1 Kings 7
Names of God Bible
The Palace Built in 13 Years
7 Solomon took 13 years to finish building his palace. 2 He built a hall named the Forest of Lebanon. It was 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. It had four rows of cedar pillars supporting cedar beams. 3 The hall was covered with cedar above the side rooms, which were supported by 45 pillars (15 per row).[a] 4 The windows were in three rows facing each other on opposite sides of the palace. 5 All the doors and doorframes were square. There were three doors facing each other on opposite sides of the palace.
6 Solomon made the Hall of Pillars 75 feet long and 45 feet wide. In front of the hall was an entrance hall with pillars.
7 He made the Hall of Justice, where he sat on his throne and served as judge. The hall was covered with cedar from floor to ceiling.[b]
8 His own private quarters were in a different location than the Hall of Justice, but they were similar in design. Solomon also built private quarters like this for his wife, Pharaoh’s daughter.
9 From the foundation to the roof, all these buildings, including the large courtyard, were built with high-grade stone blocks. The stone blocks were cut to size and trimmed with saws on their inner and outer faces. 10 The foundation was made with large, high-grade stones (some 12 feet long, others 15 feet long). 11 Above the foundation were cedar beams and high-grade stone blocks, which had been cut to size. 12 The large courtyard had three layers of cut stone blocks and a layer of cedar beams, like the inner courtyard of Yahweh’s temple and the entrance hall.
The Temple Furnishings(A)
13 King Solomon had Hiram brought from Tyre. 14 Hiram was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali. His father, a native of Tyre, was a skilled bronze craftsman. Hiram was highly skilled, resourceful, and knowledgeable about all kinds of bronze craftsmanship. He came to King Solomon and did all his bronze work.
15 He made two bronze pillars. Each was 27 feet high and 18 feet in circumference. 16 He made two capitals of cast bronze to put on top of the pillars. Each capital was 7½ feet high. 17 He also made seven rows of filigree and chains for each capital. 18 After he made the pillars, he made two rows of decorations around the filigree to cover the capitals which were above the pillars.[c] He made the capitals identical to each other. 19 The capitals on top of the pillars in the entrance hall were lily-shaped. Each was six feet high. 20 Two hundred pomegranates in rows were directly above the bowl-shaped parts around the filigree on the capitals on both pillars.
21 Hiram set up the pillars in the temple’s entrance hall. He set up the pillar on the right and named it Jachin [He Establishes]. Then he set up the pillar on the left and named it Boaz [In Him Is Strength]. 22 There were lily-shaped capitals at the top of the pillars. He finished the work on the pillars.
23 Hiram made a pool from cast metal. It was 15 feet in diameter. It was round, 7½ feet high, and had a circumference of 45 feet. 24 Under the rim were two rows of gourds all around the 45-foot circumference of the pool. They were cast in metal when the pool was cast. 25 The pool was set on 12 metal bulls. Three bulls faced north, three faced west, three faced south, and three faced east. The pool was set on them, and their hindquarters were toward the center of the pool. 26 The pool was three inches thick. Its rim was like the rim of a cup, shaped like a lily’s bud. It held 12,000 gallons.
27 He made ten bronze stands. Each stand was 6 feet square and 4½ feet high. 28 The stands were made this way: They had side panels set in frames. 29 On the panels set in frames were lions, oxen, and angels.[d] These were also on the frames. Above and below the lions and the cattle were engraved designs. 30 Each stand had four bronze wheels on bronze axles and four supports beneath the basin. The supports were made of cast metal with designs on the sides. 31 Each had a 1½-foot-deep opening in the center to the circular frame on top. The opening was round, formed like a pedestal, and was two feet wide. Around the opening there were engravings. But the panels were square, not round. 32 The four wheels were under the panels, and the axles were attached to the stand. Each wheel was two feet high. 33 The wheels were made like chariot wheels. The axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were all cast metal. 34 The four supports at the four corners of each stand were part of the stand. 35 The top of each stand had a round, nine-inch-high band. Above the stand were supports which were part of the panels. 36 Hiram engraved angels, lions, palm trees, and designs in every available space on the supports and panels. 37 This is the way he made the ten stands. All of them were cast in the same mold, identical in size and shape.
