Chapter Nine

 1Ki 9:1  And it happened, as Solomon finished building the house of Jehovah, and the house of the king, and all the desire of Solomon that he delighted to do, 

1Ki 9:2  that Jehovah appeared to Solomon a second time, as He appeared to him in Gibeon. 

1Ki 9:3  And Jehovah said to him, I have heard your prayer and your supplication with which you have made supplication before Me; I have sanctified this house that you have built to put My name there forever; and My eyes and My heart shall be there forever. 

1Ki 9:4  And you, if you walk before me as your father David walked, in singleness of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you; you shall keep My statutes and My judgments; 

1Ki 9:5  then I shall lift up the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I spoke to your father David, saying, there shall not fail you a man on the throne of Israel. 

1Ki 9:6  If you at all turn back, you and your sons, from following me, and do not keep My commands, My statutes which I have set before you, and you shall go and serve other gods and bow yourselves to them, 

1Ki 9:7  then I shall cut off Israel from the face of the land that I have given to them, and the house that I have hallowed for My name I shall send away from My face, and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 

1Ki 9:8  As to this house, which is high, everyone passing by it shall be astonished and shall hiss, and they shall say, Why has Jehovah done this to this land and to this house? 

1Ki 9:9  And they shall say, Because they have forsaken Jehovah their God, who brought their fathers out from the land of Egypt, and they laid hold on other gods and bowed themselves to them and served them. On account of this Jehovah has brought in upon them all this evil. 

1Ki 9:10  And it happened, at the end of twenty years Solomon had built the two houses, the house of Jehovah and the house of the king. 

1Ki 9:11  Hiram the king of Tyre had lifted Solomon with cedar trees and with fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire; then King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. 

1Ki 9:12  And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given to him, and they were not right in his eyes. 

1Ki 9:13  And he said, What are these cities that you have given to me, my brother? And one called them the land of Cabul to this day. 

1Ki 9:14  And Hiram sent to the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold. 

1Ki 9:15  And this is the reason of the labor force that King Solomon raised, to build the house of Jehovah, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer. 

1Ki 9:16  (Pharaoh the king of Egypt had gone up and had captured Gezer, and had burned it with fire. And he killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and gave it as a dowry to his daughter, the wife of Solomon.) 

1Ki 9:17  and Solomon built Gezer, and Beth-horon the lower, 

1Ki 9:18  and Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land; 

1Ki 9:19  and all the store cities which Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities of the horsemen, and the desire of Solomon that he desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. 

1Ki 9:20  All the people that were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites who were not of the sons of Israel, 

1Ki 9:21  their sons left behind them in the land, whom the sons of Israel had not been able to exterminate, Solomon even caused to go on them a burden of forced labor to this day. 

1Ki 9:22  But Solomon did not give as a slave out of the sons of Israel, for they were the men of war, and his servants, and his rulers, and his commanders, and the commanders of his chariots, and his horsemen. 

1Ki 9:23  These were the commanders of the officers who were over the work of Solomon: five hundred and fifty, those ruling among the people who were working in the work. 

1Ki 9:24  But the daughter of Pharaoh went up out of the city of David to her house that he built for her; then he built Millo. 

1Ki 9:25  And three times in a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar that he built to Jehovah, and he burned incense on the altar before Jehovah, and finished the house. 

1Ki 9:26  And King Solomon built a navy in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the lip of the Sea of Reeds, in the land of Edom. 

1Ki 9:27  And Hiram sent his servants in the navy, shipmen who knew the sea, with the servants of Solomon; 

1Ki 9:28  and they came to Ophir and took gold from there, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it in to King Solomon. 

Verses 1-9 Summary: After Solomon builds the temple and his house, God revisits him again. God reiterates His conditions for success and warns of the curse that will happen should Israel go after idols.

a. Re-read chapter 3's version of God's promise. How is it different? Why is it Different?
    Chapter three does not contain the curses that come with the practice of idolatry. In chapter three, Solomon admits his lack of experience, he is humble. Now he is a grown man. He is different. His responsibilities are different. God knows what will happen eventually. As a just God, He has to put this on the table so no accusation can be brought against Him. 
b. If God knows what will happen eventually, why does He do all these things for Solomon?
    This reasoning is used by those who have little understanding of Jehovah. From the beginning, this greatness is what the people wanted and God worked through David, then Solomon to make it happen. However, if this greatness causes them to sin, it is not God who causes men to sin. If anything, we learn how easy it can be to lose sight of the BASIC thing God is looking for in us....our hearts. Note that walking in His ways, paying attention to his commandments and statutes is still required. It is the addition of IDOLATRY that every time violates the covenant in a non-redeemable way. Disobedience/sin is a problem, it is not insurmountable, but is IS a symptom of the much bigger problem of the practice of IDOLATRY. There is  no returning to God if the practice of sin becomes more important than God in our lives.

Verses 10-14 Summary: Solomon hands over twenty cities to Hiram for his help in resources to build the temple. Hiram visits the cities and is disappointed! ooops
Hiram sends 120 talents of gold.

a. 2Chron. 8:18 States that Hiram worked with Solomon to deliver 450 talents of gold. The 120 talents in this chapter were either a part of that or they may have been separate (as payment for the cities?).

These cities were known as "Cabul."

כָּבוּל

kâbûl

kaw-bool'

From the same as H3525 in the sense of limitation; sterile

Verses 15-28 Summary: 
Solomon's accomplishments with forced labor are listed.
He builds/rebuilds cities. Pharaoh gives Gezer to his daughter as marriage dowry.
Pharaoh had burned it to the ground. (Is that good or bad?)
People who were supposed to be wiped out but were not were made into slaves.
Pharaoh's daughter is sent out of Jerusalem. (To live in her own big house)
Solomon is faithful with the 3x a-year sacrifices.
Solomon builds a navy. Hiram sends his naval personnel to help Solomon get tons of gold. (Gifts, or forced?)

4. Locate Ophir on a map:
Hopefully someone will have better luck than me on this. Eloth and Ezion-geber in EDOM are depicted well in historical maps. This region is south of Jerusalem in the farthest reaches of Israel. These cities are part of today's Aqaba sea (a northern finger of the Red Sea). I did find a couple of maps that show Ophir at the southern part of Arabia, below Sheba. This seems reasonable since Solomon seemed to have influence over the queen of Sheba.
This is an interesting note considering Tyre was north of Israel. Hiram was very dedicated to Solomon to send his naval personnel on this quest. It also notes the reach that Solomon's empire attained.