Preparations for Building the Temple

5 ^[a] Now ^(A)Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon when he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, ^(B)for Hiram always loved David. ² And Solomon sent word to Hiram, ^3 (C)“You know that David my father could not build a house for the name of the Lord his God ^(D)because of the warfare with which his enemies surrounded him, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet. ^4 (E)But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side. There is neither adversary nor misfortune. ⁵ And so I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, ^(F)as the Lord said to David my father, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, shall build the house for my name.’ ⁶ Now therefore command that cedars of Lebanon be cut for me. And my servants will join your servants, and I will pay you for your servants such wages as you set, for you know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”

⁷ As soon as Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly and said, “Blessed be the Lord this day, who has given to David a wise son to be over this great people.” ⁸ And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, “I have heard the message that you have sent to me. I am ready to do all you desire in the matter of cedar and cypress timber. ⁹ My servants shall bring it down to the sea from Lebanon, and I will make it into rafts to go by sea to the place you direct. And I will have them broken up there, and you shall receive it. And you shall meet my wishes ^(G)by providing food for my household.” ¹⁰ So Hiram supplied Solomon with all the timber of cedar and cypress that he desired, ¹¹ while Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 cors^[b] of wheat as food for his household, and 20,000^[c] cors of beaten oil. Solomon gave this to Hiram year by year. ¹² And the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, ^(H)as he promised him. And there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.

¹³ King Solomon drafted ^(I)forced labor out of all Israel, and the draft numbered 30,000 men. ¹⁴ And he sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in shifts. They would be a month in Lebanon and two months at home. ^(J)Adoniram was in charge of the draft. ¹⁵ Solomon also ^(K)had 70,000 burden-bearers and 80,000 stonecutters in the hill country, ¹⁶ besides Solomon's 3,300 ^(L)chief officers who were over the work, ^(M)who had charge of the people who carried on the work. ¹⁷ At the king's command ^(N)they quarried out great, costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stones. ¹⁸ So Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and ^(O)the men of Gebal did the cutting and prepared the timber and the stone to build the house.

Solomon Builds the Temple

6 ^(P)In the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of Israel 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, ^(Q)he began to build the house of the Lord. ^2 (R)The house that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits^[d] long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. ³ The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and ten cubits deep in front of the house. ⁴ And ^(S)he made for the house windows with recessed frames.^{[e] 5 (T)}He also built a structure^[f] against the wall of the house, running around the walls of the house, both the nave and ^(U)the inner sanctuary. And he made ^(V)side chambers all around. ⁶ The lowest story^[g] was five cubits broad, the middle one was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad. 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 When the house was built, ^(W)it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built.

⁸ The entrance for the lowest^[h] story was on the south side of the house, and one went up by stairs to the middle story, and from the middle story to the third. ^9 (X)So he built the house and finished it, and he made the ceiling of the house of beams and planks of cedar. ¹⁰ He built the structure against the whole house, five cubits high, and it was joined to the house with timbers of cedar.

¹¹ Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon, ¹² “Concerning this house that you are building, ^(Y)if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, ^(Z)which I spoke to David your father. ¹³ And ^(AA)I will dwell among the children of Israel ^(AB)and will not forsake my people Israel.”

^14 (AC)So Solomon built the house and finished it. ¹⁵ He lined the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar. From the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood, ^(AD)and he covered the floor of the house with boards of cypress. ^16 (AE)He built twenty cubits of the rear of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the walls, and he built this within as an inner sanctuary, as ^(AF)the Most Holy Place. ¹⁷ The house, that is, the nave in front of the inner sanctuary, was forty cubits long. ¹⁸ The cedar within the house was carved in the form of ^(AG)gourds and open flowers. All was cedar; no stone was seen. ¹⁹ The inner sanctuary he prepared in the innermost part of the house, to set there the ark of the covenant of the Lord. ²⁰ The inner sanctuary^[i] was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high, and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid^[j] an altar of cedar. ²¹ And Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold, and he drew chains of gold across, in front of the inner sanctuary, and overlaid it with gold. ²² And he overlaid the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. ^(AH)Also the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold.

^23 (AI)In the inner sanctuary ^(AJ)he made two cherubim of olivewood, each ten cubits high. ²⁴ Five cubits was the length of one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the length of the other wing of the cherub; it was ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. ²⁵ The other cherub also measured ten cubits; both cherubim had the same measure and the same form. ²⁶ The height of one cherub was ten cubits, and so was that of the other cherub. ²⁷ He put the cherubim in the innermost part of the house. ^(AK)And the wings of the cherubim were spread out so that a wing of one touched the one wall, and a wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; their other wings touched each other in the middle of the house. ²⁸ And he overlaid the cherubim with gold.

²⁹ Around all the walls of the house he carved engraved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, in the inner and outer rooms. ³⁰ The floor of the house he overlaid with gold in the inner and outer rooms.

³¹ For the entrance to the inner sanctuary he made doors of olivewood; the lintel and the doorposts were five-sided.^{[k] 32} He covered the two doors of olivewood with carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. He overlaid them with gold and spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees.

³³ So also he made for the entrance to the nave doorposts of olivewood, in the form of a square, ³⁴ and two doors of cypress wood. ^(AL)The two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding. ³⁵ On them he carved cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and he overlaid them with gold evenly applied on the carved work. ^36 (AM)He built the inner court with three courses of cut stone and one course of cedar beams.

^37 (AN)In the fourth year the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, in the month of Ziv. ³⁸ And in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its parts, and according to all its specifications. He was seven years in building it.

^20 (A)Our fathers worshiped on ^(B)this mountain, but you say that ^(C)in Jerusalem is ^(D)the place where people ought to worship.” ²¹ Jesus said to her, ^(E)“Woman, believe me, ^(F)the hour is coming when ^(G)neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ^22 (H)You worship what you do not know; ^(I)we worship what we know, for ^(J)salvation is ^(K)from the Jews. ²³ But ^(L)the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father ^(M)in spirit and ^(N)truth, for the Father ^(O)is seeking such people to worship him. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵ The woman said to him, “I know that ^(P)Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, ^(Q)he will tell us all things.” ²⁶ Jesus said to her, ^(R)“I who speak to you am he.”

²⁷ Just then ^(S)his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” ²⁸ So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man ^(T)who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” ³⁰ They went out of the town and were coming to him.

³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, ^(U)“Rabbi, eat.” ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” ³³ So the disciples said to one another, ^(V)“Has anyone brought him something to eat?” ³⁴ Jesus said to them, ^(W)“My food is ^(X)to do the will of him who sent me and ^(Y)to accomplish his work. ³⁵ Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that ^(Z)the fields are white for harvest. ³⁶ Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that ^(AA)sower and ^(AB)reaper ^(AC)may rejoice together. ³⁷ For here the saying holds true, ^(AD)‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸ I sent you to reap ^(AE)that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, ^(AF)and you have entered into their labor.”

³⁹ Many Samaritans ^(AG)from that town believed in him ^(AH)because of ^(AI)the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. ⁴¹ And many more believed ^(AJ)because of his word. ⁴² They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, ^(AK)and we know that this is indeed ^(AL)the Savior ^(AM)of the world.”

⁴³ After ^(AN)the two days he departed for Galilee. ⁴⁴ (For Jesus himself had testified ^(AO)that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) ⁴⁵ So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, ^(AP)having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For ^(AQ)they too had gone to the feast.

O God of Our Salvation

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A Song.