111 And Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, and got together the men of Judah and Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand of his best fighting-men, to make war against Israel and get the kingdom back for Rehoboam. 2 But the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, the man of God, saying, 3 Say to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, 4 The Lord has said, You are not to go to war against your brothers: let every man go back to his house, for this thing is my purpose. So they gave ear to the words of the Lord and were turned back from fighting against Jeroboam.

The Prosperity of Rehoboam

5 Now Rehoboam kept in Jerusalem, building walled towns in Judah. 6 He was the builder of Beth-lehem and Etam and Tekoa 7 And Beth-zur and Soco and Adullam 8 And Gath and Mareshah and Ziph 9 And Adoraim and Lachish and Azekah 10 And Zorah and Aijalon and Hebron, walled towns in Judah and Benjamin. 11 And he made the walled towns strong, and he put captains in them and stores of food, oil, and wine. 12 And in every town he put stores of body-covers and spears, and made them very strong. And Judah and Benjamin were his.

13 And the priests and Levites who were in all Israel came together to him from every part of their country. 14 For the Levites gave up their living-places and their property, and came to Judah and Jerusalem; for Jeroboam and his sons had sent them away, not letting them be priests to the Lord; 15 And he himself made priests for the high places, and for the images of he-goats and oxen which he had made. 16 And after them, from all the tribes of Israel, all those whose hearts were fixed and true to the Lord, the God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to make offerings to the Lord, the God of their fathers. 17 So they went on increasing the power of the kingdom of Judah, and made Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, strong for three years; and for three years they went in the ways of David and Solomon. 18 And Rehoboam took as his wife Mahalath, the daughter of Jerimoth, the son of David and of Abihail, the daughter of Eliab, the son of Jesse; 19 And she had sons by him, Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham. 20 And after her he took Maacah, the daughter of Absalom; and she had Abijah and Attai and Ziza and Shelomith by him. 21 Maacah, the daughter of Absalom, was dearer to Rehoboam than all his wives and his servant-wives: (for he had eighteen wives and sixty servant-wives, and was the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.) 22 Rehoboam made Abijah, the son of Maacah, chief and ruler among his brothers, for it was his purpose to make him king. 23 And in his wisdom he had his sons stationed in every walled town through all the lands of Judah and Benjamin; and he gave them a great store of food, and took wives for them.

Solomon Builds the House of the LORD

31 Then Solomon made a start at building the house of the Lord on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, where the Lord had been seen by his father David, in the place which David had made ready in the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 2 The building was started in the second month in the fourth year of his rule. 3 And Solomon put the base of the house of God in position; by the older measure it was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. 4 And the covered way in front of the house was twenty cubits long, as wide as the house, and a hundred and twenty cubits high, all plated inside with the best gold. 5 And the greater house was roofed with cypress-wood, plated with the best gold and ornamented with designs of palm-trees and chains. 6 And the house was made beautiful with stones of great value, and the gold was gold of Parvaim. 7 All the house was plated with gold, the supports, the steps, the walls and the doors; and the walls were ornamented with designs of winged ones. 8 And he made the most holy place; it was twenty cubits long, and twenty cubits wide, like the greater house, and was plated all over with the best gold; six hundred talents were used for it. 9 And fifty shekels weight of gold was used for the nails. He had all the higher rooms plated with gold.

10 And in the most holy place he made images of two winged beings, covering them with gold. 11 Their outstretched wings were twenty cubits across; one wing, five cubits long, touching the wall of the house, and the other, of the same size, meeting the wing of the other winged one. 12 And in the same way, the wings of the other, five cubits long, were stretched out, one touching the wall and the other meeting the wing of the first winged one. 13 Their outstretched wings were twenty cubits across; they were placed upright on their feet, facing the inner part of the house. 14 And he made the veil of blue and purple and red, of the best linen, worked with winged ones.

The Two Pillars

15 And in front of the house he made two pillars, thirty-five cubits high, with crowns on the tops of them, five cubits high. 16 And he made chains, like neck ornaments, and put them on the tops of the pillars, and a hundred apples on the chains. 17 He put up the pillars in front of the Temple, one on the right side and one on the left, naming the one on the right Jachin and that on the left Boaz.