of Weeks and the feast of Tabernacles. 14He established the priestly orders in their duties according to the regulations of his father David. He also enforced the rules affecting the Levites who offered praise and served with the priests according to the daily ritual, and the different orders of gate keepers at each gate, for such had been the commandments of David, the man of God. 15They did not change anything of the royal ordinances applying to the priests and the Levites, not even in the matter of treasurership. 16In this way all of Solomon’s work was completed from the day when the foundations of Yahweh’s House were laid, until the end – and so... Yahweh’s House was finished.
17Then Solomon went as far as Ezion-geber and Elath on the shores of the sea, in the land of Edom. 18Huram sent him ships manned by his own men, who were experienced sailors. These men went with Solomon’s men to Ophir and from there they brought back almost sixteen tons of gold, which they delivered to King Solomon.
