¹ Solomon son of David then made himself secure over his kingdom. Yahweh his God was with him, making him more and more powerful.

² Solomon then spoke to all Israel, to the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, to the judges and to every leader in all Israel, the heads of families.

³ Solomon, and the whole assembly with him, then went to the high place at Gibeon, where God's Tent of Meeting was, which Moses, servant of God, had made in the desert.

⁴ The ark of the covenant, however, David had brought from Kiriath-Jearim to the place which he had prepared for it, having pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem.

⁵ The bronze altar which Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur, had made was there, in front of Yahweh's Dwelling, where Solomon and the assembly consulted him.

⁶ There Solomon presented a burnt offering before Yahweh on the bronze altar of the Tent of Meeting, making on it one thousand burnt offerings.

⁷ That night God appeared to Solomon and said, 'Ask what you would like me to give you.'

⁸ Solomon replied to God, 'You showed most faithful love to David my father, and you have made me king in succession to him.

⁹ Yahweh God, the promise you made to David my father has now been fulfilled, since you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth.

¹⁰ Therefore give me wisdom and knowledge to act as leader of this people, for how otherwise could such a great people as yours be governed?'

¹¹ 'Since that is what you want,' God said to Solomon, 'since you have asked, not for riches, treasure, honour, the lives of your enemies, or even for a long life, but for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people of whom I have made you king,

¹² therefore wisdom and knowledge are granted you. I give you riches too, and treasure, and honour such as no king had before you and none will have after you.'

¹³ So Solomon came away from the high place at Gibeon, from the Tent of Meeting, to Jerusalem and reigned over Israel.

¹⁴ Solomon then built up a force of chariots and cavalry; he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses; these he kept in the chariot towns and near the king at Jerusalem.

¹⁵ In Jerusalem the king made silver and gold as common as stones, and cedar wood as plentiful as sycamore in the lowlands.

¹⁶ Solomon's horses were imported from Muzur and Cilicia. The king's dealers acquired them in Cilicia at the prevailing price.

¹⁷ A chariot was imported from Egypt for six hundred silver shekels and a horse from Cilicia for a hundred and fifty. They also supplied the Hittite and Aramaean kings, who all used them as middlemen.

¹⁸ Solomon then gave the order to build a house for the name of Yahweh and a palace in which to reign.

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The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) is a Catholic translation of the Bible published in 1985. The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has become the most widely used Roman Catholic Bible outside of the United States. It has the imprimatur of Cardinal George Basil Hume.

Like its predecessor, the Jerusalem Bible, the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) version is translated "directly from the Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic." The 1973 French translation, the Bible de Jerusalem, is followed only "where the text admits to more than one interpretation." Introductions and notes, with some modifications, are taken from the Bible de Jerusalem.

Source: The Very Reverend Dom (Joseph) Henry Wansbrough, OSB, MA (Oxon), STL (Fribourg), LSS (Rome), a monk of Ampleforth Abbey and a biblical scholar. He was General Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible. "New Jerusalem Bible, Regular Edition", pg. v.

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