Common English Bible

1 Kings 9:6-15 Common English Bible (CEB)

6. However, if you or your sons turn away from following me and don’t observe the commands and regulations that I gave you, and go to serve other gods, and worship them,

7. then I will remove Israel from the land I gave them and I will reject the temple that I dedicated for my name. Israel will become a joke, insulted by everyone.

8. Everyone who passes by this temple, so lofty now, will be shocked and will whistle, wondering, Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and this temple?

9. The answer will come: Because they deserted the Lord their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt’s land. They embraced other gods, worshipping and serving them. That is why the Lord brought all this disaster on them."

10. It took twenty years for Solomon to build the two structures, the Lord’s temple and the royal palace.

11. King Hiram of Tyre gave Solomon all the cedar, pinewood, and gold that he wanted. Then King Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the region of Galilee.

12. Hiram went from Tyre to inspect the towns Solomon had given him. They didn’t seem adequate in his view.

13. So Hiram remarked, "My brother, are these towns you’ve given me good for anything?" The cities are thus called the land of Cabul to this very day.

14. But Hiram sent the king one hundred twenty gold kikkars, nevertheless.

15. This is the story of the labor gang that King Solomon put together to build the Lord’s temple and his own palace, as well as the stepped structure, the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer: (