38 Hiram also made ten bronze basins. Each basin held 240 gallons. Every basin was six feet wide. There was one basin on each of the ten stands. 39 He put five stands on the south side of the temple and five on the north side of the temple. He set the pool on the south side of the temple in the southeast corner. 40 Hiram also made pots, shovels, and bowls.
So Hiram finished all the work for King Solomon on Yahweh’s temple: 41 2 pillars, the bowl-shaped capitals on top of the 2 pillars, and 2 sets of filigree to cover the 2 bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars, 42 400 pomegranates for the 2 sets of filigree (2 rows of pomegranates for each filigree to cover the 2 bowl-shaped capitals on the pillars), 43 10 stands and 10 basins on the stands, 44 1 pool, 12 bulls under the pool, 45 pots, shovels, and bowls. Hiram made all these utensils out of polished bronze for Yahweh’s temple at King Solomon’s request. 46 The king cast them in foundries in the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Zarethan. 47 Solomon left all the products unweighed because so much bronze was used. No one tried to determine how much the bronze weighed.
48 Solomon made all the furnishings for Yahweh’s temple: the gold altar, the gold table on which the bread of the presence was placed, 49 lamp stands of pure gold (five on the south side and five on the north in front of the inner room), flowers, lamps, gold tongs, 50 dishes, snuffers, bowls, saucers, incense burners of pure gold, the gold sockets for the doors of the inner room (the most holy place), and the doors of the temple.
51 All the work King Solomon did on Yahweh’s temple was finished. He brought the holy things that had belonged to his father David—the silver, gold, and utensils—and put them in the storerooms of Yahweh’s temple.
Footnotes
- 1 Kings 7:3 Hebrew meaning of this verse uncertain.
- 1 Kings 7:7 Latin, Syriac; Masoretic Text “floor to floor.”
- 1 Kings 7:18 Many Hebrew manuscripts, Greek, Syriac; other Hebrew manuscripts “pomegranates.”
- 1 Kings 7:29 Or “cherubim.”
1 Kings 7
King James Version
7 But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.
2 He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon; the length thereof was an hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars.
3 And it was covered with cedar above upon the beams, that lay on forty five pillars, fifteen in a row.
4 And there were windows in three rows, and light was against light in three ranks.
5 And all the doors and posts were square, with the windows: and light was against light in three ranks.
6 And he made a porch of pillars; the length thereof was fifty cubits, and the breadth thereof thirty cubits: and the porch was before them: and the other pillars and the thick beam were before them.
7 Then he made a porch for the throne where he might judge, even the porch of judgment: and it was covered with cedar from one side of the floor to the other.
8 And his house where he dwelt had another court within the porch, which was of the like work. Solomon made also an house for Pharaoh's daughter, whom he had taken to wife, like unto this porch.
9 All these were of costly stones, according to the measures of hewed stones, sawed with saws, within and without, even from the foundation unto the coping, and so on the outside toward the great court.
10 And the foundation was of costly stones, even great stones, stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits.
11 And above were costly stones, after the measures of hewed stones, and cedars.
12 And the great court round about was with three rows of hewed stones, and a row of cedar beams, both for the inner court of the house of the Lord, and for the porch of the house.
13 And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre.
14 He was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass: and he was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass. And he came to king Solomon, and wrought all his work.
15 For he cast two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece: and a line of twelve cubits did compass either of them about.
16 And he made two chapiters of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars: the height of the one chapiter was five cubits, and the height of the other chapiter was five cubits:
17 And nets of checker work, and wreaths of chain work, for the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars; seven for the one chapiter, and seven for the other chapiter.
18 And he made the pillars, and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters that were upon the top, with pomegranates: and so did he for the other chapiter.
19 And the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars were of lily work in the porch, four cubits.
20 And the chapiters upon the two pillars had pomegranates also above, over against the belly which was by the network: and the pomegranates were two hundred in rows round about upon the other chapiter.
21 And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin: and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz.
22 And upon the top of the pillars was lily work: so was the work of the pillars finished.
23 And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.
24 And under the brim of it round about there were knops compassing it, ten in a cubit, compassing the sea round about: the knops were cast in two rows, when it was cast.
25 It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east: and the sea was set above upon them, and all their hinder parts were inward.
26 And it was an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths.
27 And he made ten bases of brass; four cubits was the length of one base, and four cubits the breadth thereof, and three cubits the height of it.
