1 Kings 9, 2 Chronicles 8, Revelation 17, Song of Songs 6

Yahweh Appears to Solomon

9^aNow it happened when Solomon had completed building the house of Yahweh, and ^bthe king’s house, and ^call ¹that Solomon desired to do, ²that ^aYahweh appeared to Solomon a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. ³And Yahweh said to him, “^aI have heard your prayer and your supplication, which you have made before Me; I have set apart as holy this house which you have built ^bby putting My name there forever, and ^cMy eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. ⁴“As for you, ^aif you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My judgments, ⁵then ^aI will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I ¹promised to your father David, saying, ‘You shall not have a man cut off from the throne of Israel.’

⁶“^aBut if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have given before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, ⁷^athen I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and ^bthe house which I have set apart as holy for My name, I will ¹cast out of My presence. So ^cIsrael will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. ⁸“And this house will become ¹^,^aa heap of ruins; everyone who passes by will feel desolate and hiss and say, ‘^bWhy has Yahweh done thus to this land and to this house?’ ⁹“And they will say, ‘^aBecause they forsook Yahweh their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and took hold of other gods and worshiped them and served them, therefore Yahweh has brought all this calamity on them.’”

Cities Given to Hiram

¹⁰^aNow it happened that ^bat the end of twenty years in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of Yahweh and the king’s house ¹¹(Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold according to all his desire), that King Solomon then gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. ¹²So Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, and they were not right in his eyes. ¹³And he said, “What are these cities which you have given me, my brother?” So ¹they were called the land of ²^,^aCabul to this day. ¹⁴^aAnd Hiram sent to the king ¹120 talents of gold.

Solomon Builds Cities and Ships

¹⁵Now this is the account of the forced labor which King Solomon ^araised up to build the house of Yahweh, his own house, the ¹^,^bMillo, the wall of Jerusalem, ^cHazor, ^dMegiddo, and ^eGezer. ¹⁶For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it with fire, and killed the ^aCanaanites who lived in the city, and had ^bgiven it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. ¹⁷So Solomon rebuilt Gezer and the lower ^aBeth-horon ¹⁸and ^aBaalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah, ¹⁹and all the storage cities which Solomon had, and ^athe cities for ¹his chariots, and the cities for ²^,^bhis horsemen, and ³^,^call that Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land ⁴under his rule. ²⁰As for all the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not of the sons of Israel, ²¹^anamely, their sons who were left after them in the land ^bwhom the sons of Israel were unable to devote to destruction, from ^cthem Solomon raised up ^dforced laborers to this day. ²²But Solomon ^adid not make slaves of the sons of Israel; for they were men of war, his servants, his princes, his captains, his chariot commanders, and his horsemen.

²³These were the ¹^,^achief deputies who were over Solomon’s work, 550, ^bwho had dominion over the people doing the work.

²⁴As soon as ^aPharaoh’s daughter came up from the city of David to her house which Solomon had built for her, ^bthen he built the Millo.

²⁵And ^athree times in a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he built to Yahweh, burning incense with them on the altar which was before Yahweh. So he finished the house.

²⁶King Solomon also made a ^afleet of ships in ^bEzion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the ¹Red Sea, in the land of Edom. ²⁷^aAnd Hiram sent his servants with the fleet of ships, sailors who knew the sea, along with the servants of Solomon. ²⁸And they went to ^aOphir and took from there 420 talents of gold and brought it to King Solomon.

Solomon Builds Cities

8^aNow it happened at the end of the twenty years in which Solomon had built the house of Yahweh and his own house ²that he built the cities which Huram had given to ¹him, and settled the sons of Israel there.

³Then Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and overpowered it. ⁴And he built Tadmor in the wilderness and all the storage cities which he had built in Hamath. ⁵He also built upper ^aBeth-horon and lower Beth-horon, ^bfortified cities with walls, gates and bars; ⁶and Baalath and all the storage cities which Solomon had, and all the cities for ¹his chariots, and the cities for ²his horsemen, and all that Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land ³under his rule.

⁷^aAs for all the people who were left of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel, ⁸namely, from their sons who were left after them in the land whom the sons of Israel had not consumed, ^afrom them Solomon raised up forced laborers to this day. ⁹But Solomon did not make slaves for his work from the sons of Israel; for they were men of war, his chief captains and his chariot commanders and his horsemen. ¹⁰These were the chief ¹deputies of King Solomon, 250 who ²ruled over the people.

¹¹^aThen Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter up from the city of David to the house which he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not live in the house of David king of Israel, because ¹the places are holy where the ark of Yahweh has entered.”

¹²Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to Yahweh on ^athe altar of Yahweh which he had built before the porch; ¹³and ^adid so according to the daily rule, offering them up ^baccording to the commandment of Moses, for ^cthe sabbaths, ^dthe new moons and the ^ethree annual feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Booths.

