“Now I have sent a skilled man, who has understanding, Huram-abi,

the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre. He is trained to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and in purple, blue, and crimson fabrics and fine linen, and to do all sorts of engraving and execute any design that may be assigned him, with your craftsmen, the craftsmen of my lord, David your father.

Now therefore the wheat and barley, oil and wine, of which my lord has spoken, let him send to his servants.

And we will cut whatever timber you need from Lebanon and bring it to you in rafts by sea to Joppa, so that you may take it up to Jerusalem.”

Then Solomon counted all the resident aliens who were in the land of Israel, after the census of them that David his father had taken, and there were found 153,600.

Seventy thousand of them he assigned to bear burdens, 80,000 to quarry in the hill country, and 3,600 as overseers to make the people work.

Solomon Builds the Temple

Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

He began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign.

These are Solomon's measurements for building the house of God: the length, in cubits of the old standard, was sixty cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits.

He adorned the house with settings of precious stones. The gold was gold of Parvaim.

So he lined the house with gold—its beams, its thresholds, its walls, and its doors—and he carved cherubim on the walls.

The weight of gold for the nails was fifty shekels. And he overlaid the upper chambers with gold.

The wings of these cherubim extended twenty cubits. The cherubim stood on their feet, facing the nave.

He set up the pillars in front of the temple, one on the south, the other on the north; that on the south he called Jachin, and that on the north Boaz.

Then he made the sea of cast metal. It was round, ten cubits from brim to brim, and five cubits high, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference.

Under it were figures of gourds, for ten cubits, compassing the sea all around. The gourds were in two rows, cast with it when it was cast.

It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The sea was set on them, and all their rear parts were inward.

He also made ten basins in which to wash, and set five on the south side, and five on the north side. In these they were to rinse off what was used for the burnt offering, and the sea was for the priests to wash in.

And he made ten golden lampstands as prescribed, and set them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north.

He also made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north. And he made a hundred basins of gold.

And he set the sea at the southeast corner of the house.

Hiram also made the pots, the shovels, and the basins. So Hiram finished the work that he did for King Solomon on the house of God:

He made the stands also, and the basins on the stands,

and the one sea, and the twelve oxen underneath it.

The pots, the shovels, the forks, and all the equipment for these Huram-abi made of burnished bronze for King Solomon for the house of the Lord.