2 Chronicles 8 - Summary

After twenty years of building the temple and his palace, Solomon fortified the cities Hiram had given him and settled Israelites there, conquered Hamath-zobah, built store cities, and used the remaining non-Israelite populations as forced laborers while Israelites served as soldiers and officials. Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter from the city of David to the palace he had built for her, recognizing that the places the ark had entered were holy and unsuitable for a foreign wife. He maintained the appointed offerings for sabbaths, new moons, and three annual feasts according to the ordinance of David his father, and established the priestly and Levitical courses; his fleet at Ezion-geber sailed to Ophir with Hiram's servants, returning with 450 talents of gold.