5 ^(4:21) Shlomo ruled over all the kingdoms from the [Euphrates] River through the land of the P’lishtim to the border of Egypt; they paid tribute and served Shlomo as long as he lived. ^2 (4:22) Shlomo’s provisions for one day consisted of 150 bushels of fine flour, 310 bushels of meal, ^3 (4:23) ten fattened oxen, twenty pasture-fed oxen and one hundred sheep, in addition to deer, gazelles, roebucks and fattened poultry. ^4 (4:24) For he ruled all the area this side of the [Euphrates] River, from Tifsach to ‘Azah. He was over all the kings on this side of the River; and he had peace all around him, on every side. ^5 (4:25) From Dan to Be’er-Sheva, Y’hudah and Isra’el lived securely, every man under his vine and fig tree, throughout the lifetime of Shlomo. ^6 (4:26) Shlomo also had 40,000 stalls for the horses used with his chariots and 12,000 horsemen.

^7 (4:27) Those officers [named above] supplied food and other materials for King Shlomo and for everyone for whom Shlomo provided. Each was responsible for his month’s supplies; they saw to it that nothing was lacking. ^8 (4:28) They also made sure there was barley and straw where it was needed for the horses and draft animals; each filled his quota.

^9 (4:29) God gave Shlomo exceptional wisdom and understanding, as well as a heart as vast as the sandy beach by the sea. ^10 (4:30) Shlomo’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of the people from the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. ^11 (4:31) For he was wiser than everyone — wiser than Eitan the Ezrachi and wiser than Heiman, Kalkol and Darda the sons of Machol; so that his fame spread to all the surrounding nations. ^12 (4:32) He composed 3,000 proverbs and 1,005 songs. ^13 (4:33) He could discuss trees, from the cedar in the L’vanon to the hyssop growing out of the wall; he could discuss wild animals, poultry, reptiles and fish. ^14 (4:34) People from all nations came to hear the wisdom of Shlomo, including kings from all over the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

^15 (1) Hiram king of Tzor sent his servants to Shlomo, because he had heard that they had anointed him king in his father’s place, and Hiram had always loved David. ^16 (2) Shlomo returned this message to Hiram: ^17 (3) “You know that David my father wasn’t able to build a house for the name of Adonai his God, because of the wars that beset him from every side, until Adonai put his enemies under the soles of my feet. ^18 (4) But now Adonai my God has given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary nor calamity. ^19 (5) So now I intend to build a house for the name of Adonai my God, in keeping with what Adonai said to David my father, ‘Your son, whom I will put on your throne in your place, will be the one to build the house for my name.’ ^20 (6) Therefore, order your people to cut down cedar trees from the L’vanon for me. My servants will be with your servants. I will pay your servants according to everything you say; for you know that we have no one among us as skilled in felling trees as the Tzidonim.”

^21 (7) When Hiram heard Shlomo’s message, he was very happy and said, “Blessed be Adonai today, who has given David a wise son to rule this great people.” ^22 (8) Then Hiram sent Shlomo this message: “I have heard the message you sent me, and I will do everything you want concerning cedar logs and cypress logs. ^23 (9) My servants will bring them down from the L’vanon to the sea. I will make them into rafts to go by sea to whatever place you tell me and will have them broken up there, and you will receive them. You will compensate me by providing food for my household.”

^24 (10) So Hiram gave Shlomo all the cedar logs and cypress logs he wanted; ^25 (11) and Shlomo gave Hiram 100,000 bushels of wheat as food for his household and a thousand gallons of oil from pressed olives — this is what Shlomo gave Hiram each year. ^26 (12) Adonai gave Shlomo wisdom, as he had promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Shlomo — the two of them formed an alliance together.

^27 (13) King Shlomo conscripted 30,000 men from all Isra’el for forced labor. ^28 (14) He sent them to the L’vanon in monthly relays of 10,000; they would stay a month in the L’vanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor.

^29 (15) Shlomo had 70,000 men to carry loads and another 80,000 stonecutters in the hills, ^30 (16) besides Shlomo’s 3,300 supervisors who were in charge of the people doing the work. ^31 (17) The king gave orders; and they quarried large stones, expensive stones, to lay the foundation of the house with cut stone. ^32 (18) Shlomo’s and Hiram’s builders, along with the men from G’val, worked the stones and prepared the timber and stones for building the house.

