1. After twenty years, during which Solomon built the Lord’s temple and his royal palace,
2. Solomon rebuilt the cities that Huram had given him and settled Israelites there.
3. Solomon went to Hamath Zobah and seized it.
4. He built up Tadmor in the wilderness and all the storage cities he had built in Hamath.
5. He made upper Beth Horon and lower Beth Horon fortified cities with walls and barred gates,
6. and built up Baalath, all the storage cities that belonged to him, and all the cities where chariots and horses were kept. He built whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout his entire kingdom.
7. Now several non-Israelite peoples were left in the land after the conquest of Joshua, including the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
8. Their descendants remained in the land (the Israelites were unable to wipe them out). Solomon conscripted them for his work crews and they continue in that role to this very day.
9. Solomon did not assign Israelites to these work crews; the Israelites served as his soldiers, officers, charioteers, and commanders of his chariot forces.
10. These men worked for Solomon as supervisors; there were a total of 250 of them who were in charge of the people.
11. Solomon moved Pharaoh’s daughter up from the City of David to the palace he had built for her, for he said, “My wife must not live in the palace of King David of Israel, for the places where the ark of the Lord has entered are holy.”
12. Then Solomon offered burnt sacrifices to the Lord on the altar of the Lord which he had built in front of the temple’s porch.