Solomon Builds the Temple^(A)

6 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Ziv (which is the second month), he began to build the house of the Lord.

² The house which King Solomon built for the Lord had a length of sixty cubits, a width of twenty cubits, and a height of thirty cubits.^{[a] 3} The porch in front of the temple was twenty cubits^[b] in length, the same as the width of the house, and ten cubits^[c] deep in front of the house. ⁴ He made beveled windows for the house. ⁵ He also built a structure against the wall of the house, running around the walls of the house, both of the temple and of the inner sanctuary, and he made side chambers all around. ⁶ The lowest story was five cubits^[d] broad, the middle one was six cubits^[e] broad, and the third was seven cubits^[f] broad. For around the outside of the house, he made offsets on the wall so that the supporting beams should not be inserted into the walls of the house.

⁷ The house was built of stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built.

⁸ The door for the middle chamber was in the right side of the house, and it had winding stairs into the middle chamber and out of the middle into the third. ⁹ So he built the house and finished it and covered it with beams and boards of cedar. ¹⁰ Then he built chambers against the whole house, five cubits high, and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.

¹¹ Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying, ¹² “Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in My statutes and execute My judgments and keep all My commandments and walk in them, then I will carry out My word with you, which I spoke to David your father, ¹³ and I will dwell among the people of Israel and will not forsake My people Israel.”

¹⁴ So Solomon built the house and finished it. ¹⁵ He built the interior walls of the house with boards of cedar. From the floor of the house to the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood; and he covered the floor of the house with planks of fir. ¹⁶ He lined twenty cubits on the sides of the house, both the floor and the walls, with boards of cedar, and he even lined them within, even the inner sanctuary and the Most Holy Place. ¹⁷ The house, that is, the nave in front of the inner sanctuary, was forty cubits^[g] long. ¹⁸ The cedar of the house within had carvings of gourds and open flowers. All was cedar. There was no stone seen.

¹⁹ He prepared the inner sanctuary in the inner part of the house in order to set there the ark of the covenant of the Lord. ²⁰ The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. He overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid the altar of cedar. ²¹ So Solomon overlaid the interior of the house with pure gold, and he made a partition with gold chains in front of the inner sanctuary, and he overlaid it with gold. ²² He overlaid the whole house with gold as well as the whole altar that was by the inner sanctuary.

²³ Within the inner sanctuary, he made two cherubim from olive wood, each ten cubits high. ²⁴ One wing of the cherub was five cubits, and the other wing was also five cubits. From the furthest part of the one wing to the furthest part of the other was ten cubits. ²⁵ The other cherub was ten cubits. Both the cherubim were the same shape and size. ²⁶ The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was that of the other cherub. ²⁷ He set the cherubim within the inner sanctuary, and they stretched forth the wings of the cherubim, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall, and their wings touched one another in the middle of the house. ²⁸ He overlaid the cherubim with gold.

²⁹ He carved all the walls of the house with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers both inside and out. ³⁰ He overlaid the floor of the house with gold, both inside and out.

³¹ For the entrance to the inner sanctuary, he made doors of olive wood; the lintel and doorposts were five-sided. ³² The two doors were also made of olive wood. He carved on them cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, overlaid them with gold, and spread gold upon the cherubim and upon the palm trees. ³³ So also he made for the entrance to the nave four-sided posts of olive wood. ³⁴ The two doors were made from fir tree, with two leaves of each door folding. ³⁵ He carved on them cherubim and palm trees and open flowers and covered them with gold fitted upon the carved work.

³⁶ He built the inner court with three rows of hewed stone and a row of cedar beams.

³⁷ In the fourth year, in the month Ziv, the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, ³⁸ and in the eleventh year, in the month Bul (which is the eighth month), the house was completely finished. All the details and plans were met. So he took seven years to build it.