6 It was in the 480th year after the people of Isra’el had left the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Shlomo’s reign over Isra’el, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of Adonai. ² The house which King Shlomo built for Adonai was 105 feet long, thirty-five feet wide and fifty-two-and-a-half feet high. ³ The hall fronting the temple of the house was thirty-five feet long, the same as the width of the house itself, so that its seventeen-and-a-half-foot width extended frontward from the house. ⁴ The windows he made for the house were wide on the inside and narrow on the outside. ⁵ Against the wall of the house he built an annex all the way around; it went all the way around the walls of the house, including both the temple and the sanctuary. ⁶ The lowest floor of the annex was eight-and-three-quarters feet wide, the middle floor ten-and-a-half feet wide and the third floor twelve-and-a-quarter feet wide; for he had made the outer part of the wall of the house step-shaped, so that the beams of the annex would not have to be attached to the house walls. ⁷ For the house, when under construction, was built of stone prepared at the quarry; so that no hammer, chisel or iron tool of any kind was heard in the house while it was being built. ⁸ The entrance to the lowest floor was on the south side of the house; a spiral staircase went up to the middle floor and on to the third. ⁹ So he built the house, and after finishing it, he put its roof on — cedar planks over beams. ¹⁰ Each floor of the annex surrounding the house was eight-and-three-quarters feet high and was attached to the house with beams of cedar.

¹¹ Then this word of Adonai came to Shlomo: ¹² “Concerning this house which you are building: if you will live according to my regulations, follow my rulings and observe all my mitzvot and live by them, then I will establish with you my promise that I made to David your father — ¹³ I will live in it among the people of Isra’el, and I will not abandon my people Isra’el.”

¹⁴ So Shlomo finished building the house. ¹⁵ The insides of the walls of the house he built with boards of cedar: from the floor of the house to the joists of the ceiling he covered them on the inside with wood, and he covered the floor of the house with boards of cypress. ¹⁶ The thirty-five-foot back portion of the house he built with boards of cedar from the floor to the joists and reserved this part of the house to be a sanctuary, the Especially Holy Place; ¹⁷ while the rest of the house, that is, the temple in front, was seventy feet long. ¹⁸ The cedar covering the house was carved with gourds and open flowers; all was cedar; no stone was visible. ¹⁹ In the inner part of the house he set up the sanctuary, so that the ark for the covenant of Adonai could be placed there. ²⁰ This sanctuary was thirty-five feet long, wide and high; and it was overlaid with pure gold. In front of it he set an altar, which he covered with cedar. ²¹ Shlomo overlaid the interior of the house with pure gold and had chains of gold placed before the sanctuary, which itself he overlaid with gold. ²² The entire house he overlaid with gold until it was completely covered with it. He also overlaid with gold the entire altar that belonged to the sanctuary.

²³ Inside the sanctuary he made two k’ruvim of olive-wood, each seventeen-and-a-half feet high. ²⁴ Each of the two wings of one of the k’ruvim was eight-and-three quarters feet long, so that the distance from the end of one wing to the end of the other was seventeen-and-a-half feet. ²⁵ Likewise the [wingspread of the] other keruv was seventeen-and-a-half feet; both k’ruvim were identical in shape and size. ²⁶ The height of the one keruv was seventeen-and-a-half feet, likewise that of the other. ²⁷ He set the k’ruvim in the inner house; the wings of the k’ruvim were stretched out, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other keruv touched the other wall; their wings touched each other in the middle of the house. ²⁸ He overlaid the k’ruvim with gold. ²⁹ All around the walls of the house, both inside the sanctuary and outside it, he carved figures of k’ruvim, palm trees and open flowers. ³⁰ He overlaid the floor of the house with gold, both inside the sanctuary and outside it.

³¹ For the entrance to the sanctuary he made doors of olive-wood, set within a five-sided door-frame. ³² On the two olive-wood doors he carved figures of k’ruvim, palm trees and open flowers. He overlaid the doors with gold, forcing the gold into the shapes of the k’ruvim and palm trees as well. ³³ For the entrance to the temple he also made doorposts of olive-wood, set within a rectangular door-frame, ³⁴ and two doors of cypress-wood; the two leaves of the one door were folding, as were the two leaves of the other. ³⁵ On them he carved k’ruvim, palm trees and open flowers, overlaying them with gold fitted to the carved work. ³⁶ He built the inner courtyard with three rows of cut stone and a row of cedar beams.

