Beginning

Yahweh’s House Will Be Great

2 ^[a](A)Then Solomon ^[b]decided to build a house for the name of Yahweh and a ^[c]royal palace for himself. ^2 [d]So ^(B)Solomon numbered 70,000 men to carry loads and 80,000 men to hew stone in the mountains and 3,600 to direct them.

^3 (C)Then Solomon sent word to ^[e]Huram the king of Tyre, saying, “^(D)As you dealt with David my father and sent him cedars to build him a house to live in, so do for me. ⁴ Behold, I am about to build a house for the name of Yahweh my God, setting it apart to Him as holy, ^(E)to burn fragrant incense before Him and to set out ^(F)the showbread continually, and to offer ^(G)burnt offerings morning and evening, ^(H)on sabbaths and on new moons and on the appointed feasts of Yahweh our God, this being required forever in Israel. ⁵ Now the house which I am about to build will be great, for ^(I)greater is our God than all the gods. ⁶ But ^(J)who is able to build a house for Him, for the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain Him? So who am I, that I should build a house for Him, except to ^[f]burn incense before Him? ⁷ So now, ^(K)send me a wise man to work in gold, silver, brass, and iron, and in purple, crimson, and blue fabrics, and who knows how to make engravings, to work with the wise men ^[g](L)whom I have in Judah and Jerusalem, whom David my father prepared. ^8 (M)Send me also cedar, cypress and algum timber from Lebanon, for I know that your servants know how to cut timber of Lebanon; and behold, ^(N)my servants will work with your servants, ⁹ to prepare timber in abundance for me, for the house which I am about to build will be great and wonderful. ¹⁰ And behold, ^(O)I will give to your servants, the woodsmen who cut the timber, ^[h]20,000 kors of crushed wheat and 20,000 kors of barley, and ^[i]20,000 baths of wine and 20,000 baths of oil.”

Covenant with Huram King of Tyre

¹¹ Then Huram king of Tyre said in a letter ^[j]sent to Solomon: “^(P)Because Yahweh loves His people, He has given you to be king over them.” ¹² Then Huram said, “Blessed be ^(Q)Yahweh, the God of Israel, who has made heaven and earth, who has given King David a wise son, knowledgeable in insight and understanding, ^(R)who will build a house for Yahweh and a ^[k]royal palace for himself.

¹³ “So now, I am sending Huram-abi, a wise man, who is knowledgeable in understanding, ^14 (S)the son of a ^[l]Danite woman and ^[m]a Tyrian father, who knows how to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and in purple, blue, linen, and crimson fabrics, and who knows how to make all kinds of engravings and to devise any design which may be given to him, to work with your wise men and with the wise men of my lord David your father. ¹⁵ So now, let my lord send to his servants wheat and barley, oil and wine, of ^(T)which he has spoken. ^16 (U)And we will cut whatever timber you need from Lebanon and bring it to you on rafts by sea to Joppa, so that you may carry it up to Jerusalem.”

¹⁷ Then Solomon numbered all the sojourners who were in the land of Israel, ^(V)following the ^[n]census which his father David had ^[o]taken; and 153,600 were found. ^18 (W)And he made 70,000 of them to carry loads and 80,000 as hewers of stone in the mountains and 3,600 directors to make the people work.

Solomon Builds Yahweh’s House

3 ^(X)Then Solomon began to build the house of Yahweh in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where Yahweh had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared ^(Y)on the threshing floor of ^[p]Ornan the Jebusite. ² Then he began to build on the second day in the second month ^[q]of the fourth year of his reign. ³ Now these are the ^[r]foundations which ^(Z)Solomon laid for building the house of God. The length in cubits, according to the old standard was ^[s]sixty cubits, and the width twenty cubits. ⁴ And the porch which was in front of the house ^(AA)was as long as the width of the house, ^[t]20 cubits, and the height 120; and inside he overlaid it with pure gold. ⁵ Now he overlaid ^(AB)the ^[u]main room with cypress wood and overlaid it with fine gold, and ^[v]ornamented it with palm trees and chains. ⁶ Further, he overlaid the house with precious stones for beauty; and the gold was gold from ^[w]Parvaim. ^7 (AC)He also covered the house with gold—the beams, the thresholds and its walls and its doors; and he ^(AD)carved cherubim on the walls.

⁸ And he made ^(AE)the ^[x]room of the Holy of Holies: its length across the width of the house was twenty cubits, and its width was twenty cubits; and he covered it with fine gold, amounting to ^[y]600 talents. ⁹ Now the weight of the nails was ^[z]fifty shekels of gold. He also covered ^(AF)the upper rooms with gold.

^10 (AG)Then in the room of the Holy of Holies he made two cherubim of fashioned work and overlaid them with gold. ¹¹ Now the wingspan of the cherubim was twenty cubits; the wing of one, of five cubits, touched the wall of the house, and its other wing, of five cubits, touched the wing of the other cherub. ¹² And the wing of the other cherub, of five cubits, touched the wall of the house; and its other wing of five cubits was attached to the wing of the ^[aa]first cherub. ¹³ The wings of these cherubim extended twenty cubits, and they stood on their feet ^[ab]facing the main room. ^14 (AH)And he made the veil of blue, purple, crimson, and fine linen, and he ornamented cherubim on it.

