1. The Lord's temple and Solomon's palace were now finished, and Solomon had built everything he wanted.
2. Some time later the Lord appeared to him again in a dream, just as he had done at Gibeon.
3. The Lord said:I heard your prayer and what you asked me to do. This temple you have built is where I will be worshipped for ever. It belongs to me, and I will never stop watching over it.
4. You must obey me, as your father David did, and be honest and fair. Obey my laws and teachings,
5. and I will keep my promise to David that someone from your family will always be king of Israel.
6. But if you or any of your descendants disobey my commands or start worshipping foreign gods,
7. I will no longer let my people Israel live in this land I gave them. I will desert this temple where I said I would be worshipped. Then people everywhere will think this nation is only a joke and will make fun of it.
20-22. Solomon did not force the Israelites to do his work. They were his soldiers, officials, leaders, commanders, chariot captains, and chariot drivers. But he did make slaves of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites who were living in Israel. These were the descendants of those foreigners the Israelites could not destroy, and they remained Israel's slaves.
27-28. King Hiram let some of his experienced sailors go to the country of Ophir with Solomon's own sailors, and they brought back about fourteen thousand kilogrammes of gold for Solomon.