Solomon’s Administration

4 So King Solomon was king over all Israel. ² And these were his officials: Azariah the son of Zadok, the priest; ³ Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, ^[a]scribes; ^(A)Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, the recorder; ^4 (B)Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, over the army; Zadok and ^(C)Abiathar, the priests; ⁵ Azariah the son of Nathan, over ^(D)the officers; Zabud the son of Nathan, ^(E)a priest and ^(F)the king’s friend; ⁶ Ahishar, over the household; and ^(G)Adoniram the son of Abda, over the labor force.

⁷ And Solomon had twelve governors over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household; each one made provision for one month of the year. ⁸ These are their names: ^[b]Ben-Hur, in the mountains of Ephraim; ^9 [c]Ben-Deker, in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth Shemesh, and Elon Beth Hanan; ^10 [d]Ben-Hesed, in Arubboth; to him belonged Sochoh and all the land of Hepher; ^11 [e]Ben-Abinadab, in all the regions of Dor; he had Taphath the daughter of Solomon as wife; ¹² Baana the son of Ahilud, in Taanach, Megiddo, and all Beth Shean, which is beside Zaretan below Jezreel, from Beth Shean to Abel Meholah, as far as the other side of Jokneam; ^13 [f]Ben-Geber, in Ramoth Gilead; to him belonged ^(H)the towns of Jair the son of Manasseh, in Gilead; to him also belonged ^(I)the region of Argob in Bashan—sixty large cities with walls and bronze gate-bars; ¹⁴ Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim; ^15 (J)Ahimaaz, in Naphtali; he also took Basemath the daughter of Solomon as wife; ¹⁶ Baanah the son of ^(K)Hushai, in Asher and Aloth; ¹⁷ Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar; ^18 (L)Shimei the son of Elah, in Benjamin; ¹⁹ Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, in ^(M)the country of Sihon king of the Amorites, and of Og king of Bashan. He was the only governor who was in the land.

Prosperity and Wisdom of Solomon’s Reign

²⁰ Judah and Israel were as numerous ^(N)as the sand by the sea in multitude, ^(O)eating and drinking and rejoicing. ²¹ So ^(P)Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from ^(Q)the^[g] River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. ^(R)They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

^22 (S)Now Solomon’s ^[h]provision for one day was thirty ^[i]kors of fine flour, sixty kors of meal, ²³ ten fatted oxen, twenty oxen from the pastures, and one hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fatted fowl.

²⁴ For he had dominion over all the region on this side of ^[j]the River from Tiphsah even to Gaza, namely over ^(T)all the kings on this side of the River; and ^(U)he had peace on every side all around him. ²⁵ And Judah and Israel ^(V)dwelt^[k] safely, ^(W)each man under his vine and his fig tree, ^(X)from Dan as far as Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.

^26 (Y)Solomon had ^[l]forty thousand stalls of ^(Z)horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. ²⁷ And ^(AA)these governors, each man in his month, provided food for King Solomon and for all who came to King Solomon’s table. There was no lack in their supply. ²⁸ They also brought barley and straw to the proper place, for the horses and steeds, each man according to his charge.

²⁹ And ^(AB)God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore. ³⁰ Thus Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men ^(AC)of the East and all ^(AD)the wisdom of Egypt. ³¹ For he was ^(AE)wiser than all men—^(AF)than Ethan the Ezrahite, ^(AG)and Heman, Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. ^32 (AH)He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his ^(AI)songs were one thousand and five. ³³ Also he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree of Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish. ³⁴ And men of all nations, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom, ^(AJ)came to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

Solomon Prepares to Build the Temple^(A)

5 Now ^(B)Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, because he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, ^(C)for Hiram had always loved David. ² Then ^(D)Solomon sent to Hiram, saying:

⁷ So it was, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he rejoiced greatly and said,

⁸ Then Hiram sent to Solomon, saying:

¹⁰ Then Hiram gave Solomon cedar and cypress logs according to all his desire. ^11 (M)And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand ^[e]kors of wheat as food for his household, and ^[f]twenty kors of pressed oil. Thus Solomon gave to Hiram year by year.

¹² So the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, ^(N)as He had promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty together.

¹³ Then King Solomon raised up a labor force out of all Israel; and the labor force was thirty thousand men. ¹⁴ And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month in shifts: they were one month in Lebanon and two months at home; ^(O)Adoniram was in charge of the labor force. ^15 (P)Solomon had seventy thousand who carried burdens, and eighty thousand who quarried stone in the mountains, ¹⁶ besides three thousand ^[g]three hundred from the ^(Q)chiefs of Solomon’s deputies, who supervised the people who labored in the work. ¹⁷ And the king commanded them to quarry large stones, costly stones, and ^(R)hewn stones, to lay the foundation of the ^[h]temple. ¹⁸ So Solomon’s builders, Hiram’s builders, and the Gebalites quarried them; and they prepared timber and stones to build the ^[i]temple.

