² he said to Nathan^(A) the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house^(B) of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”^(C)

¹⁴ He sent them off to Lebanon in shifts of ten thousand a month, so that they spent one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram^(A) was in charge of the forced labor.

¹⁵ He lined its interior walls with cedar boards, paneling them from the floor of the temple to the ceiling,^(A) and covered the floor of the temple with planks of juniper.^{(B) 16} He partitioned off twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling to form within the temple an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.^{(C) 17} The main hall in front of this room was forty cubits^[a] long. ¹⁸ The inside of the temple was cedar,^(D) carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; no stone was to be seen.