2 Chronicles 8:1-10

Solomon builds more towns

1 Solomon was building the Lord's temple and the king's palace for 20 years. 2 After that, he built again the towns that King Hiram had given to him. He sent Israelites to live in them.

3 Then Solomon went to Hamath-Zobah and he took it for Israel. 4 He made the buildings in Tadmor strong again. That was a town in the wilderness. He did the same thing for the towns that he had built in Hamath region to store things. 5 He built again Higher Beth-Horon and Lower Beth-Horon. He made those cities strong. He built walls around them with strong gates. 6 He also made Baalath strong, and all his cities where he stored things, as well as all the cities where he kept his chariots and horses. He built everything that he wanted to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and everywhere in his kingdom.

7 Solomon only made people who were not Israelites do the hard work for him. They were Canaanite people who still lived in the land after the Israelites took it for themselves. They were Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 8 The Israelites had not been able to destroy all of these people, so their descendants remained in the land. So Solomon made them do hard work as his slaves. They are still slaves of the Israelites today. 9 But Solomon did not cause any Israelites to do the hard work as slaves. Instead, they became his soldiers and army officers. Some of the soldiers drove chariots and some were leaders of the chariot drivers. 10 King Solomon had 250 Israelite officers who had authority over the workers.