King Solomon speaks to his people
1 David's son Solomon made himself a strong ruler over his kingdom. The Lord his God was with Solomon, so that he became a great king.
1:1King David died about 970 BC.
1:1When we write Lord like this, it is a special name for God. Sometimes people write it as the Hebrew name ‘Yahweh’. It is God's own name that he told Moses. See Exodus 3:14. It means ‘I am who I am’. This shows that God has always been there and he always will be there. 2 Solomon called all the people of Israel to come together. They included the army officers who had authority over 1,000 men, and those who had authority over 100 men. They also included the judges, the leaders in Israel and the leaders of families. 3 Then Solomon went with all those people to Gibeon town to worship God. The special tent that the Lord's servant Moses had made in the desert was there. It was the tent where God met with his people.
1:3Moses was a great leader of the Israelites, who gave God's laws to the people.
4 Before that, King David had brought God's Covenant Box from Kiriath-Jearim to Jerusalem. He had prepared a place for it in a tent there. 5 But the bronze altar that Bezalel had made was in Gibeon, in front of the Lord's tent. (Bezalel was the son of Uri, and the grandson of Hur.)
1:4Jerusalem was the capital city of Israel.
So Solomon and the people went to meet the Lord there in Gibeon. 6 Solomon went up to the bronze altar which was in front of the Lord's special tent. He offered 1,000 burnt offerings on the altar to the Lord.
