Chapter 6

Building of the Temple.^{[a] 1} In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites went forth from the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv (the second month), he began to build the house of the Lord.^[b]

² The house which King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty wide, and thirty high. ³ The porch in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits from side to side along the width of the house, and ten cubits deep in front of the house. ⁴ Windows with closed lattices were made for the house, ⁵ and adjoining the wall of the house he built a substructure around its walls that enclosed the nave and the inner sanctuary, and he made side chambers all around. ⁶ The lowest story was five cubits wide, the middle one six cubits wide, the third seven cubits wide, because he put recesses along the outside of the house to avoid fastening anything into the walls of the house. ⁷ The house was built of stone dressed at the quarry, so that no hammer or ax, no iron tool, was to be heard in the house during its construction. ⁸ The entrance to the middle story was on the south side of the house; stairs led up to the middle story and from the middle story to the third. ⁹ When he had finished building the house, it was roofed in with rafters and boards of cedar. ¹⁰ He built the substructure five cubits high all along the outside of the house, to which it was joined by cedar beams.

¹¹ The word of the Lord came to Solomon: ^12 (A)As to this house you are building—if you walk in my statutes, carry out my ordinances, and observe all my commands, walking in them, I will fulfill toward you my word which I spoke to David your father. ¹³ I will dwell in the midst of the Israelites and will not forsake my people Israel.

¹⁴ When Solomon finished building the house, ¹⁵ its inside walls were lined with cedar paneling: he covered the interior with wood from floor to ceiling, and he covered its floor with fir planking. ¹⁶ At the rear of the house a space of twenty cubits was set off by cedar panels from the floor to the ceiling, enclosing the inner sanctuary, the holy of holies. ¹⁷ The house was forty cubits long, that is, the nave, the part in front. ¹⁸ The cedar in the interior of the house was carved in the form of gourds and open flowers; all was of cedar, and no stone was to be seen.

¹⁹ In the innermost part of the house^[c] he set up the inner sanctuary to house the ark of the Lord’s covenant. ²⁰ In front of the inner sanctuary (it was twenty cubits long, twenty wide, and twenty high, and he covered it with pure gold), he made an altar of cedar. ²¹ Solomon covered the interior of the house with pure gold, and he drew golden chains across in front of the inner sanctuary, and covered it with gold. ²² He covered the whole house with gold, until the whole house was done, and the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary he covered with gold. ²³ In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim, each ten cubits high, made of pine. ²⁴ Each wing of a cherub was five cubits so that the span from wing tip to wing tip was ten cubits. ²⁵ The second cherub was also ten cubits: the two cherubim were identical in size and shape; ²⁶ the first cherub was ten cubits high, and so was the second. ²⁷ He placed the cherubim in the inmost part of the house; the wings of the cherubim were spread wide, so that one wing of the first touched the side wall and the wing of the second touched the other wall; the wings pointing to the middle of the room touched each other. ²⁸ He overlaid the cherubim with gold.

²⁹ The walls of the house on all sides of both the inner and the outer rooms had carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. ³⁰ The floor of the house of both the inner and the outer rooms was overlaid with gold. ³¹ At the entrance of the inner sanctuary, doors of pine were made; the doorframes had five-sided posts. ³² The two doors were of pine, with carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. The doors were overlaid with gold, and the cherubim and the palm trees were also covered with beaten gold. ³³ He did the same at the entrance to the nave, where the doorposts were of pine and were four-sided. ³⁴ The two doors were of fir wood, each door consisting of two panels hinged together; ³⁵ and he carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and plated them with gold. ³⁶ He walled off the inner court with three courses of hewn stones and one course of cedar beams.

³⁷ The foundations of the Lord’s house were laid in the month of Ziv in the fourth year, ³⁸ and it was finished, in all particulars, exactly according to plan, in the month of Bul, the eighth month, in the eleventh year. Thus Solomon built it in seven years.