The Daily Audio Bible

Solomon Asks Hiram To Help Build the Temple

(2 Chronicles 2.1-16)

5 King Hiram of Tyre^[a] had always been friends with Solomon's father David. When Hiram learned that Solomon was king, he sent some of his officials to meet with Solomon.

² Solomon sent a message back to Hiram:

³ Remember how my father David wanted to build a temple where the Lord his God could be worshiped? But enemies kept attacking my father's kingdom, and he never had the chance. ⁴ Now, thanks to the Lord God, there is peace in my kingdom and no trouble or threat of war anywhere.

^5 (A) The Lord God promised my father that when his son became king, he would build a temple for worshiping the Lord. So I've decided to do that.

⁶ I'd like you to send your workers to cut down cedar trees in Lebanon for me. I will pay them whatever you say and will even have my workers help them. We both know that your workers are more experienced than anyone else at cutting lumber.

⁷ Hiram was so happy when he heard Solomon's request that he said, “I am grateful that the Lord gave David such a wise son to be king of that great nation!” ⁸ Then he sent back his answer:

I received your message and will give you all the cedar and pine logs you need. ⁹ My workers will carry them down from Lebanon to the Mediterranean Sea. They will tie the logs together and float them along the coast to wherever you want them. Then they will untie the logs, and your workers can take them from there.

To pay for the logs, you can provide the grain I need for my household.

¹⁰ Hiram gave Solomon all the cedar and pine logs he needed. ¹¹ In return, Solomon gave Hiram over 2,000 tons of wheat and almost 4,000 liters of pure olive oil each year.

¹² The Lord kept his promise and made Solomon wise. Hiram and Solomon signed a treaty and never went to war against each other.

Solomon's Workers

¹³ Solomon ordered 30,000 people from all over Israel to cut logs for the temple, ^14 (B) and he put Adoniram in charge of these workers. Solomon divided them into three groups of 10,000. Each group worked one month in Lebanon and had two months off at home.

¹⁵ He also had 80,000 workers to cut stone in the hill country of Israel, 70,000 workers to carry the stones, ¹⁶ and over 3,000 assistants to keep track of the work and to supervise the workers. ¹⁷ He ordered the workers to cut and shape large blocks of good stone for the foundation of the temple.

¹⁸ Solomon's and Hiram's men worked with men from the city of Gebal,^[b] and together they got the stones and logs ready for the temple.

The Outside of the Temple Is Completed

6 Solomon's workers started building the temple during Ziv,^[c] the second month of the year. It had been 4 years since Solomon became king of Israel, and 480 years since the people of Israel left Egypt.

² The inside of the Lord's temple was 27 meters long, 9 meters wide, and 13.5 meters high. ³ A four-and-a-half-meter porch went all the way across the front of the temple. ⁴ The windows were narrow on the outside but wide on the inside.

^5-6 Along the sides and back of the temple, there were three levels of storage rooms. The rooms on the bottom level were just over two meters wide, the rooms on the middle level were over two and a half meters wide, and those on the top level were just over three meters wide. There were ledges on the outside of the temple that supported the beams of the storage rooms, so that nothing was built into the temple walls.

⁷ Solomon did not want the noise of hammers and axes to be heard at the place where the temple was being built. So he gave orders for the workers to shape the blocks of stone at the quarry.

⁸ The entrance to the bottom storage rooms was on the south side of the building, and stairs to the other rooms were also there. ⁹ The roof of the temple was made out of beams and cedar boards.

The workers finished building the outside of the temple. ¹⁰ Storage rooms just over two meters high were all around the temple, and they were attached to the temple by cedar beams.

¹¹ The Lord told Solomon:

^12-13 If you obey my commands and do what I say, I will keep the promise I made to your father David. I will live among my people Israel in this temple you are building, and I will not desert them.

¹⁴ So Solomon's workers finished building the temple.

The Inside of the Temple Is Furnished

(2 Chronicles 3.8-14)

¹⁵ The floor of the temple was made out of pine, and the walls were lined with cedar from floor to ceiling.^[d]

^16 (C) The most holy place was in the back of the temple, and it was nine meters square. Cedar boards standing from floor to ceiling^[e] separated it from the rest of the temple. ¹⁷ The temple's main room was 18 meters long, and it was in front of the most holy place.

¹⁸ The inside walls were lined with cedar to hide the stones, and the cedar was decorated with carvings of gourds and flowers.

