Solomon’s Other Buildings

7 But Solomon took ^(A)thirteen years to build his own house; so he finished all his house.

² He also built the ^(B)House of the Forest of Lebanon; its length was ^[a]one hundred cubits, its width ^[b]fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits, with four rows of cedar pillars, and cedar beams on the pillars. ³ And it was paneled with cedar above the beams that were on forty-five pillars, fifteen to a row. ⁴ There were windows with beveled frames in three rows, and window was opposite window in three tiers. ⁵ And all the doorways and doorposts had rectangular frames; and window was opposite window in three tiers.

⁶ He also made the Hall of Pillars: its length was fifty cubits, and its width thirty cubits; and in front of them was a portico with pillars, and a canopy was in front of them.

⁷ Then he made a hall for the throne, the Hall of Judgment, where he might judge; and it was paneled with cedar from floor to ^[c]ceiling.

⁸ And the house where he dwelt had another court inside the hall, of like workmanship. Solomon also made a house like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, ^(C)whom he had taken as wife.

⁹ All these were of costly stones cut to size, trimmed with saws, inside and out, from the foundation to the eaves, and also on the outside to the great court. ¹⁰ The foundation was of costly stones, large stones, some ten cubits and some eight cubits. ¹¹ And above were costly stones, hewn to size, and cedar wood. ¹² The great court was enclosed with three rows of hewn stones and a row of cedar beams. So were the ^(D)inner court of the house of the Lord ^(E)and the vestibule of the temple.

Hiram the Craftsman

¹³ Now King Solomon sent and brought ^[d]Huram from Tyre. ^14 (F)He was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and ^(G)his father was a man of Tyre, a bronze worker; ^(H)he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill in working with all kinds of bronze work. So he came to King Solomon and did all his work.

The Bronze Pillars for the Temple^(I)

¹⁵ And he ^[e]cast ^(J)two pillars of bronze, each one eighteen cubits high, and a line of twelve cubits measured the circumference of each. ¹⁶ Then he made two capitals of cast bronze, to set on the tops of the pillars. The height of one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other capital was five cubits. ¹⁷ He made a lattice network, with wreaths of chainwork, for the capitals which were on top of the pillars: seven chains for one capital and seven for the other capital. ¹⁸ So he made the pillars, and two rows of pomegranates above the network all around to cover the capitals that were on top; and thus he did for the other capital.

¹⁹ The capitals which were on top of the pillars in the hall were in the shape of lilies, four cubits. ²⁰ The capitals on the two pillars also had pomegranates above, by the convex surface which was next to the network; and there were ^(K)two hundred such pomegranates in rows on each of the capitals all around.

^21 (L)Then he set up the pillars by the vestibule of the temple; he set up the pillar on the right and called its name ^[f]Jachin, and he set up the pillar on the left and called its name ^[g]Boaz. ²² The tops of the pillars were in the shape of lilies. So the work of the pillars was finished.

The Sea and the Oxen

²³ And he made ^(M)the Sea of cast bronze, ten cubits from one brim to the other; it was completely round. Its height was five cubits, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference.

²⁴ Below its brim were ornamental buds encircling it all around, ten to a cubit, ^(N)all the way around the Sea. The ornamental buds were cast in two rows when it was cast. ²⁵ It stood on ^(O)twelve oxen: three looking toward the north, three looking toward the west, three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east; the Sea was set upon them, and all their back parts pointed inward. ²⁶ It was a handbreadth thick; and its brim was shaped like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It contained ^[h]two thousand baths.

