9:25 Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings 1 on the altar he had built for the Lord, burning incense along with them before the Lord. He made the temple his official worship place. 2
9:26 King Solomon also built ships 3 in Ezion Geber, which is located near Elat in the land of Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea. 9:27 Hiram sent his fleet and some of his sailors, who were well acquainted with the sea, to serve with Solomon’s men. 4 9:28 They sailed 5 to Ophir, took from there four hundred twenty talents 6 of gold, and then brought them to King Solomon.
1 tn Or “tokens of peace”; NIV, TEV “fellowship offerings.”
2 tn Heb “and he made complete the house.”
3 tn Or “a fleet” (in which case “ships” would be implied).
4 tn Heb “and Hiram sent with the fleet his servants, men of ships, [who] know the sea, [to be] with the servants of Solomon.”
5 tn Heb “went.”
6 tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 31,500 pounds of gold (cf. NCV); CEV, NLT “sixteen tons”; TEV “more than 14,000 kilogrammes.”