The MacArthur Study Bible, NKJV

by John MacArthur

  50“and forgive Your people who have sinned against You, and all their transgressions which they have transgressed against You; and mgrant them compassion before those who took them captive, that they may have compassion on them

  51“(for nthey are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out of Egypt, oout of the iron furnace),

  52p“that Your eyes may be open to the supplication of Your servant and the supplication of Your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they call to You.

  53“For You separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be Your inheritance, qas You spoke by Your servant Moses, when You brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD.”

  Solomon Blesses the Assembly

  (2 Chr. 6:40–42)

  54rAnd so it was, when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication to the LORD, that he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven.

  55Then he stood sand blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying:

  56“Blessed be the LORD, who has given trest11 to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. uThere has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses.

  57“May the LORD our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. vMay He not leave us nor forsake us,

  58“that He may wincline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, which He commanded our fathers.

  59“And may these words of mine, with which I have made supplication before the LORD, be near the LORD our God day and night, that He may maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel, as each day may require,

  60x“that all the peoples of the earth may know that ythe LORD is God; there is no other.

  61“Let your zheart therefore be 12loyal to the LORD our God, to walk in His statutes and keep His commandments, as at this day.”

  Solomon Dedicates the Temple

  (2 Chr. 7:4–11)

  62Then athe king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the LORD.

  63And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered to the LORD, twenty-two thousand bulls and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD.

  64On bthe same day the king consecrated the middle of the court that was in front of the house of the LORD; for there he offered burnt offerings, grain offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the cbronze altar that was before the LORD was too small to receive the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings.

  65At that time Solomon held da feast, and all Israel with him, a great assembly from ethe entrance of Hamath to fthe Brook of Egypt, before the LORD our God, gseven days and seven more days—fourteen days.

  66hOn the eighth day he sent the people away; and they 13blessed the king, and went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the good that the LORD had done for His servant David, and for Israel His people.

  1 Kings 9

  God’s Second Appearance to Solomon

  (2 Chr. 7:12–22)

  1And ait came to pass, when Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD band the king’s house, and call Solomon’s desire which he wanted to do,

  2that the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, das He had appeared to him at Gibeon.

  3And the LORD said to him: e“I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built fto put My name there forever, gand My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.

  4“Now if you hwalk before Me ias your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you jkeep My statutes and My judgments,

  5“then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, kas I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’

  6l“But if you or your sons at all 1turn from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them,

  7m“then I will 2cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and this house which I have consecrated nfor My name I will cast out of My sight. oIsrael will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

  8“And as for pthis house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will hiss, and say, q‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?’

  9“Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore the LORD has brought all this rcalamity on them.’ ”

  Solomon and Hiram Exchange Gifts

  10Now sit happened at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD and the king’s house

  11t(Hiram the king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress and gold, as much as he desired), that King Solomon then gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

  12Then Hiram went from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, but they did not please him.

  13So he said, “What kind of cities are these which you have given me, my brother?” uAnd he called them the land of 3Cabul, as they are to this day.

  14Then Hiram sent the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold.

  Solomon’s Additional Achievements

  (2 Chr. 8:3–16)

  15And this is the reason for vthe labor force which King Solomon raised: to build the house of the LORD, his own house, 4the wMillo, the wall of Jerusalem, xHazor, yMegiddo, and zGezer.

  16(Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and taken Gezer and burned it with fire, ahad killed the Canaanites who dwelt in the city, and had given it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.)

  17And Solomon built Gezer, Lower bBeth Horon,

  18cBaalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land of Judah,

  19all the storage cities that Solomon had, cities for dhis chariots and cities for his ecavalry, and whatever Solomon fdesired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

  20gAll the people who were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel—

  21that is, their descendants hwho were left in the land after them, iwhom the children of Israel had not been able to destroy completely—jfrom these Solomon raised kforced labor, as it is to this day.

  22But of the children of Israel Solomon lmade no forced laborers, because they were men of war and his servants: his officers, his captains, commanders of his chariots, and his cavalry.

  23Others were chiefs of the officials who were over Solomon’s work: mfive hundred and fifty, who ruled over the people who did the work.

  24But nPharaoh’s daughter came up from the City of David to oher house which 5Solomon had built for her. pThen he built the Millo.

  25qNow three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he had built for the LORD, and he burned incense with them on the altar that was before the LORD. So he finished the temple.

  26rKing Solomon also built a fleet of ships at sEzion Geber, which is near 6Elath on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.

  27tThen Hiram sent his servants with the fleet, seamen who knew the sea, to work with the servants of Solomon.

  28And they went to uOphir, and acquired four hundred and twenty talents of gold from there, and brought it to King Solomon.

  1 Kings 10

  The Queen of Sheba’s Praise of Solomon

  (2 Chr. 9:1–28)

  1Now when the aqueen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came bto test him with hard questions.

  2S
he came to Jerusalem with a very great 1retinue, with camels that bore spices, very much gold, and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was in her heart.

  3So Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing 2so difficult for the king that he could not explain it to her.

  4And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built,

  5the food on his table, the seating of his servants, the service of his waiters and their apparel, his cupbearers, cand his entryway by which he went up to the house of the LORD, there was no more spirit in her.

  6Then she said to the king: “It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom.

  7“However I did not believe the words until I came and saw with my own eyes; and indeed the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame of which I heard.

  8d“Happy are your men and happy are these your servants, who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom!

  9e“Blessed be the LORD your God, who fdelighted in you, setting you on the throne of Israel! Because the LORD has loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, gto do justice and righteousness.”

