This section starts off with God offering King Solomon whatever he asks for. Solomon, being nearly as awesome as his dad, asks for wisdom so that he might better rule over his people. God grants him this and, because Solomon wasn't selfish and asked for power and wealth, God is going to give him all those worldly pleasures anyway! That's like the super jackpot right there.
Indeed, Israel was so prosperous under Solomon that silver and gold were "as common in Jerusalem as stone (1:15)." Now, it seems very unlikely that the Chronicler took an accurate tally of the number of stones in the city and compared it with an accurate tally of the gold and silver. This is a generalization, people! The Chronicler is saying that Israel was stinking rich during this time. It's fluid, poetic language. Don't take it all so literally, as you are oft instructed to do. For if you did take this literally, basic economics and inflation would seem to imply that, because there's so much gold in Jerusalem, gold within the city is practically worthless (as worthless as a stone, even!). And this would be the exact opposite of the point the verse is trying to convey.
Moving along, Solomon begins to build the Temple, as his father previously instructed. Solomon takes the foreigners living in Israel and conscripts them into forced labor to construct the Temple. Nice way to exploit immigrants. The king also recruits Huram-abi, a skilled artisan from Tyre to work on some of the finer attributes of the Temple.
We then get a detailed description of the schematics and decor of the Temple. While it's mostly similar to the details we get in Kings, there are some discrepancies. Where these occur, the Chronicler's version tends to make the Temple larger and grander than the author of Kings does. Anyone else noticing a pattern in the Chronicler's agenda?
Solomon brings the Ark into the Temple, gathers the people, and says a dedication prayer. God responds by sending down fire to ignite the burnt offerings and a cloud (the presence of the Lord) then occupies the Inner Sanctuary. Then the people party! A festival is held for 7 days to celebrate the finishing of the Temple.Later the famous queen of Sheba comes to test Solomon's wisdom and is thoroughly impressed by the dude. Then King Solomon dies and his son Rehoboam succeeds him. The end.
Wait! What about....?
Yes, yes, I know. The Chronicler takes the same route he did with David and omits any negative aspects of Solomon. So, no, there's no mention of the multitude of foreign wives and Solomon's tendency to worship their gods in his later life. Sorry, you'll just have to go back to Kings again for that part as well.
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