^15 (AI)He also made two pillars for the front of the house, ^[ac]thirty-five cubits ^[ad]high, and the capital on the top of each was five cubits. ¹⁶ And he made chains in the inner sanctuary and put them on the top of the pillars; and he made one hundred pomegranates and put them on the chains. ^17 (AJ)Thus he set up the pillars in front of the temple, one on the right and one on the left, and named the one on the right Jachin and the one on the left Boaz.

The Furnishings of the House of Yahweh

4 Then ^(AK)he made a bronze altar, ^[ae]twenty cubits in length and twenty cubits in width and ten cubits in height. ^2 (AL)And he made the sea of cast metal ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and its height was five cubits, and ^[af]thirty cubits in ^[ag]its circumference. ³ Now figures like oxen were under it and encircling it, ten cubits, entirely encircling the sea. The oxen were in two rows, cast ^[ah]in one piece. ⁴ It stood on twelve oxen, three facing the north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east; and the sea was set on top of them, and all their rear parts turned inward. ⁵ And it was a ^[ai]handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, as a lily blossom; it ^(AM)could hold 3,000 baths. ^6 (AN)He also made ten lavers and set five on the right side and five on the left, in which to wash things, that is, in which they would rinse things for the burnt offering; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.

⁷ Then ^(AO)he made the ten golden lampstands ^[aj]in the way prescribed for them and he put them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. ⁸ He also made ^(AP)ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. And he made one hundred golden bowls. ⁹ Then he made ^(AQ)the court of the priests and ^(AR)the great court and doors for the court, and overlaid their doors with bronze. ^10 (AS)And he put the sea on the right ^[ak]side of the house toward the southeast.

^11 (AT)And Huram made the pots and the shovels and the bowls. So Huram completed doing the work which he did for King Solomon in the house of God: ¹² the two pillars and the two bowls and the two capitals on top of the pillars, and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on top of the pillars, ¹³ and ^(AU)the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on the pillars. ^14 (AV)He also made the stands and he made the lavers on the stands, ¹⁵ and the one sea with the twelve oxen under it. ¹⁶ And the pots and the shovels and the flesh hooks and all its utensils, ^(AW)Huram-abi made of polished bronze for King Solomon for the house of Yahweh. ¹⁷ On the plain of the Jordan the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredah. ^18 (AX)Thus Solomon made all these utensils in great quantities, for the weight of the bronze could not be found out.

¹⁹ Solomon also made all the furniture which was in the house of God: even the golden altar and ^(AY)the tables with the bread of the Presence on them, ²⁰ and the lampstands with their lamps of pure gold, ^(AZ)to burn in front of the inner sanctuary ^[al]in the way prescribed; ²¹ and the flowers and the lamps and the tongs of gold, of purest gold; ²² and the snuffers and the bowls and the spoons and the firepans, of pure gold; and the entrance of the house, its inner doors for the Holy of Holies and the doors of the house, that is, of the nave, of gold.

The Ark Brought into the House of Yahweh

5 ^(BA)Thus all the work that Solomon did for the house of Yahweh was finished. And Solomon brought in the ^[am](BB)things set apart as holy by his father David, even the silver and the gold and all the utensils, and he put them in the treasuries of the house of God.

^2 (BC)Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’ households of the sons of Israel to Jerusalem, ^(BD)to bring up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh from the city of David, which is Zion. ^3 (BE)And all the men of Israel assembled themselves to the king at ^(BF)the feast, that is in the seventh month. ⁴ Then all the elders of Israel came, and ^(BG)the Levites carried the ark. ⁵ And they brought up the ark and the tent of meeting and all the holy utensils which were in the tent; the Levitical priests brought them up. ⁶ And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who congregated with him before the ark, were sacrificing ^[an]so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered. ⁷ Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the cherubim. ⁸ And the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim made a covering over the ark and its poles from above. ⁹ But the poles were so long that ^(BH)the ends of the poles of the ark could be seen before the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen outside; and ^[ao]they are there to this day. ^10 (BI)There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets which Moses put there at Horeb, where Yahweh cut a covenant with the sons of Israel, when they came out of Egypt.

The Glory of Yahweh Fills His House

¹¹ Now it happened that when the priests came out of the holy place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, without regard ^(BJ)to divisions), ¹² and all the Levitical singers, ^(BK)Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and relatives, clothed in fine linen, ^(BL)with cymbals, harps, and lyres, standing east of the altar, and with them 120 priests ^(BM)blowing trumpets ¹³ in unison when the trumpeters and the singers were to make themselves heard with one voice to praise and to give thanks to Yahweh, and when they lifted up their voice ^(BN)accompanied by trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and when they praised Yahweh saying, “^(BO)He indeed is good for His lovingkindness endures forever,” then the house, the house of Yahweh, was filled with a cloud, ¹⁴ so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for ^(BP)the glory of Yahweh filled the house of God.