Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we open with a refresher on God's promise to Solomon. He reminds Solomon that this

covenant is conditional on both Solomon's and Israel's obedience.

Solomon spent 20 years building the temple and his house. He also builds a separate house for his wife.

Second Chronicles 811 quotes Solomon as saying,

My wife shall not live in the house of David, King of Israel, for the places to which the ark of the

Lord has come

are holy. When men in this day had multiple wives, they usually had a different house or tent

for each wife, but the first or main wife often lived in the same house as the husband.

But with Solomon, not even his main wife lives in the main house. The house he built for her

is in a different location outside the city

because she's a pagan, and he doesn't want her near the Ark of the Covenant. This whole arrangement

sounds terrible, honestly. Then Solomon decides to build 20 cities, as one does. These are probably

supposed to be a gift for King Hiram, but he doesn't like them.

It's also possible that he gave them back to Solomon.

These two chapters we read today weren't exactly clear on that.

In all of his empire building, Solomon uses a lot of forced labor.

God's law forbids the Israelites from enslaving other Israelites,

so Solomon works with the loophole and uses Canaanite laborers instead.

They build things all throughout Israel and Lebanon to the north, where his friend King Hiram lives.

He also builds a fleet of ships. This guy is not afraid to branch out into new territory.

Fortunately, King Hiram knows a lot of men who are skilled at seafaring, and they join forces presumably to go do some international trade.

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