1. It took twenty years for the Lord's temple and Solomon's palace to be built.
2. After that, Solomon's workers rebuilt the towns that Hiram had given him. Then Solomon sent Israelites to live in those towns.
3. Solomon attacked and captured the town of Hamath-Zobah.
4. He made his workers build the town of Tadmor in the desert and some towns in Hamath where he could keep his supplies.
5. He strengthened Upper Beth-Horon and Lower Beth-Horon by adding walls and gates that could be locked.
6. He did the same thing to the town of Baalath and to the cities where he kept supplies, chariots, and horses. Solomon made his workers build whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and anywhere else in his kingdom.
7-9. Solomon did not force the Israelites to do his work. Instead, they were his soldiers, officers, army commanders, and cavalry troops. But he did make slaves of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites who were living in Israel. These were the descendants of those foreigners the Israelites did not destroy, and they remained Israel's slaves.
10. Solomon appointed two hundred and fifty officers to be in charge of his workers.
11. Solomon's wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt, moved from the part of Jerusalem called David's City to her new palace that Solomon had built. The sacred chest had been kept in David's City, which made his palace sacred, and so Solomon's wife could no longer live there.