1 Kings 9:15-28
"15 And this is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon drafted to build the house of the Lord and his own house and the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer 16 (Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it with fire, and had killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and had given it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife; 17 so Solomon rebuilt Gezer) and Lower Beth-horon 18 and Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah, 19 and all the store cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. 20 All the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the people of Israel— 21 their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the people of Israel were unable to devote to destruction—these Solomon drafted to be slaves, and so they are to this day. 22 But of the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves. They were the soldiers, they were his officials, his commanders, his captains, his chariot commanders and his horsemen.
23 These were the chief officers who were over Solomon's work: 550 who had charge of the people who carried on the work.
24 But Pharaoh's daughter went up from the city of David to her own house that Solomon had built for her. Then he built the Millo.
25 Three times a year Solomon used to offer up burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar that he built to the Lord, making offerings with itbefore the Lord. So he finished the house.
26 King Solomon built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. 27 And Hiram sent with the fleet his servants, seamen who were familiar with the sea, together with the servants of Solomon. 28 And they went to Ophir and brought from there gold, 420 talents, and they brought it to King Solomon."
Solomon has sometimes been criticised for the burdens he laid on his people, and it certainly seems clear from what was said to Rehoboam, his son, after his death (12:3) that, latterly at any rate, those burdens were grievous. But this should not blind us to the significance of the picture that is presented in these verses. Solomon raised this great levy for peaceful uses. This is the great fact that faces us; it was not for war and conquest, but for the purposes of peaceful construction and expansion and development throughout the nation. The picture in 4:25 provides us with an apt summary of the effect of the wise king's administration, and this should be borne in mind when we try to make any assessment of his reign. We in modern days should be able in a particularly personal way to appreciate the greatness of his achievement, when we think of the enormous burden of taxation that is borne by the great nations of the earth for the purpose of sustaining the arms race and the stockpiling of nuclear warheads. Solomon apparently succeeded in doing what we have signally failed to do, to exploit the na- tion's wealth for peaceful uses, instead of using it to threaten universal destruction. How was this achieved? Look at 25. For all its faults, his was a God-centred reign. He recognized the truth expressed by the Psalmist that 'except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.' This has all too clearly been forgotten today. So great is the contrast between the old and the new.
