9:1 After Solomon finished building the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the other construction projects he had planned, 1 9:2 the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, in the same way he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 2 9:3 The Lord said to him, “I have answered 3 your prayer and your request for help that you made to me. I have consecrated this temple you built by making it my permanent home; 4 I will be constantly present there. 5 9:4 You must serve me with integrity and sincerity, just as your father David did. Do everything I commanded and obey my rules and regulations. 6 9:5 Then I will allow your dynasty to rule over Israel permanently, 7 just as I promised your father David, ‘You will not fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’ 8
9:6 “But if you or your sons ever turn away from me, fail to obey the regulations and rules I instructed you to keep, 9 and decide to serve and worship other gods, 10 9:7 then I will remove Israel from the land 11 I have given them, I will abandon this temple I have consecrated with my presence, 12 and Israel will be mocked and ridiculed 13 among all the nations. 9:8 This temple will become a heap of ruins; 14 everyone who passes by it will be shocked and will hiss out their scorn, 15 saying, ‘Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?’ 9:9 Others will then answer, 16 ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God, who led their ancestors 17 out of Egypt. They embraced other gods whom they worshiped and served. 18 That is why the Lord has brought all this disaster down on them.’”
9:10 After twenty years, during which Solomon built the Lord’s temple and the royal palace, 19
1 tn Heb “and all the desire of Solomon which he wanted to do.”
2 sn In the same way he had appeared to him at Gibeon. See 1 Kgs 3:5.
3 tn Heb “I have heard.”
4 tn Heb “by placing my name there perpetually” (or perhaps, “forever”).
5 tn Heb “and my eyes and my heart will be there all the days.”
6 tn Heb “As for you, if you walk before me, as David your father walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, by doing all which I commanded you, [and] you keep my rules and my regulations.” Verse 4 is actually a lengthy protasis (“if” section) of a conditional sentence, the apodosis (“then” section) of which appears in v. 5.
7 tn Heb “I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever.”
8 tn Heb “there will not be cut off from you a man from upon the throne of Israel.”
9 tn Heb “which I placed before you.”
10 tn Heb “and walk and serve other gods and bow down to them.”
11 tn Heb “I will cut off Israel from upon the surface of the land.”
12 tn Heb “and the temple which I consecrated for my name I will send away from before my face.”
13 tn Heb “will become a proverb and a taunt,” that is, a proverbial example of destruction and an object of reproach.
14 tn Heb “and this house will be high [or elevated].” The statement makes little sense in this context, which predicts the desolation that judgment will bring. Some treat the clause as concessive, “Even though this temple is lofty [now].” Others, following the lead of several ancient versions, emend the text to, “this temple will become a heap of ruins.”
15 tn Heb “hiss,” or perhaps “whistle.” This refers to a derisive sound one would make when taunting an object of ridicule.
16 tn Heb “and they will say.”
17 tn Heb “fathers.”
18 tn Heb “and they took hold of other gods and bowed down to them and served them.”
19 tn Heb “the two houses, the house of the