Solomon

Solomon offered sacrifices there before the LORD on the bronze altar in the Tent of Meeting, where he offered a thousand burnt offerings.

That night God appeared to Solomon and said, “Ask, and I will give it to you!”

Solomon replied to God: “You have shown much loving devotion to my father David, and You have made me king in his place.

God said to Solomon, “Since this was in your heart instead of requesting riches or wealth or glory for yourself or death for your enemies—and since you have not even requested long life but have asked for wisdom and knowledge to govern My people over whom I have made you king—

So Solomon went to Jerusalem from the high place in Gibeon before the Tent of Meeting, and he reigned over Israel.

Solomon accumulated 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses, which he stationed in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem.

Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and Kue; the royal merchants purchased them from Kue.

Now Solomon purposed to build a house for the Name of the LORD and a royal palace for himself.

So he conscripted 70,000 porters, 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains, and 3,600 supervisors.

Then Solomon sent word to Hiram king of Tyre: “Do for me as you did for my father David when you sent him cedars to build himself a house to live in.

Then Hiram king of Tyre wrote a letter in reply to Solomon: “Because the LORD loves His people, He has set you over them as king.”

Solomon numbered all the foreign men in the land of Israel following the census his father David had conducted, and there were found to be 153,600 in all.

Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. This was the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

The foundation that Solomon laid for the house of God was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide, according to the old standard.

Additionally, Huram made the pots, shovels, and sprinkling bowls. So Huram finished the work that he had undertaken for King Solomon in the house of God:

and the pots, shovels, meat forks, and all the other articles. All these objects that Huram-abi made for King Solomon for the house of the LORD were of polished bronze.

Solomon made all these articles in such great abundance that the weight of the bronze could not be determined.

Solomon also made all the furnishings for the house of God: the golden altar; the tables on which was placed the Bread of the Presence;

So all the work that Solomon had performed for the house of the LORD was completed. Then Solomon brought in the items his father David had dedicated—the silver, the gold, and all the furnishings—and he placed them in the treasuries of the house of God.

At that time Solomon assembled in Jerusalem the elders of Israel—all the tribal heads and family leaders of the Israelites—to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Zion, the City of David.

There, before the ark, King Solomon and the whole congregation of Israel who had assembled with him sacrificed so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered.

Then Solomon declared: “The LORD has said that He would dwell in the thick cloud;

Now Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had placed it in the middle of the courtyard. He stood on it, knelt down before the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven,

When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.

And King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.