DAVID MAKES READY FOR THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE. ADONIJAH REBELS AGAINST HIS FATHER. SOLOMON IS MADE KING. DAVID SPEAKS TO ALL THE PEOPLE: HE DIES. GOD SPEAKS TO SOLOMON, AND PROMISES HIM WISDOM AND RICHES. TWO WOMEN COME TO HIM FOR JUDGMENT. THE TEMPLE IS BUILT.
NOW David was old, and the time came near for him to die. And he remembered what God had said about the house for the ark: that he should not build it, but that his son who would be king after him should build it. Yet David made ready stones and timber and iron for the house, and told where it should be built: the top of mount Moriah, he said, where Araunah's threshing-floor had been, was the spot on which it should stand.
And David set masons to shaping the stones, and carpenters to hewing beams out of cedar trees, and men to making nails out of iron. He gathered also much gold and silver and brass for the work; for he said, My son Solomon is yet young, and not able to attend to these things, and the house he shall build is to be exceedingly beautiful, and admired among all nations.
And David gathered all the priests and the Levites together, and divided them up into different courses, or companies, so that each course might take its turn in attending to God's worship at the house of the Lord, after Solomon should build it.
And David called Solomon, and told him, that many years before, he himself had wanted to build the house, but the Lord had sent him word, because he was a man of war and had shed much blood, that he must not build it. God did not mean to reprove David for going to war, for it was God who had helped him to gain the victory over the enemies of Israel. But God chose that a man of peace, and not a man of war, should build his house. And God had promised, David said, that Solomon should be a man of peace, and should be king over Israel, and that he should build his house.
But David had another son, named Adonijah, who wanted to be king, and because his father was now old and weak, he thought he might be. Therefore he made a great feast for his friends, and persuaded them to go with him to make him king. When David heard of it, he commanded his servants to take his own mule and cause Solomon to ride upon it to a fountain called Gihon, that was near Jerusalem; there, David said, they should anoint Solomon. Then they should blow the trumpet and cry out, God save King Solomon! Afterward they should bring him to the house where David's throne was, that he might sit on the throne and be king over Israel. For on account of what Adonijah had done, David said he would make Solomon king, while David himself was yet alive.
So David's servants did as he commanded. They took Solomon and made him ride on the king's mule and brought him to Gihon: there they anointed him, and blew the trumpet, and all the people rejoiced and cried, God save King Solomon! And Adonijah, and the men who were with him, heard them, and said, What meaneth this noise among the people in the city? While they were speaking, some one came in and told them that David had made Solomon king, and that all the people were shouting for joy. Then Adonijah was troubled, for he knew that he had done wickedly, and he feared that Solomon would kill him. And it was told Solomon that Adonijah was afraid. But Solomon said that if he would show himself a good man, no harm should be done to him; and he commanded Adonijah to go to his own house.
And David, before he died, called all the princes and chief men of his kingdom to Jerusalem. And he told them how the Lord, many years before, had chosen Solomon to build the house for the ark; and the Lord had promised, David said, that if Solomon would obey his commandments, he and his descendants should continue to be kings over Israel. And David said to the princes and great men, Do you also, be very careful to obey the commandments of the Lord, so that you may keep this good land which he has given you, and leave it to your children when you die. And David spoke to Solomon before them all, saying, And thou, Solomon my son, obey the God of thy father, and serve him with all thy heart; for the Lord looks at the heart and knows all the thoughts. If thou serve him he will be thy friend, but if thou turn away from serving him he will cast thee off forever.
Then David gave to Solomon patterns of the house for the ark, and of all the things that were to go into it; for the Lord had given him the patterns of all these things. David gave Solomon also, gold for the things that were to be made of gold, and silver for the things that were to be made of silver. And he said to him, Be strong and do not fear to begin the house, for the Lord God, whom I serve, will be with thee, to help thee, until thou shalt finish building it.
And David called all the people together and told them that, because he loved to help build the house of the Lord, he had made ready gold and silver, brass, iron, precious stones, and marble, to be used in building it. Beside what he had given out of the spoils taken from his enemies, he gave from his own riches a great deal; as much as three thousand talents of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of pure silver, to overlay the walls with; and gold and silver also, for the vessels of the temple. And he asked the people who among them were willing to give. Then they too, brought gold and silver, brass and precious stones, and gave them to the Lord.
And David thanked the Lord, before all the people, for making him and the people willing to give. All they gave, he said, was the Lord's; for they were only giving back to the Lord what he had first given to them. And David prayed very earnestly for the people, and for Solomon his son, that the Lord would help them to keep on loving him, and obeying his laws. Then David said to all the people, Now thank the Lord your God. And they all bowed down their heads and worshipped. The next day they offered up sacrifices, burnt offerings and peace offerings: a thousand bullocks, a thousand goats, and a thousand lambs. And they held a feast on the flesh of their peace offerings, and ate and drank before the Lord with great joy and gladness. Then they anointed Solomon again, and made him king again, over the children of Israel. And Solomon sat on the throne and was king instead of David, his father; and all the princes and mighty men, and all the people, obeyed him.
David was king for forty years, and he died, being an old man and honored by all the people; and they buried him in Jerusalem.