  10Then she hgave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold, spices in great quantity, and precious stones. There never again came such abundance of spices as the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

  11iAlso, the ships of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir, brought great quantities of 3almug wood and precious stones from Ophir.

  12jAnd the king made 4steps of the almug wood for the house of the LORD and for the king’s house, also harps and stringed instruments for singers. There never again came such kalmug wood, nor has the like been seen to this day. The Land of the Divided Kingdom

  13Now King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired, whatever she asked, besides what Solomon had given her according to the royal generosity. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants.

  Solomon’s Great Wealth

  14The weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold,

  15besides that from the ltraveling merchants, from the income of traders, mfrom all the kings of Arabia, and from the governors of the country.

  16And King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of gold went into each shield.

  17He also made nthree hundred shields of hammered gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the oHouse of the Forest of Lebanon.

  18pMoreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with pure gold.

  19The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round at the back; there were armrests on either side of the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the armrests.

  20Twelve lions stood there, one on each side of the six steps; nothing like this had been made for any other kingdom.

  21qAll King Solomon’s drinking vessels were gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Not one was silver, for this was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon.

  22For the king had rmerchant5 ships at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the merchant sships came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and 6monkeys.

  23So tKing Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.

  24Now all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.

  25Each man brought his present: articles of silver and gold, garments, armor, spices, horses, and mules, at a set rate year by year.

  26uAnd Solomon vgathered chariots and horsemen; he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he 7stationed in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem.

  27wThe king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar trees as abundant as the sycamores which are in the lowland.

  28xAlso Solomon had horses imported from Egypt and Keveh; the king’s merchants bought them in Keveh at the current price.

  29Now a chariot that was imported from Egypt cost six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse one hundred and fifty; yand 8thus, through their agents, they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria.

  1 Kings 11

  Solomon’s Heart Turns from the LORD

  1But aKing Solomon loved bmany foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites—

  2from the nations of whom the LORD had said to the children of Israel, c“You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love.

  3And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.

  4For it was so, when Solomon was old, dthat his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his eheart was not 1loyal to the LORD his God, fas was the heart of his father David.

  5For Solomon went after gAshtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after hMilcom2 the abomination of the iAmmonites.

  6Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not fully follow the LORD, as did his father David.

  7jThen Solomon built a 3high place for kChemosh the abomination of Moab, on lthe hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon.

  8And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. The Kings of the Divided Kingdom

  9So the LORD became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the LORD God of Israel, mwho had appeared to him twice,

  10and nhad commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not keep what the LORD had commanded.

  11Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, oI will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your pservant.

  12“Nevertheless I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of the hand of your son.

  13q“However I will not tear away the whole kingdom; I will give rone tribe to your son sfor the sake of My servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem twhich I have chosen.”

  Adversaries of Solomon

  14Now the LORD uraised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; he was a descendant of the king in Edom.

  15vFor it happened, when David was in Edom, and Joab the commander of the army had gone up to bury the slain, wafter he had killed every male in Edom

  16(because for six months Joab remained there with all Israel, until he had cut down every male in Edom),

  17that Hadad fled to go to Egypt, he and certain Edomites of his father’s servants with him. Hadad was still a little child.

  18Then they arose from Midian and came to Paran; and they took men with them from Paran and came to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave him a house, apportioned food for him, and gave him land.

  19And Hadad found great favor in the sight of Pharaoh, so that he gave him as wife the sister of his own wife, that is, the sister of Queen Tahpenes.

  20Then the sister of Tahpenes bore him Genubath his son, whom Tahpenes weaned in Pharaoh’s house. And Genubath was in Pharaoh’s household among the sons of Pharaoh.

  21xSo when Hadad heard in Egypt that David 4rested with his fathers, and that Joab the commander of the army was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, 5“Let me depart, that I may go to my own country.”

  22Then Pharaoh said to him, “But what have you lacked with me, that suddenly you seek to go to your own country?” So he answered, “Nothing, but do let me go anyway.”

  23And God raised up another adversary against him, Rezon the son of Eliadah, who had fled from his lord, yHadadezer king of Zobah.

  24So he gathered men to him and became captain o
ver a band of raiders, zwhen David killed those of Zobah. And they went to Damascus and dwelt there, and reigned in Damascus.

  25He was an adversary of Israel all the days of Solomon (besides the trouble that Hadad caused); and he abhorred Israel, and reigned over Syria.

  Jeroboam’s Rebellion

  26Then Solomon’s servant, aJeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite from Zereda, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow, balso crebelled against the king.

  27And this is what caused him to rebel against the king: dSolomon had built the Millo and 6repaired the damages to the City of David his father.

  28The man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor; and Solomon, seeing that the young man was eindustrious, made him the officer over all the labor force of the house of Joseph.

  29Now it happened at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet fAhijah the Shilonite met him on the way; and he had clothed himself with a new garment, and the two were alone in the field.

  30Then Ahijah took hold of the new garment that was on him, and gtore it into twelve pieces.

  31And he said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces, for hthus says the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to you

  32‘(but he shall have one tribe for the sake of My servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel),

  33i‘because 7they have forsaken Me, and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the people of Ammon, and have not walked in My ways to do what is right in My eyes and keep My statutes and My judgments, as did his father David.

  34‘However I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, because I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of My servant David, whom I chose because he kept My commandments and My statutes.

  35‘But jI will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand and give it to you—ten tribes.

  36‘And to his son I will give one tribe, that kMy servant David may always have a lamp before Me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for Myself, to put My name there.