1 Kings 9:1-17

The LORD Appears to Solomon

1 When Solomon had finished building the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had achieved all he had desired to do,

2 the LORD appeared to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.

3 The LORD said to him: “I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

4 “As for you, if you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws,

5 I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’

6 “But if you^[a] or your descendants turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you^[b] and go off to serve other gods and worship them,

7 then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples.

8 This temple will become a heap of rubble. All^[c] who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’

9 People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why the LORD brought all this disaster on them.’ ”

Solomon’s Other Activities

10 At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon built these two buildings—the temple of the LORD and the royal palace—

11 King Solomon gave twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, because Hiram had supplied him with all the cedar and juniper and gold he wanted.

12 But when Hiram went from Tyre to see the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them.

13 “What kind of towns are these you have given me, my brother?” he asked. And he called them the Land of Kabul,^[d] a name they have to this day.

14 Now Hiram had sent to the king 120 talents^[e] of gold.

15 Here is the account of the forced labor King Solomon conscripted to build the LORD’s temple, his own palace, the terraces,^[f] the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer.

16 (Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire. He killed its Canaanite inhabitants and then gave it as a wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.

17 And Solomon rebuilt Gezer.) He built up Lower Beth Horon,

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1 Kings 9:1-17 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 9

This chapter relates a second vision Solomon had at Gibeon, in which he received an answer to his prayer in the preceding chapter, 1Ki 9:1-9 that passed between him and Hiram king of Tyre, 1Ki 9:10-14, the places that Solomon built or repaired, 1Ki 9:15-19, the Canaanitish people that became bondmen to him, and the officers he had among the children of Israel, 1Ki 9:20-23 the removal of Pharaoh's daughter to the house built for her, 1Ki 9:24. Solomon's attention to religious services, 1Ki 9:25 and the navy of ships he employed, which brought him in great riches, 1Ki 9:26-28.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 30

1. S 2 Samuel 7:2; 1 Kings 7:1; 2 Chronicles 8:6
2. S 1 Kings 3:5
3. S 1 Samuel 9:16; 2 Kings 19:20; 2 Kings 20:5; Psalms 10:17; Psalms 34:17
4. S Exodus 20:24; S Deuteronomy 12:5
5. S Deuteronomy 11:12; 1 Kings 8:29
6. S Genesis 17:1
7. Deuteronomy 17:20; 1 Kings 14:8; 1 Kings 15:5
8. S 1 Kings 3:14; 1 Chronicles 28:9; Proverbs 4:4
9. 1 Chronicles 22:10
10. S 2 Samuel 7:15; 1 Kings 2:4
11. Deuteronomy 28:15; 2 Samuel 7:14; 2 Kings 18:12; Jeremiah 17:27; Jeremiah 26:4; Jeremiah 32:23; Jeremiah 44:23
12. 1 Kings 11:10
13. Leviticus 18:24-28; Deuteronomy 4:26; S Joshua 23:13; 2 Kings 17:23; 2 Kings 25:21; Jeremiah 24:10
14. Deuteronomy 12:5; Jeremiah 7:14
15. Job 17:6; Psalms 44:14; Jeremiah 24:9; Joel 2:17
16. S Deuteronomy 28:37; Ezekiel 5:15
17. S Leviticus 26:32
18. S Deuteronomy 29:24; Jeremiah 7:4-15; Matthew 23:38; Jeremiah 22:8-9
19. Deuteronomy 29:25; 2 Kings 22:17; Jeremiah 5:19; Jeremiah 13:22; Jeremiah 16:11,13; Jeremiah 22:9
20. S Numbers 25:3; Jeremiah 40:3; Jeremiah 44:23; Lamentations 4:12
21. S Deuteronomy 31:29
22. ver 14; 2 Chronicles 8:2
23. Joshua 19:27
24. ver 11
25. Joshua 16:10; 1 Kings 5:13
26. ver 24; S 2 Samuel 5:9
27. Joshua 11:10-11; Joshua 19:36
28. S Joshua 10:33; Joshua 17:11
29. 1 Kings 3:1; Psalms 45:12; Psalms 68:29; Psalms 72:10
30. S Joshua 10:10; Joshua 16:3; 2 Chronicles 8:5

Footnotes 6

[a]. The Hebrew is plural.
[b]. The Hebrew is plural.
[c]. See some Septuagint manuscripts, Old Latin, Syriac, Arabic and Targum; Hebrew "And though this temple is now imposing, all"
[d]. "Kabul" sounds like the Hebrew for "good-for-nothing."
[e]. That is, about 4 1/2 tons or about 4 metric tons
[f]. Or "the Millo" ; also in verse 24