³⁷ The foundation of the house of Adonai was laid in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv. ³⁸ In the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, all parts of the house were completed exactly as designed. Thus he was seven years building it.

7 Shlomo built a palace for himself, taking thirteen years to finish it. ² For he built the House of the L’vanon Forest 175 feet long, eighty-seven-and-a-half feet wide and fifty-two-and-a-half feet high, on four rows of cedar posts, with cedar beams on the posts. ³ It had a roof made of cedar and supported by beams lying on forty-five posts, fifteen in a row. ⁴ There were three rows of window openings, placed so that the windows on facing walls were opposite each other at all three levels. ⁵ All the doors and doorways were rectangular and opposite each other at all three levels.

⁶ He made the columned hall eighty-seven-and-a-half feet long and fifty-two-and-a-half feet wide, with a columned, corniced porch in front of it.

⁷ He made the Hall of the Throne his place for dispensing justice, that is, the Hall of Judgment; it was covered with cedar from floor to ceiling.

⁸ His own living quarters, in the other courtyard, set back from the Hall, were similarly designed. He also made a house like this Hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom Shlomo had taken as his wife.

⁹ All these buildings were made of expensive stone blocks, cut to measure and finished by saws on the inner surfaces as well as the outer ones. These stones were used from the foundation to the eaves and outward from the buildings all the way to the Great Courtyard. ¹⁰ The foundation was of expensive stone blocks, very large ones — stones fourteen to eighteen feet long. ¹¹ Above these were costly stones, cut to measure, and cedar-wood. ¹² The surrounding Great Courtyard had three rows of cut stone and a row of cedar beams like the inner courtyard of the house of Adonai and the courtyard by the hall of the house.

¹³ King Shlomo sent for Hiram and brought him from Tzor. ¹⁴ He was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naftali, but his father was from Tzor, a bronze-worker filled with wisdom, understanding and skill for all kinds of bronze craftsmanship. He came to King Shlomo and did all his bronzework. ¹⁵ He made the two bronze columns, each one thirty-one-and-a-half feet high and twenty-one feet in circumference. ¹⁶ He made two capitals of melted bronze to set on the tops of the columns; each capital was eight-and-three-quarters feet high; ¹⁷ he also made checker-work nets and chained wreaths, seven for the top of each capital. ¹⁸ When he made the columns, he made two rows of pomegranates to put at the top of each column around the netting covering its capital. ¹⁹ The capitals on the columns in the hall had shapes like lilies and were seven feet high. ²⁰ As for the capitals on the two columns, there were 200 pomegranates in rows around each capital near the molding by the netting. ²¹ He erected the columns in the hall of the temple; on erecting the right column he gave it the name “Yakhin,” and on erecting the left column he named it “Bo‘az.” ²² On the tops of the columns were shapes like lilies; thus the work of the columns was finished.

²³ He made the cast metal “Sea” circular, seventeen-and-a-half feet from rim to rim, eight-and-three quarter feet high and fifty-two-and-a-half feet in circumference. ²⁴ Under its rim, three hundred gourds encircled it in two rows; they were cast when the Sea was cast. ²⁵ It rested on twelve oxen, three looking north, three looking west, three looking south and three looking east, all with their hindquarters toward the center. The Sea was set on top of them. ²⁶ It was a handbreadth thick, its rim was made like the rim of a cup, like the flower of a lily; and its capacity was 11,000 gallons.

²⁷ He made ten bronze trolleys, each one seven feet long, seven feet wide, and five-and-a-quarter feet high. ²⁸ They were designed with panels that were set between the corner-posts, ²⁹ and on the panels between the corner-posts were lions, oxen and k’ruvim. The corner-posts above were similarly designed. Below the lions and oxen were wreaths of hammered work. ³⁰ Every trolley had four bronze wheels and bronze axles, and its four legs each had cast supports which were under the basin, with wreaths next to each. ³¹ The opening of the stand into which the basin was inserted was eighteen inches high; the stand was round, resembling a pedestal, and it was two-and-a-half feet in diameter. On the stand were carvings, and the outside was square, not round. ³² The four wheels were under the panels, and the axles for the wheels were attached to the trolleys; each wheel was two-and-a-half feet. ³³ The wheels were made like chariot wheels; their axles, rims, spokes and hubs were all cast metal. ³⁴ There were four supports at the four corners of each trolley; the supports were attached to the trolley itself. ³⁵ In the top of the trolley was a circular support ten-and-a-half inches high, and the trolley’s corner-posts and panels were attached to its top. ³⁶ On the sides of the panels and on its corners he carved k’ruvim, lions and palm trees, according to the amount of space each required, with wreaths surrounding. ³⁷ According to this design he made the ten trolleys; all of them were cast from a single mold, so that they had the same size and shape.