¹⁹ The sacred chest was kept in the most holy place. ^20-22 (D) This room was nine meters long, nine meters wide, and nine meters high, and it was lined with pure gold. There were also gold chains across the front of the most holy place. The inside of the temple, as well as the cedar altar in the most holy place, was covered with gold.

^23 (E) Solomon had two statues of winged creatures^[f] made from olive wood to put in the most holy place. Each creature was four and a half meters tall ^24-26 and four and a half meters across. They had two wings, and the wings were just over two meters long. ²⁷ Solomon put them next to each other in the most holy place. Their wings were spread out and reached across the room. ²⁸ The creatures were also covered with gold.

²⁹ The walls of the two rooms were decorated with carvings of palm trees, flowers, and winged creatures. ³⁰ Even the floor was covered with gold.

^31-32 The two doors to the most holy place were made out of olive wood and were decorated with carvings of palm trees, flowers, and winged creatures. The doors and the carvings were covered with gold. The door frame came to a point at the top.

^33-34 The two doors to the main room of the temple were made out of pine, and each one had two sections^[g] so they could fold open. The door frame was shaped like a rectangle and was made out of olive wood. ³⁵ The doors were covered with gold and were decorated with carvings of palm trees, flowers, and winged creatures.

³⁶ The inner courtyard of the temple had walls made out of three layers of cut stones with one layer of cedar beams.

³⁷ Work began on the temple during Ziv,^[h] the second month of the year, four years after Solomon became king of Israel. ³⁸ Seven years later the workers finished building it during Bul,^[i] the eighth month of the year. It was built exactly as it had been planned.

Stephen's Speech

7 The high priest asked Stephen, “Are they telling the truth about you?”

^2 (A) Stephen answered:

Friends, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he had moved to Haran. ³ God told him, “Leave your country and your relatives and go to a land that I will show you.” ^4 (B) Then Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran.

After his father died, Abraham came and settled in this land where you now live. ^5 (C) God didn't give him any part of it, not even a square meter. But God did promise to give it to him and his family forever, even though Abraham didn't have any children. ^6 (D) God said Abraham's descendants would live for a while in a foreign land. There they would be slaves and would be mistreated 400 years. ^7 (E) But he also said, “I will punish the nation that makes them slaves. Then later they will come and worship me in this place.”

^8 (F) God said to Abraham, “Every son in each family must be circumcised to show you have kept your agreement with me.” So when Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him. Later, Isaac circumcised his son Jacob, and Jacob circumcised his twelve sons. ^9 (G) These men were our ancestors.

Joseph was also one of our famous ancestors. His brothers were jealous of him and sold him as a slave to be taken to Egypt. But God was with him ^10 (H) and rescued him from all his troubles. God made him so wise that the Egyptian king Pharaoh thought highly of him. The king even made Joseph governor over Egypt and put him in charge of everything he owned.

^11 (I) Everywhere in Egypt and Canaan the grain crops failed. There was terrible suffering, and our ancestors could not find enough to eat. ¹² But when Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there for the first time. ^13 (J) It was on their second trip that Joseph told his brothers who he was, and the king learned about Joseph's family.

^14 (K) Joseph sent for his father and his relatives. In all, there were 75 of them. ^15 (L) His father went to Egypt and died there, just as our ancestors did. ^16 (M) Later their bodies were taken back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor.

^17 (N) Finally, the time came for God to do what he had promised Abraham. By then the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased. ¹⁸ Another king was ruling Egypt, and he didn't know anything about Joseph. ^19 (O) He tricked our ancestors and was cruel to them. He even made them leave their babies outside, so they would die.

^20 (P) During this time Moses was born. He was a very beautiful child, and for three months his parents took care of him in their home. ^21 (Q) Then when they were forced to leave him outside, the king's daughter found him and raised him as her own son. ²² Moses was given the best education in Egypt. He was a strong man and a powerful speaker.

^23 (R) When Moses was 40 years old, he wanted to help the Israelites because they were his own people. ²⁴ One day he saw an Egyptian mistreating one of them. So he rescued the man and killed the Egyptian. ²⁵ Moses thought the rest of his people would realize God was going to use him to set them free. But they didn't understand.

²⁶ The next day Moses saw two of his own people fighting, and he tried to make them stop. He said, “Men, you are both Israelites. Why are you so cruel to each other?”

²⁷ But the man who had started the fight pushed Moses aside and asked, “Who made you our ruler and judge? ²⁸ Are you going to kill me, just as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?” ^29 (S) When Moses heard this, he ran away to live in the country of Midian. His two sons were born there.

(A song by Solomon for worship.)

Only the Lord Can Bless a Home