Solomon Builds the Temple^(A)

6 And ^(B)it came to pass in the four hundred and ^[a]eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of ^[b]Ziv, which is the second month, ^(C)that he began to build the house of the Lord. ² Now ^(D)the house which King Solomon built for the Lord, its length was sixty cubits, its width twenty, and its height thirty cubits. ³ The vestibule in front of the ^[c]sanctuary of the house was ^[d]twenty cubits long across the width of the house, and the width of ^[e]the vestibule extended ^[f]ten cubits from the front of the house. ⁴ And he made for the house ^(E)windows with beveled frames.

⁵ Against the wall of the ^[g]temple he built ^(F)chambers all around, against the walls of the temple, all around the sanctuary ^(G)and the ^[h]inner sanctuary. Thus he made side chambers all around it. ⁶ The lowest chamber was five cubits wide, the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide; for he made narrow ledges around the outside of the temple, so that the support beams would not be fastened into the walls of the ^[i]temple. ⁷ And ^(H)the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built. ⁸ The doorway for the ^[j]middle story was on the right side of the temple. They went up by stairs to the middle story, and from the middle to the third.

^9 (I)So he built the ^[k]temple and finished it, and he paneled the temple with beams and boards of cedar. ¹⁰ And he built side chambers against the entire temple, each five cubits high; they were attached to the temple with cedar beams.

¹¹ Then the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying: ¹² “Concerning this ^[l]temple which you are building, ^(J)if you walk in My statutes, execute My judgments, keep all My commandments, and walk in them, then I will perform My ^[m]word with you, ^(K)which I spoke to your father David. ¹³ And ^(L)I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not ^(M)forsake My people Israel.”

¹⁴ So Solomon built the temple and finished it. ¹⁵ And he built the inside walls of the temple with cedar boards; from the floor of the temple to the ceiling he paneled the inside with wood; and he covered the floor of the temple with planks of cypress. ¹⁶ Then he built the twenty-cubit room at the rear of the temple, from floor to ceiling, with cedar boards; he built it inside as the inner sanctuary, as the ^(N)Most Holy Place. ¹⁷ And in front of it the temple sanctuary was forty cubits long. ¹⁸ The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with ornamental buds and open flowers. All was cedar; there was no stone to be seen.

¹⁹ And he prepared the ^[n]inner sanctuary inside the temple, to set the ark of the covenant of the Lord there. ²⁰ The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. He overlaid it with pure gold, and overlaid the altar of cedar. ²¹ So Solomon overlaid the inside of the temple with pure gold. He stretched gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, and overlaid it with gold. ²² The whole temple he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the temple; also he overlaid with gold ^(O)the entire altar that was by the inner sanctuary.

²³ Inside the inner sanctuary ^(P)he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high. ²⁴ One wing of the cherub was five cubits, and the other wing of the cherub five cubits: ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. ²⁵ And the other cherub was ten cubits; both cherubim were of the same size and shape. ²⁶ The height of one cherub was ten cubits, and so was the other cherub. ²⁷ Then he set the cherubim inside the inner ^[o]room; and ^(Q)they stretched out the wings of the cherubim so that the wing of the one touched one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall. And their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. ²⁸ Also he overlaid the cherubim with gold.

²⁹ Then he carved all the walls of the temple all around, both the inner and outer sanctuaries, with carved ^(R)figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. ³⁰ And the floor of the temple he overlaid with gold, both the inner and outer sanctuaries.

³¹ For the entrance of the inner sanctuary he made doors of olive wood; the lintel and doorposts were ^[p]one-fifth of the wall. ³² The two doors were of olive wood; and he carved on them figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold; and he spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees. ³³ So for the door of the ^[q]sanctuary he also made doorposts of olive wood, ^[r]one-fourth of the wall. ³⁴ And the two doors were of cypress wood; ^(S)two panels comprised one folding door, and two panels comprised the other folding door. ³⁵ Then he carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers on them, and overlaid them with gold applied evenly on the carved work.

³⁶ And he built the ^(T)inner court with three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams.

^37 (U)In the fourth year the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, in the month of ^[s]Ziv. ³⁸ And in the eleventh year, in the month of ^[t]Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its details and according to all its plans. So he was ^(V)seven years in building it.

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.