³⁸ He made ten bronze basins; each basin’s capacity was 220 gallons and had a diameter of seven feet; there was a basin for each of the ten trolleys. ³⁹ He arranged five of the trolleys on the right side of the house and five on the left side. The Sea he placed on the right side of the house, toward the southeast.

⁴⁰ Hiram made the ash pots, shovels and sprinkling basins. With that, Hiram completed all the work he had done for King Shlomo in the house of Adonai — ⁴¹ the two columns, the two moldings of the capitals on top of the columns, the two nettings covering the two moldings of the capitals atop the columns, ⁴² the 400 pomegranates for the two nettings, two rows of pomegranates for each netting, to cover the two moldings of the capitals atop the columns, ⁴³ the ten trolleys, the ten basins on the trolleys, ⁴⁴ the one Sea, the twelve oxen under the Sea, ⁴⁵ the ash pots, the shovels and the sprinkling basins. All these articles that Hiram made for King Shlomo in the house of Adonai were of burnished bronze. ⁴⁶ The king cast them in the plain of the Yarden, in the clay ground between Sukkot and Tzartan. ⁴⁷ Shlomo did not weigh any of these objects, because there were so many of them; thus the total weight of the bronze could not be determined.

⁴⁸ Shlomo made all the objects that were inside the house of Adonai: the gold altar; the table of gold on which the showbread was displayed; ⁴⁹ the menorahs — five on the right and five on the left in front of the sanctuary — of pure gold; the flowers, lamps and tongs of gold; ⁵⁰ the cups, snuffers, basins, incense pans and fire pans of pure gold; and the hinges of gold, both those for the doors of the inner house, the Especially Holy Place, and those for the doors of the house, that is, of the temple.

⁵¹ Thus all the work that King Shlomo did in the house of Adonai was finished. After this, Shlomo brought in the gifts which David his father had dedicated — the silver, the gold and the utensils — and put them in the treasuries of the house of Adonai.

⁴⁴ “Our fathers had the Tent of Witness in the wilderness. It had been made just as God, who spoke to Moshe, had ordered it made, according to the pattern Moshe had seen. ⁴⁵ Later on, our fathers who had received it brought it in with Y’hoshua when they took the Land away from the nations that God drove out before them.

“So it was until the days of David. ⁴⁶ He enjoyed God’s favor and asked if he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Ya‘akov ⁴⁷ and Shlomo did build him a house. ⁴⁸ But Ha‘Elyon does not live in places made by hand! As the prophet says,

⁵¹ “Stiffnecked people,^[b] with uncircumcised hearts and ears!^[c] You continually oppose the Ruach HaKodesh!^[d] You do the same things your fathers did! ⁵² Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who told in advance about the coming of the Tzaddik, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers! — ⁵³ you! — who receive the Torah as having been delivered by angels — but do not keep it!”

⁵⁴ On hearing these things, they were cut to their hearts and ground their teeth at him. ⁵⁵ But he, full of the Ruach HaKodesh, looked up to heaven and saw God’s Sh’khinah, with Yeshua standing at the right hand of God. ⁵⁶ “Look!” he exclaimed, “I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”^[e]

⁵⁷ At this, they began yelling at the top of their voices, so that they wouldn’t have to hear him; and with one accord, they rushed at him, ⁵⁸ threw him outside the city and began stoning him. And the witnesses laid down their coats at the feet of a young man named Sha’ul.

⁵⁹ As they were stoning him, Stephen called out to God, “Lord Yeshua! Receive my spirit!” ⁶⁰ Then he kneeled down and shouted out, “Lord! Don’t hold this sin against them!” With that, he died;