And Solomon feared God, and was careful to do no evil. And God spoke to him in a dream at night, and offered him anything that he desired to have. God said to him, Ask what I shall give thee? Solomon answered, Give thy servant wisdom, that I may be able to rule well over thy people, the children of Israel. And God was pleased with the answer that Solomon made, and told him that because he had not asked for riches, or a long life, or the victory over his enemies, he would give him the wisdom he asked for, and beside this, riches and honor, more than any of the kings who had been before him, or who should be after him; and if he would obey his commandments, God promised to give him a long life also.
And there came two women to King Solomon, and stood before him. They lived together in one house; and one of them spoke to the king, and said, O my lord, this woman and I live in one house, and we each of us had a little son. And this woman's child died in the night, and she rose up at midnight, while I slept, and took my son from me, and laid it in her bed, and laid her dead child in my bed. And when I woke in the morning to feed my child, it was dead; but when I looked upon it, I saw it was not my child.
After this woman was done speaking, the other contradicted her, saying, No, the living is my son, and the dead is thine. And the king called out to his servants, Bring here a sword! and they brought it. And the king said, Cut the living child in two. and give half to one and half to the other. Then the true mother of the child, because she loved it, and would not have it killed, said, O my lord, give her the living child, and on no account slay it. But the other, who pretended to be its mother, said, Yes, cut it in two. Then the king commanded that the child should be given to the woman who had pity upon it, because he knew that it must be hers. It was to find out this that he called for the sword, not because he intended to slay the child.
And all the people heard of what the king had done, and they served him, because they saw that God had given him wisdom to judge aright. King Solomon was ruler not only over the children of Israel, but other nations that lived near to them, also obeyed him, and brought him presents of precious things. For David had, long before, made those nations his servants, and now God kept them from rebelling against Solomon, so that he might have peace in his kingdom as the Lord had promised him. And God gave Solomon great wisdom and riches; he had many officers and servants, and many great men came to visit him in his palace; every day there were killed for his table and the table of his servants, ten oxen that had been fatted in the stable, twenty oxen brought in from the field, and a hundred sheep; beside roe-bucks, deer, and fatted fowls. He had also forty thousand horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.
And Solomon made ready to build the house for the ark on mount Moriah, at the place where Araunah's threshing-floor had been. He asked Hiram, King of Tyre, who had been David's friend, to send his servants into the forests to cut down trees for the building, because Hiram's servants knew better than Solomon's, how to cut wood and hew timber. So Hiram sent out men into the forest, on a mountain called Lebanon, where cedar trees grew. Solomon sent many thousands of his own servants also, and Solomon's servants and Hiram's servants worked together in cutting down trees. Afterward they brought them to the sea, which was not far off, and made them into rafts and floated them along the shore till they came near to Jerusalem.
And Hiram sent to Solomon a man who was skilful to work in gold and silver, in brass, iron, wood, and fine linen, that he might help him in building the house for the ark. Solomon gave Hiram corn, and oil, and wine, for his servants. And Hiram's servants and Solomon's servants made ready great stones and timbers; and Solomon began to build the house according to the pattern which David had given him. It was to be about a hundred feet long, thirty-three feet wide, and fifty feet high. In front of it was to be a porch, with its top built up like a steeple, or tower, far above the rest of the house. This tower was to be about two hundred feet high. The house had narrow windows in it. Against the walls, on the outside, were built chambers, three stories of them, one above the other, for the priests to live in, while they should stay to attend to God's worship there.
The house was built of stone; yet each stone was hewn into its proper shape, and made ready to go in the wall, before it was brought to the place where the house was to stand; so that no noise of a hammer, or axe, or any tool of iron, was heard in the house all the time it was building.
When the walls were built up, Solomon covered them on the inside with boards of cedar which were carved with the shapes of flowers. Then he covered the flowers over with gold. And the floor of the house and the inside of the porch, he covered with pure gold. And he hung up inside of the house, a curtain of blue and purple and crimson, called the veil, to make two rooms there, as had been done in the tabernacle. The innermost of these rooms was for the ark, and was called the most holy place. The walls inside of the most holy place were covered with wood, carved into shapes of cherubim, and palm trees, and flowers. These Solomon covered with gold, and the floor also. And he made two cherubim fifteen feet high, first out of the wood of the olive tree, and then he covered them with gold. They stood in the most holy place, with their faces turned to the wall, and with their wings spread out, reaching from one side of the room to the other.
And he made doors for the house out of wood of the fir tree, and carved upon them shapes of cherubim, and palm trees, and open flowers, and afterward covered them with gold fitted upon the carved work. And in different parts of the house he set precious stones to make it more beautiful.
And Solomon made two great pillars of brass, each over thirty feet high, to stand in front of the house, one on the right hand and the other on the left. And he made a brass altar, which was four times as large as the one that Moses had made for the tabernacle. He made also a great basin, or sea of brass, that rested on the backs of twelve brass oxen. This was to hold water for the priests to wash their hands and their feet in, whenever they should go into the house, or offer up sacrifices on the altar, as the Lord had commanded them. And he made ten layers of brass, which were set upon wheels, and could be moved from one place to another. These were to hold water for the sacrifices to be washed in.
And Solomon made ten candlesticks of gold, and stood them in the house to give light there. He made also the table of gold for the shew-bread, and basins and spoons, and censers of pure gold, and hinges of gold for the doors of the house. And he made a court for the priests, around the house, in which the altar of burnt offering, and the sea that rested upon twelve oxen, and the ten lavers, were placed; and another court also, outside of this one, for the people of Israel. He was more than seven years in doing the work, until all of it was finished.