¹⁴And according to the judgment of his father David, he caused ^athe divisions of the priests to stand for their service, and ^bthe Levites for their responsibilities to praise and minister before the priests according to the daily rule, and ^cthe gatekeepers by their divisions at every gate; for ^dDavid the man of God had so commanded. ¹⁵And they did not turn away from the commandment of the king to the priests and Levites in any manner or concerning the treasuries.

¹⁶Thus all the work of Solomon was carried out ¹from the day of the foundation of the house of Yahweh, and until it was completed. So the house of Yahweh was finished.

¹⁷Then Solomon went to ^aEzion-geber and to ^bEloth on the shore of the sea in the land of Edom. ¹⁸And Huram by the hand of his servants sent him ships and servants who knew the sea; and they went with Solomon’s servants to Ophir, and ^atook from there ¹450 talents of gold and brought them to King Solomon.

The Woman and the Beast

17^aThen one of the ^bseven angels who have the ^cseven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you ^dthe judgment of the ^egreat harlot who ^fsits on many waters, ²with whom ^athe kings of the earth committed ¹sexual immorality, and ^bthose who dwell on the earth were ^cmade drunk with the wine of her ²sexual immorality.” ³And ^ahe carried me away ¹^,^bin the Spirit ^cinto a wilderness; then I saw a woman sitting on a ^dscarlet beast, full of ^eblasphemous names, having ^fseven heads and ten horns. ⁴And the woman ^awas clothed in purple and scarlet, and ¹adorned with gold and precious ²stones and pearls, having in her hand ^ba gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her ³sexual immorality, ⁵and on her forehead a name was written, a ^amystery, “^bBABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF ^cTHE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” ⁶Then I saw the woman drunk with ^athe blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered ¹greatly. ⁷And the angel said to me, “Why ¹do you wonder? I will tell you the ^amystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the ^bseven heads and the ten horns.

⁸“^aThe beast that you saw ^bwas, and is not, and is about to ^ccome up out of the ^dabyss and ¹^,^ego to destruction. And ^fthose who dwell on the earth, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will come. ⁹“^aHere is the mind which has wisdom. The ^bseven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, ¹⁰and they are seven ^akings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while. ¹¹“And the beast which ^awas and is not, is himself also an eighth and is one of the seven, and he ^bgoes to destruction. ¹²“And the ^aten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast ^bfor one hour. ¹³“These have ^aone ¹purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast. ¹⁴“These will wage ^awar against the Lamb, and the Lamb will ^bovercome them, because He is ^cLord of lords and ^dKing of kings, and ^ethose who are with Him are the ^fcalled and elect and faithful.”

¹⁵And he *said to me, “The ^awaters which you saw where the harlot sits, are ^bpeoples and crowds and nations and tongues. ¹⁶“And the ^aten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the harlot and will ^blay waste to her and make her ^cnaked, and will ^deat her flesh and will ^eburn her up with fire. ¹⁷“For ^aGod gave it in their hearts to do His ¹purpose both ²by ^bdoing their own common purpose and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the ^cwords of God will be finished. ¹⁸“And the woman whom you saw is ^athe great city, which has a kingdom over the kings of the earth.”

Solomon and His Bride Extol Each Other

6“¹^,^aWhere has your beloved gone,O ^bmost beautiful among women?Where has your beloved turned,That we may seek him with you?”²“¹My beloved has gone down to his ^agarden,To the ^bbeds of spices,To ^cshepherd his flock in the gardensAnd gather ^dlilies.³“^aI am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine,He who ^bshepherds his flock among the lilies.”⁴“¹^,^aYou are as beautiful as ^bTirzah, my darling,As ^clovely as ^dJerusalem,As ^emajestic as ²an army with banners.⁵“Turn your eyes away from me,For they have overwhelmed me;^aYour hair is like a flock of goatsThat have leapt down from Gilead.⁶“^aYour teeth are like a flock of ewesWhich have come up from their washing,All of which bear twins,And not one among them has ¹lost her young.⁷“^aYour temples are like a slice of a pomegranateBehind your veil.⁸“There are sixty ^aqueens and eighty concubines,And ¹^,^bmaidens without number;⁹She is the only one—^amy dove, my perfect one;She is the only one of her mother;She is the pure one of her who bore her.The ^bdaughters saw her and called her blessed,The ^cqueens and the concubines also, and they praised her, saying,¹⁰‘Who is this that looks down like the dawn,As beautiful as the full ^amoon,As pure ^bas the sun,As ^cmajestic as ¹an army with banners?’¹¹“¹I went down to the garden of nut treesTo see the blossoms of the valley,To see whether ^athe vine had flourishedOr the ^bpomegranates had bloomed.¹²“I did not know it, but my soul set meAmong the chariots of ¹my noble people.”¹³“¹^,²Come back, come back, O Shulammite;Come back, come back, that we may behold you!”“³Why should you behold the Shulammite,As at the ^adance of ⁴^,^bthe two companies?