Bible in a Year.

On day 147, 1 Kings 5 ​​details the preparations and planning for the construction of Solomon's temple. 2 Chronicles 7-8 describes the completion of the work and the dedication, highlighting God's glory. Psalm 66 exhorts all nations to praise God for His mighty acts and His everlasting faithfulness.

1. And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon: for he heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father: for Hiram had always been David's friend.

2. And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying:

3. Thou knowest the will of David my father, and that he could not build a house to the name of the Lord his God, because of the wars that were round about him, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet.

4. But now the Lord my God hath given me rest round about: and there is no adversary nor evil occurrence.

5. Wherefore I purpose to build a temple to the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spoke to David my father, saying: my son, whom I will set upon the throne in thy piece, he shall build a house to my name.

6. Give orders therefore that thy servants cut me down cedar trees out of Libanus, and let my servants be with thy servants: and I will give thee the hire of thy servants whatsoever thou wilt ask, for thou knowest how there is not among my people a man that has skill to hew wood like to the Sidonians.

7. Now when Hiram had heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced exceedingly, and said: Blessed be the Lord God this day, who hath given to David a very wise son over this numerous people.

8. And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying: I have heard all thou hast desired of me: and I will do all thy desire concerning cedar trees, and fir trees.

9. My servants shall bring them down from Libanus to the sea: and I will put them together in floats in the sea, and convey them to the place, which thou shalt signify to me; and will land them there, and thou shalt receive them: and thou shalt allow me necessaries, to furnish food for my household.

10. So Hiram gave Solomon cedar trees, and fir trees, according to all his desire.

11. And Solomon allowed Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat, for provision for his house, and twenty measures of the purest oil: thus gave Solomon to Hiram every year.

12. And the Lord gave wisdom to Solomon, as he promised him: and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they two made a league together.

13. And king Solomon chose workmen cut of all Israel, and the levy was of thirty thousand men.

14. And he sent them to Libanus, ten thousand every month by turns, so that two months they were at home: and Adoniram was over this levy.

15. And Solomon had seventy thousand to carry burdens, and eighty thousand to hew stones in the mountain:

16. Besides the overseers who were over every work, in number three thousand, and three hundred that ruled over the people, and them that did the work.

17. And the king commanded, that they should bring great stones, costly stones, for the foundation of the temple, and should square them:

18. And the masons of Solomon, and the masons of Hiram hewed them: and the Giblians prepared timber and stones to build the house.

Chapter 7

1. And when Solomon had made an end of his prayer, Are came down from heaven, and consumed the holocausts and the victims: and the majesty of the Lord tilled the house.

2. Neither could the priests enter into the temple of the Lord, because the majesty of the Lord had filled the temple of the Lord.

3. Moreover all the children of Israel saw the fire coming down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house: and falling down with their faces to the ground, upon the stone pavement, they adored and praised the Lord: because he is good, because his mercy endureth for ever.

4. And the king and all the people sacrificed victims before the Lord.

5. And king Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand oxen, and one hundred and twenty thousand rams: and the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

6. And the priests stood in their offices: and the Levites with the instruments of music of the Lord, which king David made to praise the Lord: because his mercy endureth for ever, singing the hymns of David by their ministry: and the priests sounded with trumpets before them, and all Israel stood.

7. Solomon also sanctified the middle of the court before the temple of the Lord: for he offered there the holocausts, and the fat of the peace offerings: because the brazen altar, which he had made, could not hold the holocausts and the sacrifices and the fat:

8. And Solomon kept the solemnity at that time seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from the entrance of Emath to the torrent of Egypt.

9. And he made on the eighth day a solemn assembly, because he had kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and had celebrated the solemnity seven days.

10. So on the three and twentieth day of the seventh month he sent away the people to their dwellings, joyful and glad for the good that the Lord had done to David, and to Solomon, and to all Israel his people.

11. And Solomon finished the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all that he had designed in his heart to do, in the house of the Lord, and in his own house, and he prospered.

12. And the Lord appeared to him by night, and said : I have heard thy prayer, and I have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice.

13. If I shut up heaven, and there fall no rain, or if I give orders, and command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people:

14. And my people, upon whom my name is called, being converted, shall make supplication to me, and seek out my face, and do penance for their most wicked ways: then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sine and will heal their land.

15. My eyes also shall be open, and my ears attentive to the prayer of him that shall pray in this place.

16. For I have chosen, and have sanctified this place, that my name may be there for ever, and my eyes and my heart may remain there perpetually.

