CHAPTER 29

¹And King David said to all the assembly: “Solomon my son, him alone has God chosen, an untried lad, and the task is great, for the structure is not for a human being but for the LORD God. ²And with all my force I have readied for the house of my God the gold for what is to be gold and the silver for what is to be silver and the bronze for what is to be bronze, the iron for what is to be iron, and the wood for what is to be wood, onyx stone and inlays, stone of antimony and for mosaics and every precious stone and marble in abundance. ³And yet more, in my fondness for the house of my God I have given of my own treasure gold and silver for the house of my God beyond what I readied for the holy house ⁴three thousand talents of gold from the gold of Ophir and seven thousand talents of refined silver to overlay the walls of the house, ⁵gold for what is to be gold, silver for what is to be silver and for every task in the hands of the craftsmen. And who will answer the call today to dedicate himself to the LORD?” ⁶And the officers of the patriarchal houses and the officers of the tribes of Israel and the officers of the thousands and of the hundreds answered the call for the king’s task. ⁷And they gave five thousand talents of gold and ten thousand drachmas and ten thousand talents of silver and ten thousand talents of bronze and one hundred thousand talents of iron for the work of the house of God. ⁸And whoever had with him gemstones gave them to the treasury of the house of the LORD through Jehiel the Gershonite. ⁹And the people rejoiced for having answered the call, for with a whole heart they answered the call to the LORD, and King David, too, greatly rejoiced. ¹⁰And David blessed the LORD before the eyes of all the assembly, and David said: “Blessed are you, O LORD, God of Israel, our father from everlasting to everlasting. ¹¹Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the might and the splendor and the triumph and the grandeur, indeed, all in the heavens and on the earth. Yours, O LORD, is the kingship, and what is exalted as head over all. ¹²And wealth and glory are before You, and You rule over all. And in Your hand are power and might, and it is in Your hand to magnify and strengthen them all. ¹³And now, God, we acclaim You and praise Your splendid name. ¹⁴And who am I and who is my people that we should summon power to answer the call in this way? For all things are from You and from Your own hand we have given to You. ¹⁵For we are sojourners before You and fleeting settlers like all our fathers. Like a shadow are our days on the earth, and there is no gathering together. ¹⁶O LORD our God, all this wealth that I have readied to build You a house for Your holy name is from Your hand, and all is Yours. ¹⁷And I know, O my God, that You probe the heart and delight in uprightness. I in my heart’s uprightness have answered the call with all these things, and now Your people who are here I have joyfully seen them answering the call for You. ¹⁸LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel our fathers, keep this forever as the inclination of the plans of Your people’s heart, and make their heart stay firm toward You. ¹⁹And to Solomon my son grant wholeheartedness to keep Your commands, Your precepts, and Your statutes, to do everything, to build the structure that I have readied.” ²⁰And David said to all the assembly, “Bless the LORD your God.” And all the assembly blessed the LORD God of their fathers, and did obeisance and bowed down to the LORD and to the king. ²¹And they sacrificed to the LORD and offered up burnt offerings on the morrow of that day—a thousand bulls, a thousand sheep and their libations, and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel. ²²And they ate before the LORD on that day with great rejoicing, and they made Solomon son of David king a second time and anointed him to the LORD as ruler and Zadok as priest. ²³And Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king instead of David his father, and he prospered, and all Israel obeyed him. ²⁴And all the officers and the warriors and also the sons of King David gave their hand in fealty to King Solomon. ²⁵And the LORD made Solomon very great in the eyes of all Israel and conferred upon him a majesty of kingship that no king before him had possessed over Israel. ²⁶And David son of Jesse had been king over all Israel. ²⁷And the time that he was king over Israel was forty years. Seven years he was king in Hebron, and in Jerusalem he was king thirty-three years. ²⁸And he died in ripe old age sated with days, wealth, and honor, and Solomon his son was king in his stead. ²⁹And the acts of King David, early and late, are written down in the records of Samuel the seer and in the records of Nathan the prophet and in the records of Gad the visionary ³⁰with all his kingship and his valor and the times that passed over him and over Israel and over all the kingdoms of the lands.