1 Kings 9:22-28

9:22 Solomon did not assign Israelites to these work crews; ¹  the Israelites served as his soldiers, attendants, officers, charioteers, and commanders of his chariot forces. ²  9:23 These men were also in charge of Solomon’s work projects; there were a total of 550 men who supervised the workers. ³  9:24 Solomon built the terrace as soon as Pharaoh’s daughter moved up from the city of David ⁴  to the palace Solomon built for her. ⁵ 

9:25 Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings ⁶  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. ⁷ 

9:26 King Solomon also built ships ⁸  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. ⁹  9:28 They sailed ¹⁰  to Ophir, took from there four hundred twenty talents ¹¹  of gold, and then brought them to King Solomon.

[9:22]  ¹ sn These work crews. The work crews referred to here must be different than the temporary crews described in 5:13-16.

[9:22]  ² tn Heb “officers of his chariots and his horses.”

[9:23]  ³ tn Heb “these [were] the officials of the governors who were over the work belonging to Solomon, five hundred fifty, the ones ruling over the people, the ones doing the work.”

[9:24]  ⁴ sn The phrase city of David refers here to the fortress of Zion in Jerusalem, not to Bethlehem. See 2 Sam 5:7.

[9:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter went up from the city of David to her house which he built for her, then he built the terrace.”

[9:25]  ⁶ tn Or “tokens of peace”; NIV, TEV “fellowship offerings.”

[9:25]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he made complete the house.”

[9:26]  ⁸ tn Or “a fleet” (in which case “ships” would be implied).

[9:27]  ⁹ tn Heb “and Hiram sent with the fleet his servants, men of ships, [who] know the sea, [to be] with the servants of Solomon.”

[9:28]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “went.”

[9:28]  ¹¹ 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.”