Twenty years passed, after Solomon had built the Lord’s temple and his own palace;

then he set about fortifying the towns which Hiram had made over to him, and establishing Israelite inhabitants there.✻

He marched against Emath Suba, and took possession of it,

fortified Palmyra, out in the desert, and other fastnesses in the Emath country.

He rebuilt Bethoron, upper and lower, making two walled cities there, bolted and barred against attack;

Baalath, too, and all those other fortress-cities which bear Solomon’s name, cities where he stationed his chariots and his horsemen. In Jerusalem, on Lebanon, all through his kingdom Solomon built whatever he had the whim to design.

Some of the old population was still left, Hethites, Amorrhites, Pherezites, Hevites, Jebusites, that were no true breed of Israel,

but came down from the stock which had been spared by the invaders; these king Solomon made into bondservants, as they are to this day. Among the Israelites,

he would have no man enslaved to the royal service; it was from these he drew his warriors and his courtiers, the commanders of his chariots and his horsemen.

Five hundred and fifty captains king Solomon had, that issued his commands to the people at large.

He must build a new house, too, for Pharao’s daughter, so that she might dwell in David’s Keep no longer. I will not house wife of mine, said he, in David’s home, that was king of Israel; the ark of the Lord has found its way there, and it is hallowed ground now.

Solomon used the altar he had built to the Lord in front of the temple porch for offering burnt-sacrifice

day by day, as the law of Moses enjoined, on sabbaths, too, and at the new moon, and for the three feasts that came round yearly, the feasts of Unleavened Bread, of Weeks, and of Tabernacles.

And he assigned to the priests the duties they were to perform, as his father David had prescribed them; and to the Levites their duties of singing praise, and of helping the priests with their task, as the needs of each day required; and to the door-keepers their various posts. All that God’s servant David had enjoined must be done;

neither priest nor Levite might go beyond the king’s orders, in this or in the keeping of the sacred treasures.

All that he needed king Solomon had by him, from the day when he laid the foundations of the Lord’s house till the day when he finished it;✻

after that, he betook himself to Asiongaber, and Ailath, in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea,

where Hiram’s men met him with ships and skilful mariners. These, with Solomon’s own men, sailed for Ophir, and brought back four hundred and fifty talents of gold to the royal coffers.✻