28 And the work of the bases was on this manner: they had borders, and the borders were between the ledges:
29 And on the borders that were between the ledges were lions, oxen, and cherubims: and upon the ledges there was a base above: and beneath the lions and oxen were certain additions made of thin work.
30 And every base had four brasen wheels, and plates of brass: and the four corners thereof had undersetters: under the laver were undersetters molten, at the side of every addition.
31 And the mouth of it within the chapiter and above was a cubit: but the mouth thereof was round after the work of the base, a cubit and an half: and also upon the mouth of it were gravings with their borders, foursquare, not round.
32 And under the borders were four wheels; and the axletrees of the wheels were joined to the base: and the height of a wheel was a cubit and half a cubit.
33 And the work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel: their axletrees, and their naves, and their felloes, and their spokes, were all molten.
34 And there were four undersetters to the four corners of one base: and the undersetters were of the very base itself.
35 And in the top of the base was there a round compass of half a cubit high: and on the top of the base the ledges thereof and the borders thereof were of the same.
36 For on the plates of the ledges thereof, and on the borders thereof, he graved cherubims, lions, and palm trees, according to the proportion of every one, and additions round about.
37 After this manner he made the ten bases: all of them had one casting, one measure, and one size.
38 Then made he ten lavers of brass: one laver contained forty baths: and every laver was four cubits: and upon every one of the ten bases one laver.
39 And he put five bases on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house: and he set the sea on the right side of the house eastward over against the south.
40 And Hiram made the lavers, and the shovels, and the basons. So Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he made king Solomon for the house of the Lord:
41 The two pillars, and the two bowls of the chapiters that were on the top of the two pillars; and the two networks, to cover the two bowls of the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars;
42 And four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, even two rows of pomegranates for one network, to cover the two bowls of the chapiters that were upon the pillars;
43 And the ten bases, and ten lavers on the bases;
44 And one sea, and twelve oxen under the sea;
45 And the pots, and the shovels, and the basons: and all these vessels, which Hiram made to king Solomon for the house of the Lord, were of bright brass.
46 In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarthan.
47 And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because they were exceeding many: neither was the weight of the brass found out.
48 And Solomon made all the vessels that pertained unto the house of the Lord: the altar of gold, and the table of gold, whereupon the shewbread was,
49 And the candlesticks of pure gold, five on the right side, and five on the left, before the oracle, with the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs of gold,
50 And the bowls, and the snuffers, and the basons, and the spoons, and the censers of pure gold; and the hinges of gold, both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, to wit, of the temple.
51 So was ended all the work that king Solomon made for the house of the Lord. And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated; even the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, did he put among the treasures of the house of the Lord.
1 Kings 7
Common English Bible
Solomon builds palaces
7 Now as for Solomon’s palace, it took thirteen years for him to complete its construction. 2 He built the Forest of Lebanon Palace one hundred fifty feet in length, seventy-five feet in width, and forty-five feet in height. It had four rows of cedar columns with cedar engravings above the columns. 3 The palace’s cedar roof stood above forty-five beams resting on the columns, fifteen beams to each row. 4 Three sets of window frames faced each other. 5 All the doorframes were rectangular, facing each other in three sets. 6 He made a porch with columns that was seventy-five feet long and forty-five feet wide. Another porch was in front of these with roofed columns in front of them.[a] 7 He made the throne room the Hall of Justice, where he would judge. It was covered with cedar from the lower to the upper levels. 8 The royal residence where Solomon lived was behind this hall. It had a similar design. Solomon also made a similar palace for his wife, Pharaoh’s daughter. 9 He built all these with the best stones cut to size, sawed with saws, back and front, from the foundation to the highest points and from the outer boundary to the great courtyard. 10 The foundation was laid with large stones of high quality, some of fifteen feet and some of twelve feet. 11 Above them were high-quality stones cut to measure, as well as cedar. 12 The surrounding great courtyard had three rows of cut stones and a row of trimmed cedar just like the inner courtyard of the Lord’s temple and its porch.
Solomon’s temple equipment
13 Then King Solomon sent a message and brought Hiram from Tyre. 14 Hiram’s mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali. His father was a Tyrian skilled in bronze work. He was amazingly skillful in the techniques and knowledge for doing all kinds of work in bronze. He came to King Solomon and did all his work.
