15. After Solomon's workers had finished the temple and the palace, he ordered them to fill in the land on the east side of Jerusalem, to build a wall around the city, and to rebuild the towns of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.
16. Earlier, the king of Egypt had captured the town of Gezer; he burnt it to the ground and killed the Canaanite people living there. Then he gave it to his daughter as a wedding present when she married Solomon.
17. So Solomon had the town rebuilt.Solomon made his workers rebuild Lower Beth-Horon,
18. Baalath, and Tamar in the desert of Judah.
19. They also built towns where he could keep his supplies and his chariots and horses. Solomon made them build whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and anywhere in his kingdom.
20-22. Solomon did not force the Israelites to do his work. They were his soldiers, officials, leaders, commanders, chariot captains, and chariot drivers. But he did make slaves of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites who were living in Israel. These were the descendants of those foreigners the Israelites could not destroy, and they remained Israel's slaves.
23. Solomon appointed five hundred and fifty officers to be in charge of his workers and to watch over his building projects.
24. Solomon's wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt, moved from the older part of Jerusalem to her new palace. Then Solomon had the land on the east side of Jerusalem filled in.
25. Three times a year, Solomon burnt incense and offered sacrifices to the Lord on the altar he had built.Solomon had now finished building the Lord's temple.
26. He also had a lot of ships at Ezion-Geber, a town in Edom near Eloth on the Red Sea.
27-28. King Hiram let some of his experienced sailors go to the country of Ophir with Solomon's own sailors, and they brought back about fourteen thousand kilogrammes of gold for Solomon.