The Carts and the Lavers

²⁷ He also made ten ^[i]carts of bronze; four cubits was the length of each cart, four cubits its width, and three cubits its height. ²⁸ And this was the design of the carts: They had panels, and the panels were between frames; ²⁹ on the panels that were between the frames were lions, oxen, and cherubim. And on the frames was a pedestal on top. Below the lions and oxen were wreaths of plaited work. ³⁰ Every cart had four bronze wheels and axles of bronze, and its four feet had supports. Under the laver were supports of cast bronze beside each wreath. ³¹ Its opening inside the crown at the top was one cubit in diameter; and the opening was round, shaped like a pedestal, one and a half cubits in outside diameter; and also on the opening were engravings, but the panels were square, not round. ³² Under the panels were the four wheels, and the axles of the wheels were joined to the cart. The height of a wheel was one and a half cubits. ³³ The workmanship of the wheels was like the workmanship of a chariot wheel; their axle pins, their rims, their spokes, and their hubs were all of cast bronze. ³⁴ And there were four supports at the four corners of each cart; its supports were part of the cart itself. ³⁵ On the top of the cart, at the height of half a cubit, it was perfectly round. And on the top of the cart, its flanges and its panels were of the same casting. ³⁶ On the plates of its flanges and on its panels he engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, wherever there was a clear space on each, with wreaths all around. ³⁷ Thus he made the ten carts. All of them were of ^[j]the same mold, one measure, and one shape.

³⁸ Then ^(P)he made ten lavers of bronze; each laver contained ^[k]forty baths, and each laver was four cubits. On each of the ten carts was a laver. ³⁹ And he put five carts on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house. He set the Sea on the right side of the house, toward the southeast.

Furnishings of the Temple^(Q)

^40 (R)Huram^[l] made the lavers and the shovels and the bowls. So Huram finished doing all the work that he was to do for King Solomon for the house of the Lord: ⁴¹ the two pillars, the two bowl-shaped capitals that were on top of the two pillars; the two ^(S)networks covering the two bowl-shaped capitals which were on top of the pillars; ^42 (T)four hundred pomegranates for the two networks (two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowl-shaped capitals that were on top of the pillars); ⁴³ the ten carts, and ten lavers on the carts; ⁴⁴ one Sea, and twelve oxen under the Sea; ^45 (U)the pots, the shovels, and the bowls.

All these articles which ^[m]Huram made for King Solomon for the house of the Lord were of burnished bronze. ^46 (V)In the plain of Jordan the king had them cast in clay molds, between ^(W)Succoth and ^(X)Zaretan. ⁴⁷ And Solomon did not weigh all the articles, because there were so many; the weight of the bronze was not ^(Y)determined.

⁴⁸ Thus Solomon had all the furnishings made for the house of the Lord: ^(Z)the altar of gold, and ^(AA)the table of gold on which was ^(AB)the showbread; ⁴⁹ the lampstands of pure gold, five on the right side and five on the left in front of the inner sanctuary, with the flowers and the lamps and the wick-trimmers of gold; ⁵⁰ the basins, the trimmers, the bowls, the ladles, and the ^[n]censers of pure gold; and the hinges of gold, both for the doors of the inner room (the Most Holy Place) and for the doors of the main hall of the temple.

⁵¹ So all the work that King Solomon had done for the house of the Lord was finished; and Solomon brought in the things ^(AC)which his father David had dedicated: the silver and the gold and the furnishings. He put them in the treasuries of the house of the Lord.

^30 (A)“And when forty years had passed, an Angel ^[a]of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. ³¹ When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, ³² saying, ^(B)‘I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and dared not look. ^33 (C)‘Then the Lord said to him, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. ³⁴ I have surely ^(D)seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will ^(E)send you to Egypt.” ’

³⁵ “This Moses whom they rejected, saying, ^(F)‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer ^(G)by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush. ^36 (H)He brought them out, after he had ^(I)shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, ^(J)and in the Red Sea, ^(K)and in the wilderness forty years.

Israel Rebels Against God

³⁷ “This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ^(L)‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. ^(M)Him^[b] you shall hear.’

^38 (N)“This is he who was in the ^[c]congregation in the wilderness with ^(O)the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, ^(P)the one who received the living ^(Q)oracles^[d] to give to us, ³⁹ whom our fathers ^(R)would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, ^40 (S)saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ ^41 (T)And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and ^(U)rejoiced in the works of their own hands. ⁴² Then ^(V)God turned and gave them up to worship ^(W)the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets:

God’s True Tabernacle

⁴⁴ “Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses ^(Z)to make it according to the pattern that he had seen, ^45 (AA)which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, ^(AB)whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the ^(AC)days of David, ^46 (AD)who found favor before God and ^(AE)asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob. ^47 (AF)But Solomon built Him a house.

⁴⁸ “However, ^(AG)the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:

Blessings of Those Who Fear the Lord

A Song of Ascents.