⁴ When the queen of Sheba had observed all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built,

⁴² The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed something greater than Solomon is here!^(A)

Epilogue

⁹ Besides being wise, the Teacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs.^(A)

³ When the queen of Sheba had observed the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built,^{(A) 4} the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, and their clothing, his valets, and their clothing, and his burnt offerings^[a] that he offered at the house of the Lord, it took her breath away.

Solomon Builds the Temple

6 In the four hundred eightieth year after the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the Lord.^{(A) 2} The house that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.^{(B) 3} The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits wide, across the width of the house. Its depth was ten cubits in front of the house. ⁴ For the house he made windows with recessed frames.^{[a](C) 5} He also built a structure against the wall of the house, running around the walls of the house, both the nave and the inner sanctuary, and he made side chambers all around.^{(D) 6} The lowest story^[b] was five cubits wide, the middle one was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide, for around the outside of the house he made offsets on the wall in order that the supporting beams should not be inserted into the walls of the house.

⁷ The house was built with stone finished at the quarry so that neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of iron was heard in the temple while it was being built.^(E)

Fame of Solomon’s Wisdom

²⁹ God gave Solomon very great wisdom, discernment, and breadth of understanding as vast as the sand on the seashore,^{(A) 30} so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt.^{(B) 31} He was wiser than anyone else, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, children of Mahol; his fame spread throughout all the surrounding nations.^(C)

²⁸ All Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to execute justice.^(A)