1. HIRAM king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the place of his father, and HIRAM had always loved David.

2. Solomon sent to HIRAM, saying,

3. "You know that David my father could not build a house for the name of the LORD his God because of the wars which were around him on every side, until the LORD put his enemies under the soles of his feet.

4. But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side. There is no enemy and no evil occurrence.

5. Behold, I intend to build a house for the name of the LORD my God, as the LORD spoke to David my father, saying, 'Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place shall build the house for my name.'

6. Now therefore command that cedar trees be cut for me out of Lebanon. My servants will be with your servants; and I will give you wages for your servants according to all that you say. For you know that there is nobody among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians."

7. When HIRAM heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly, and said, "Blessed is the LORD today, who has given to David a wise son to rule over this great people."

8. HIRAM sent to Solomon, saying, "I have heard the message which you have sent to me. I will do all your desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning cypress timber.

9. My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea. I will make them into rafts to go by sea to the place that you specify to me, and will cause them to be broken up there, and you will receive them. You will accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household."

10. So HIRAM gave Solomon cedar timber and cypress timber according to all his desire.

11. Solomon gave HIRAM twenty thousand cors of wheat for food to his household, and twenty cors of pure oil. Solomon gave this to HIRAM year by year.

12. The LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him. There was peace between HIRAM and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty together.

13. King Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men.

14. He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses; for a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home; and Adoniram was over the men subject to forced labor.

15. Solomon had seventy thousand who bore burdens, and eighty thousand who were stone cutters in the mountains;

16. besides Solomon's chief officers who were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, who ruled over the people who labored in the work.

17. The king commanded, and they cut out large stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with worked stone.

18. Solomon's builders and HIRAM's builders and the Gebalites cut them, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the house.

3. and keep the instruction of the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, according to that which is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do, and wherever you turn yourself.

4. Then the LORD may establish his word which he spoke concerning me, saying, 'If your children are careful of their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail you,' he said, 'a man on the throne of Israel.'

5. "Moreover you know also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, even what he did to the two captains of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner, and to Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war on his sash that was around his waist, and in his shoes that were on his feet.

6. Do therefore according to your wisdom, and don't let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace.

7. But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be among those who eat at your table; for so they came to me when I fled from Absalom your brother.

8. "Behold, there is with you Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite, of Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim; but he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by The LORD, saying, 'I will not put you to death with the sword.'

9. Now therefore don't hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man; and you will know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his gray head down to Sheol with blood."

10. David slept with his fathers, and was buried in David's city.

11. The days that David reigned over Israel were forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron, and he reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

12. Solomon sat on David his father's throne; and his kingdom was firmly established.

13. Then Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. She said, "Do you come peaceably?"He said, "Peaceably.

14. He said moreover, I have something to tell you."She said, "Say on."

15. He said, "You know that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign. However the kingdom is turned around, and has become my brother's; for it was his from The LORD.

16. Now I ask one petition of you. Don't deny me."She said to him, "Say on."