Gifts for building the temple
1King David said to all the people who came together: ‘God has chosen someone to build the temple. He has chosen my son Solomon. Solomon is young and he does not know everything. The work that he has to do is very important because he is not building a palace for people. He is building a temple for the Lord God. 2I did what I could to prepare for the building of the temple of my God. I have worked hard to get everything: the gold, silver, bronze, the wood for everything that they must build, and also onyx and other gemstones to put against the walls, stones of all colours and a lot of marble. 3I am also giving all the gold and silver that I have for the temple of my God. I want to do it for the temple of my God. I give it with everything that I have prepared for this holy temple. 4It is 3 000 talents of gold from the land of Ophir and 7 000 talents of silver. You must use it to cover the walls of the buildings 5and for the work that the artisans must do. They must make a lot of things from this gold and silver. And now I ask you: Who wants to give yourself to the living Lord and give gifts for building his temple?’
6The leaders of the families said that they wanted to give a lot, and so did the other leaders, the chiefs of 1 000 men and the chiefs of 100 men and the officials who worked for the king. 7They gave 5 000 talents of gold for the work at the temple and also 10 000 darics of gold, 10 000 talents of silver, 18 000 talents of bronze and 100 000 talents of iron. 8Everyone who had gemstones gave them at the store rooms of the temple. Jehiel from the Gershon family guarded it there. 9The people rejoiced because the leaders gave all these gifts that they wanted to give to the Lord. King David was also very happy.
David prays to the Lord
10David praised the Lord and all the people who came together heard him. David said:
‘Lord, God of our father Israel,
everyone must praise You
forever and ever.
11Everything that is important,
everything that is strong,
all the light, belongs to You.
Everyone knows about You,
the King in heaven and on earth.
Lord, You are King.
You are more important
than everyone and everything.
12You make people rich
and You give them honour.
It is You who rule over everything.
You are strong
and You can do anything.
It is You who make a person
big and strong.
13That is why we praise You, our God,
and we sing about your wonderful name.
14But who am I
and who are my people
to bring these things to You?
We bring it to You,
but everything comes from You
and we give it back to You.
All these things are yours.
15Because we are strangers
here on earth
like our forefathers also were.
We are near You because You say
we may come close to You.
Our life on earth is like a shadow,
and it will soon be gone.
16Lord our God,
we have prepared all these things
to build a temple for You,
the holy God,
but all these things come from You,
and everything belongs to You.
17My God, I know that You
test the heart of a person,
and You want us to be honest.
I have decided to give
all of these things to You,
and I have seen that your people here
have done the same.
That makes me very happy.
18Lord God of our fathers
Abraham, Isaac and Israel,
please help your people
so that they will always
be faithful to You and so that they
will always want to serve You.
19And help my son Solomon
so that he will obey your commandments
with all his heart,
and so that he will do everything
that You say.
Help him to do it all
and to build this temple
that I have prepared for him to build.’
Solomon sits on the throne of Israel
20Then David said to all the people who had come together: ‘You must now praise the Lord your God.’ Then all the people praised the Lord, the God of their forefathers. They bowed down low and knelt before the Lord and before the king.
21The next day they sacrificed_offerings for the Lord, and burnt-offerings. They sacrificed 1 000 bulls, 1 000 rams and 1 000 lambs with drink-offerings. All the Israelites gave lots of offerings. 22On that day they were all very happy before the Lord, eating and drinking. They made Solomon, son of David, king for the 2nd time and they anointed him to be the king who belongs to the Lord. They also anointed Zadok to be the priest. 23Solomon went and he sat down on the throne of the people of the Lord to be king after his father David. Solomon succeeded in everything he did and all the Israelites did what he said. 24All the leaders, the special men and the princes promised that they would listen to King Solomon. 25The Lord made Solomon very important and all the Israelites respected Solomon. Solomon became more important than any of the kings who had ruled over Israel.
David dies
(Also in 1 Kings 2:10-11)
26David, son of Jesse, was king over all the people of Israel. 27He was king_of_Israel for 40 years. He ruled in Hebron for 7 years and in Jerusalem for 33 years. 28David was old when he died. He had lived for many years, he was rich and people respected him. His son, Solomon, became king after him. 29The history of King David, from his beginning to his end, is written in the books of the prophet Samuel and in the books of the prophets Nathan and Gad. 30They wrote what David did while he was king, what great things he did, and everything that happened to him and to Israel and to the people in other lands.