15 He[b] cast two bronze pillars. Each one was twenty-seven feet high and required a cord of eighteen feet to reach around it.[c] 16 He made two capitals of cast bronze for the tops of the columns. They were each seven and a half feet high. 17 He made an intricate network of chains for the capitals on top of the columns, seven for each capital. 18 He made the pillars and two rows of pomegranates for each network to adorn each of the capitals. 19 The capitals on top of the columns in the porch were made like lilies, each six feet high. 20 Above the round-shaped part and next to the network were two hundred pomegranates. These were placed in rows around both of the capitals on top of the columns. 21 He set up the columns at the temple’s porch. He named the south column Jachin. The north column he named Boaz. 22 After putting the lily shapes on top of the columns, he was finished with the columns.
23 He also made a tank of cast metal called the Sea. It was circular in shape, fifteen feet from rim to rim, seven and a half feet high, forty-five feet in circumference. 24 Under the rim were two rows of gourds completely encircling it, ten every eighteen inches, each cast in its mold. 25 The Sea rested on twelve oxen with their backs toward the center, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. 26 The Sea was as thick as the width of a hand. Its rim was shaped like a cup or an open lily blossom. It could hold two thousand baths.[d]
27 He also made ten bronze stands. Each was six feet long, six feet wide, and four and a half feet high. 28 This is how each stand was made: There were panels connected between the legs. 29 Lions, bulls, and winged otherworldly creatures appeared on the panels between the legs. On the legs above and below the lions and bulls were wreaths on panels hanging off the stands. 30 There were four bronze wheels with bronze axles for each stand. There were four feet and supports cast for each basin with wreaths on their sides.[e] 31 Inside the bowl was an opening eighteen inches deep. The opening was round, measuring twenty-seven inches, with engravings. The panels of the stands were square rather than round. 32 There were four wheels beneath the panels. The axles of the wheels were attached to the stand. Each wheel was twenty-seven inches in height. 33 The construction of the wheels resembled chariot wheels. The axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were all made of cast metal. 34 There was a handle on each of the four corners of every stand, projecting from the side of the stand. 35 The top of the stand had a band running around the perimeter that was nine inches deep. The stand had its own supports and panels. 36 On the surfaces of the supports and panels he carved winged otherworldly creatures, lions, and palm trees with wreaths everywhere.[f] 37 In this manner he made ten stands, each one cast in a single mold of the same size and shape.
38 He made ten bronze washbasins, each able to hold forty baths.[g] Every washbasin was six feet across, and there was one for each of the ten stands. 39 He placed five stands on the south of the temple and five on the north of the temple. He placed the Sea at the southeast corner of the temple.
40 Hiram made the basins, shovels, and bowls.
And so Hiram finished his work on the Lord’s temple for King Solomon:
41 two columns;
two circular capitals on top of the columns;
two networks, adorning the two circular capitals on top of the columns;
42 four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, with two rows of pomegranates for each network that adorned the two circular capitals on top of the columns;
43 ten stands with ten basins on them;
44 one Sea;
twelve oxen beneath the Sea;
45 and the pots, shovels, and bowls.
All the equipment that Hiram made for King Solomon for the Lord’s temple was made from polished bronze. 46 The king cast it in clay molds in the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Zarethan. 47 Due to the very large number of objects, Solomon didn’t even try to weigh the bronze.
48 Solomon also made all the equipment for the Lord’s temple: the gold altar; the gold table for the bread of the presence; 49 the lampstands of pure gold, five on the right and five on the left in front of the inner sanctuary; the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs of gold; 50 the cups, wick trimmers, bowls, ladles, and censers of pure gold; and the gold sockets for the doors to the most holy place and for the doors to the main hall. 51 When all King Solomon’s work on the Lord’s temple was finished, he brought the silver, gold, and all the objects his father David had dedicated and put them in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple.
Footnotes
- 1 Kings 7:6 Heb uncertain
- 1 Kings 7:15 Either Solomon or Hiram; this ambiguity continues in the following verses, but cf 1 Kgs 7:1, 8, 13; 1 Kgs 7:40.
- 1 Kings 7:15 Or the second; cf Jer 52:21
- 1 Kings 7:26 One bath is approximately twenty quarts or five gallons.
- 1 Kings 7:30 Heb uncertain
- 1 Kings 7:36 Heb uncertain
- 1 Kings 7:38 One bath is approximately twenty quarts or five gallons.
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible