Solomon Prepares to Build the Temple

5 Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon because he heard that Solomon had been anointed king in his father’s place, and because Hiram had been a dear friend of David all his days.^[a]

² Solomon sent the following message to Hiram.

⁷ When Hiram heard Solomon’s words, he was very happy and he said:

⁸ So Hiram sent word to Solomon:

¹⁰ So Hiram gave Solomon all the cedar and fir that he desired. ¹¹ In return, Solomon gave Hiram one hundred twenty thousand bushels^[b] of wheat as provisions for his palace and one hundred twenty thousand gallons^[c] of beaten^[d] olive oil. Solomon gave this amount to Hiram every year. ¹² The Lord gave wisdom to Solomon just as he had promised him, so there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they made a treaty.

¹³ King Solomon drafted a labor force from all over Israel. It numbered thirty thousand men. ¹⁴ He sent ten thousand men per month to Lebanon in shifts. They would spend one month in Lebanon. Then for two months they would be at home. Adoniram was in charge of this forced labor. ¹⁵ Solomon had seventy thousand men to transport materials and eighty thousand men to quarry stones in the mountains, ¹⁶ not counting the officials who were overseeing the work for Solomon. There were thirty-three hundred men supervising the people who were doing the work. ¹⁷ The king gave a command, and they quarried large, high-quality stones to serve as a foundation for the temple building, which was made of trimmed stones. ¹⁸ Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the men from Gebal^[e] cut and prepared the wood and stones to construct the temple building.^[f]

The Construction of the Temple

6 In the four hundred eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, during the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month named Ziv,^[a] which is the second month, Solomon began to build the house for the Lord.

² The house which King Solomon built for the Lord was ninety feet long, thirty feet wide, and forty-five feet high.^{[b] 3} The porch^[c] in front of the temple building^[d] was thirty feet wide, the same as the width of the building. It extended out fifteen feet from the front of the building.

⁴ He made latticed windows^[e] high on the walls of the building.

⁵ He added a structure along the outer walls of the building, all the way around the three sides of the building. It was built against the walls of both the front room^[f] and the inner room^[g] of the sanctuary. In this structure he constructed three levels of storage rooms, all the way around the building. ⁶ The width of the rooms on the lowest story was seven and a half feet. The rooms of the middle story were nine feet wide, and the rooms of the third story were ten and a half feet wide, because he had built three receding ledges into the outside wall of the temple building all the way around, so that the floor beams of each story would not have to be inserted into the walls of the main building.

⁷ While the building was under construction, only stones that had been finished at the quarry were used in the building. No hammer or chisel or any other iron tool was heard in the building while it was under construction. ⁸ The entrance into the lowest story^[h] of the side rooms was on the south side^[i] of the building. Winding stairs^[j] went up to the middle floor, and also from the middle floor to the third floor. ⁹ So Solomon finished building the house, and he covered^[k] the house with beams and planks of cedar. ¹⁰ He built the floors for the storerooms that were all around the house. Each story was seven and a half feet high. Each story was supported by cedar timbers which rested on the receding ledges constructed along the walls of the building.^[l]

¹¹ The word of the Lord came to Solomon. He said, ¹² “In regard to this house which you are building, if you walk according to my statutes and carry out my ordinances and keep all my commands by walking according to them, you will be the one through whom I will fulfill my promise which I spoke to your father David. ¹³ I will dwell among the descendants of Israel, and I will not forsake my people Israel.”

¹⁴ So Solomon finished building the house. ¹⁵ He paneled the inside walls of the building with cedar boards, from the floor of the building to the rafters^[m] of the ceiling. He covered the inside walls with wood. He also covered the floor of the building with boards of fir wood.

¹⁶ Thirty feet from the back wall of the building he built a wall of cedar boards from the floor to the ceiling. He built this wall inside the building to create an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.

¹⁷ The front part of the building became a main room sixty feet long. ¹⁸ Gourds^[n] and open flowers were carved into the cedar on the inside of the building. Everything was covered with cedar. No stone was visible.

¹⁹ He prepared the inner room of the sanctuary inside the building as a place to set the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. ²⁰ The inner sanctuary was thirty feet long, thirty feet wide, and thirty feet high, and he overlaid it with pure gold.

He also overlaid the cedar altar with gold. ²¹ So Solomon covered the inside of the building with pure gold. He stretched gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, and he overlaid the sanctuary with gold. ²² He overlaid the whole building with gold, until the whole building had been covered. He also overlaid the whole altar, which was in front of the inner sanctuary, with gold.

The Cherubim

²³ For the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim^[o] of olive wood. Each one was fifteen feet tall. ²⁴ Seven and a half feet was the length of one wing of a cherub, and seven and a half feet was the length of the other wing of a cherub. The distance from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other was fifteen feet.^{[p] 25} The other cherub also was fifteen feet wide. Both of the cherubim were the same size and looked the same. ²⁶ One cherub was fifteen feet tall, and so was the other cherub. ²⁷ He set the cherubim inside the inner sanctuary of the house. The wings of the cherubim were stretched out, so that the outer wing of the first one touched the wall, and the outer wing of the other cherub touched the opposite wall, and their wings touched one another in the middle of the room. ²⁸ He overlaid the cherubim with gold.

²⁹ He decorated the walls on all sides of both rooms of the building with carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. ³⁰ He overlaid the floor of the building with gold in both the inner and outer rooms.

The Doors

³¹ For the entrance to the inner sanctuary, he made olive wood doors with five-sided frames.^{[q] 32} He carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers on them and overlaid them with gold. He shaped sheets of hammered gold to cover the cherubim and the palm trees.

³³ He did the same for the entrance to the front room. It had door posts of olive wood that were four-sided ³⁴ and two doors of fir wood. The door on one side was made with two folding leaves, and the door on the other side was made with two folding leaves. ³⁵ He carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers on them, and he overlaid them with gold leaf, shaped to the carvings.

The Courtyard

³⁶ He built the inner courtyard with three courses of cut stone and one course of cedar beams.

³⁷ The foundation of the Lord’s house was laid in the fourth year, in the month named Ziv.^{[r] 38} In the eleventh year, in the month named Bul,^[s] which is the eighth month, all the parts of the house were finished according to all its specifications. Solomon had spent seven years building it.

The Five Buildings of Solomon’s Palace Complex

7 It took Solomon thirteen years to finish building his whole palace complex.

The House of the Forest of Lebanon

² He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon. It was one hundred fifty feet long. It was seventy-five feet wide and forty-five feet high. It had four rows^[a] of cedar pillars, with cedar beams on top of the pillars. ³ It was roofed with cedar above the forty-five beams that rested on the pillars, fifteen beams in each row.^[b]

⁴ There were three rows^[c] of windows with recessed frames on each side of the building. ⁵ All the doors and posts were made with square beams.^[d] They were arranged in groups of three.

The Hall of Pillars

⁶ He built a pillared entry hall.^[e] It was seventy-five feet wide and forty-five feet deep. There was another porch in front of the pillars, and more pillars and a canopy in front of them.

The Hall of Justice

⁷ He made another hall, named the Hall of Justice. The throne from which he judged cases was located there. The hall was covered with cedar from floor to ceiling.^[f]

Palaces for Solomon and Pharaoh’s Daughter

⁸ His house in which he lived was made the same way. It was on the other side of a courtyard behind the Hall of Pillars.^[g] Solomon also made another house like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had married.

⁹ All of these were made of high-quality stone, precisely cut to the exact measure, trimmed with saws on both sides. Such stones were used from the foundation to the edge of the roof, from the outside of the complex to the great courtyard on the inside. ¹⁰ The foundation was made of high-quality stones, huge stones, twelve or fifteen feet long. ¹¹ Above this were high-quality stones, precisely cut, with layers of cedar wood in between. ¹² The great courtyard all the way around had three courses of cut stone and then a course of cedar beams, like the inner courtyard of the House of the Lord and the porch of that building.

The Chief Craftsman

¹³ King Solomon sent for Hiram^[h] from Tyre. ¹⁴ He was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, but his father was a craftsman in bronze from Tyre. Hiram too was filled with wisdom, understanding, and skill for all kinds of work in bronze. He came to King Solomon and performed the work for him.

The Large Bronze Pillars

¹⁵ He cast two bronze pillars, each twenty-seven feet tall. Their circumference was eighteen feet.

¹⁶ He made two capitals of cast bronze to set on top of the pillars. The height of one capital was seven and a half feet, and the height of the other capital was seven and a half feet. ¹⁷ The capitals that sat on top of the pillars were decorated with a latticework of interwoven chains. There were seven rows of decoration on one capital and seven rows on the other capital. ¹⁸ This is how he made the pillars: He made two rows of pomegranates to go above the latticework on the capitals that were on top of the pillars.^[i] He did this for each pillar. ¹⁹ The capitals that were on top of the pillars for the porch were shaped like lilies, six feet tall. ²⁰ On top of each pillar, above the bulge, beside the latticework, there were two hundred pomegranates arranged in rows all the way around.^[j]

²¹ He set up the pillars on the porch of the temple building. He set up one pillar on the south and named it Jakin,^[k] and he set up the other pillar on the north and named it Boaz.^{[l] 22} The tops of the pillars were shaped like lilies. In this way the work for the pillars was finished.

The Sea

²³ He made the sea of cast metal. It was round, fifteen feet from rim to rim. It was seven and a half feet high. Its circumference was forty-five feet. ²⁴ Under its rim all the way around there were round, gourd-shaped ornaments, one every two inches, all the way around the sea.^[m] The ornaments were in two rows, cast as one piece with the sea. ²⁵ The sea stood on twelve cattle, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The sea was set on them. All their hindquarters faced toward the center of the sea. ²⁶ The sea was three inches^[n] thick. Its rim was shaped like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held twelve thousand gallons.^[o]

The Carts

²⁷ He made ten bronze carts. Each cart was six feet long and six feet wide and four and a half feet tall. ²⁸ This is how the carts were constructed: They had side panels between supporting frames. ²⁹ The panels between the frames were decorated with lions, cattle, and cherubim. On the frames, both above and below the lions and cattle, there were wreaths hanging down.^{[p] 30} Each cart had four bronze wheels with bronze axles, and at each of the four corners of the cart there were supports for the basin, with wreaths beside each of them. ³¹ The opening on top of the cart within a crowning structure was a foot and a half deep. The opening was round. It had a supporting pedestal a little more than two feet tall.^[q] Around the opening there were engravings, and the panel that surrounded the opening was square, not round.

³² The four wheels were underneath the side panels, and the axles for the wheels were inserted through the cart. The height of each wheel was twenty-seven inches. ³³ The wheels were made like a chariot wheel. Their axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were all of cast metal. ³⁴ There were supports at each of the four corners of each cart. The supports were part of the cart itself. ³⁵ In the top of the cart there was a round opening nine inches deep.^[r] On top of the cart the supports and its panels were one piece with it. ³⁶ On the panels between the supports he engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees wherever there was room, with wreaths all around. ³⁷ That is how he made the carts. All of them were cast with the same mold, so they had the same size and shape.

The Basins

³⁸ He made ten bronze basins. Each basin contained two hundred forty gallons.^[s] Each basin was six feet in diameter, and there was one basin for every one of the ten carts. ³⁹ He placed five carts on the south side of the temple and five on the north side of the temple. He set the sea on the south side of the temple near the southeast corner.

⁴⁰ Hiram made the basins, the shovels, and the sprinkling bowls.

Summary

So Hiram completed all the work that he had been assigned by King Solomon for the House of the Lord: ⁴¹ the two pillars, the two globe-shaped capitals on top of the pillars, the two latticeworks that covered the two globe-shaped capitals that were on top of the pillars, ⁴² the four hundred pomegranates for the two latticeworks (two rows of pomegranates for each latticework to cover the globe-shaped capitals that were on top of the pillars), ⁴³ the ten carts, the ten basins on the carts, ⁴⁴ the one sea, the twelve cattle under the sea, ⁴⁵ the pots, the shovels, and the sprinkling bowls. All these items, which Hiram made for King Solomon for the house of the Lord, were burnished bronze. ⁴⁶ The king had them cast in clay molds in the ground, in the plain of the Jordan, between Succoth and Zarethan. ⁴⁷ Solomon did not weigh all the vessels, because there were so many of them. The weight of the bronze was never determined.

The Furnishings for the House

⁴⁸ Solomon made all the furnishings that were in the House of the Lord: the gold altar and the table for the Bread of the Presence, which was also gold. ⁴⁹ The lampstands were placed in front of the inner room of the sanctuary, five on the south side, and five on the north. They also were made of pure gold,^[t] as were the flowers, the lamps, and the gold tongs, ⁵⁰ the basins, the snuffers, the sprinkling bowls, the small dishes, and the fire pans of pure gold, and the gold hinges,^[u] both those for the doors of the inner sanctuary, that is, the Most Holy Place, and also those for the doors of the front room. ⁵¹ In this way all the work that King Solomon did for the House of the Lord was finished. Solomon brought the things which David his father had dedicated, the silver, the gold, and the vessels, and put them in the treasuries of the House of the Lord.

Psalm 43

A Plea for Vindication

Refrain