17. And as for thee, if thou walk before me, as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded thee, and keep my justices and my judgments :

18. I will raise up the throne of thy kingdom, as I promised to David thy father, saying: There shall not fail thee a man of thy stock to be ruler in Israel.

19. But if you turn away, and forsake my justices, and my commandments which I have set before you, and shall go and serve strange gods, and adore them,

20. I will pluck you up by the root out of my land which I have given you: and this house which I have sanctified to my name, I will cast away from before my face, and will make it a byword, and an example among all nations.

21. And this house shall be for a proverb to all that pass by, and they shall be astonished and say: Why hath the Lord done thus to this land, and to this house?

22. And they shall answer: Because they forsook the Lord the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on strange gods, and adored them, and worshipped them: therefore all these evils are come upon them.

Chapter 8

1. And at the end of twenty years after Solomon had built the house of the Lord and his own house:

2. He built the cities which Hiram had given to Solomon, and caused the children of Israel to dwell there.

3. He went also into Emath Suba, and possessed it.

4. And he built Palmira in the desert, and he built other strong cities in Emath.

5. And he built Beth-horon the upper, and Beth-horon the nether, walled cities with Rates and bars and locks.

6. Balaath also and all the strong cities that were Solomon's, and all the cities of the chariots, and the cities of the horsemen. All that Solomon had a mind, and designed, he built in Jerusalem and in Libanus, and in all the land of his dominion.

7. All the people that were left of the Hethites, and the Amorrhites, and the Pherezites, and the Hevites, and the Jebusites, that were not of the stock of Israel:

8. Of their children, and of the posterity, whom the children of Israel had not slain, Solomon made to be the tributaries, unto this day.

9. But of the children of Israel he set none to serve in the king's works: for they were men of war, and chief captains, and rulers of his chariots and horsemen.

10. And all the chief captains of king Solomon's army were two hundred and fifty, who taught the people.

11. And he removed the daughter of Pharao from the city of David, to the house which he had built for her. For the king said: My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, for it is sanctified: because the ark of the Lord came into it.

12. Then Solomon offered holocausts to the Lord upon the altar of the Lord which he had built before the porch,

13. That every day an offering might be made on it according to the ordinance of Moses, in the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the festival days three times a year, that is to say, in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles.

14. And he appointed according to the order of David his father the offices of the priests in their ministries: and the Levites in their order to give praise, and minister before the priests according to the duty of every day: and the porters in their divisions by gate and gate: for so David the man of God had commanded.

15. And the priests and Levites departed not from the king's commandments, as to any thing that he had commanded, and as to the keeping of the treasures.

16. Solomon had all charges prepared, from the day that he founded the house of the Lord, until the day wherein he finished it.

17. Then Solomon went to Asiongaber, and to Ailath, on the coast of the Red Sea, which is in the land of Edom.

18. And Hiram sent him ships by the hands of his servants, and skilful mariners, and they went with Solomon's servants to Ophir, and they took thence four hundred and fifty talents of gold, and brought it to king Solomon.

1. Unto the end, a canticle of a psalm of the resurrection. Shout with joy to God, all the earth,

2. sing ye a psalm to his name; give glory to his praise.

3. Say unto God, How terrible are thy works, O Lord! in the multitude of thy strength thy enemies shall lie to thee.

4. Let all the earth adore thee, and sing to thee: let it sing a psalm to thy name.

5. Come and see the works of God; who is terrible in his counsels over the sons of men.

6. Who turneth the sea into dry land, in the river they shall pass on foot: there shall we rejoice in him.

7. Who by his power ruleth for ever: his eyes behold the nations; let not them that provoke him he exalted in themselves.

8. O bless our God, ye Gentiles: and make the voice of his praise to be heard.

9. Who hath set my soul to live: and hath not suffered my feet to be moved:

10. For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us by fire, as silver is tried.

11. Thou hast brought us into a net, thou hast laid afflictions on our back:

12. thou hast set men over our heads. We have passed through tire and water, and thou hast brought us out into a refreshment.

13. I will go into thy house with burnt offerings: I will pay thee my vows,

14. which my lips have uttered, And my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble.

15. I will offer up to thee holocausts full of marrow, with burnt offerings of rams: I will offer to thee bullocks with goats.

16. Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what great things he hath done for my soul.

17. I cried to him with my mouth: and I extolled him with my tongue.

18. If I have looked at iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.

19. Therefore hath God heard me, and hath attended to the voice of my supplication.

20. Blessed be God, who hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.