Beginning

2 Solomon recruited 70,000 men as carriers, 80,000 as stonecutters in the mountains and 3,600 supervisors over them.

² Then Solomon sent word to Huram the king of Tyre saying, “Deal with me as you did with my father David when you sent him cedars to build a house to dwell in. ³ Behold, I am about to build a House for the Name of Adonai my God and to dedicate it to Him for burning fragrant incense before Him, for regular arrangement of the Bread of the Presence and for burnt offerings every morning and evening as well as on Shabbatot, New Moons and moadim of Adonai Eloheinu. Upon Israel this is forever.

⁴ “The House that I am about to build will be great, because our God is greater than all the gods. ⁵ But who is able to build Him a House, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain Him? Who then am I that I should build Him a House—except to burn incense before Him?

⁶ “So now, send me a man skilled to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, and in purple, crimson and blue yarn, and experienced in engraving, to work in Judah and Jerusalem with the skilled men who are with me, whom my father David provided. ⁷ Send me also cedar, evergreen and algum logs from Lebanon, for I know that your servants are skilled in cutting timber in Lebanon. Indeed my servants will work with yours ⁸ to prepare an abundance of timber for me, because the House that I am about to build will be large and magnificent. ⁹ Now, behold, I will give to your servants, the woodsmen who cut the timber, 20,000 measures^[a] of ground wheat, 20,000 measures of barley, 20,000 vats of wine and 20,000 vats^[b] of oil.”

¹⁰ Then King Huram of Tyre, replied in a letter that he sent to Solomon, “Because Adonai loves His people, He has made you king over them.” ¹¹ Then Huram continued, “Blessed be Adonai, the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth. He gave King David a wise son, endowed with insight and understanding, who will build a House for Adonai and a royal house for himself. ¹² So now I am sending Huram-abi—a skilled man endowed with understanding ¹³ who is the son of a woman from the daughters of Dan and whose father was a man from Tyre—a man skilled to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, stone and wood, in purple and blue, fine linen and crimson, and to engrave all kinds of engraving, and who can execute any design given to him. He will work with your skilled men and with the skilled men of my lord David your father. ¹⁴ Now let my lord send to his servants the wheat and barley, the oil and wine he has promised ¹⁵ and we will cut as many logs from Lebanon as much as you need, and float them in rafts by sea to Jaffa. You can then take them up to Jerusalem.”

¹⁶ Solomon counted all the foreign men in the land of Israel, like the census that his father David had taken, and 153,600 were found. ¹⁷ He appointed 70,000 of them to carry loads, 80,000 to quarry stones in the mountains, and 3,600 overseers to supervise the people working.

Solomon Builds the Temple in Jerusalem

3 Then Solomon began to build the House of Adonai in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah—where Adonai appeared to his father David—at the place that David prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ² He began to build on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign. ³ Now the foundation Solomon laid for the building of the House of God was 60 cubits long and 20 cubits wide, according to the old standard. ⁴ The porch in front of the House along its width was 20 cubits and its height was 120 cubits, and the inside was overlaid with pure gold. ⁵ He paneled the main hall with cypress wood, which he overlaid with fine gold and embossed on it palm trees and chains. ⁶ He adorned the House with precious stones and the gold he used was gold from Parvaim. ⁷ Furthermore He overlaid the beams, thresholds, walls and doors of the House with gold and carved cheruvim on the walls.

⁸ He made the Holy of Holies, its length corresponding to the width of the House—20 cubits long and 20 cubits wide. He overlaid it with 600 talents of fine gold. ⁹ The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. He also overlaid the upper rooms with gold. ¹⁰ Next he made two sculptured cheruvim in the Holy of Holies and overlaid them with gold. ¹¹ The wingspan of the cheruvim was 20 cubits. One wing of the first cheruv was five cubits long and touched the wall of the House, while the other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of the other cheruv. ¹² Similarly, one wing of the second cheruv was five cubits long and touched the wall of the House, while the other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of the other cheruv. ¹³ Thus the wingspan of these cheruvim was 20 cubits. They stood on their feet facing the main hall. ¹⁴ Furthermore, he made the veil of blue, purple, crimson yarn and fine linen with cheruvim worked into it.

¹⁵ In the front of the House he made two pillars 35 cubits high, each with a capital on the top measuring five cubits. ¹⁶ He made interwoven chains for the inner Sanctuary and put them on top of the pillars. He also made 100 pomegranates and attached them to the chains. ¹⁷ He erected the pillars in front of the Temple, one to the south and the other to the north. The one to the south he named Jachin and the one to the north Boaz.

The Temple Furnishings

4 Moreover, he made a bronze altar 20 cubits long, 20 cubits wide and ten cubits high. ² He also made the Sea of cast metal ten cubits across from brim to brim, perfectly round. It was five cubits high and its circumference was 30 cubits.

³ Beneath it, figures like bulls were set all around it, ten cubits encircling the Sea. The bulls were in two rows, cast in one piece with it. ⁴ The Sea stood on 12 bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The Sea rested upon them and their hindquarters were all turned inward. ⁵ It was a handbreadth thick, and the brim was like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held 3,000 vats. ⁶ He also made ten basins for washing and placed five on the right side and five on the left. In them the items used for the burnt offering were rinsed, but the kohanim washed in “the Sea”.

⁷ Next he made the ten menorot^[c] of gold in the manner prescribed for them and set them in the Temple, five on the right hand and five on the left. ⁸ He also made ten tables and placed them in the Temple, five on the right side and five on the left. He also made 100 gold bowls.

⁹ Then he made the courtyard of the kohanim and the great courtyard and doors for the courtyard. He overlaid the doors with bronze. ¹⁰ He set the Sea on the south side at the southeast corner.

¹¹ Huram also made the pots, the shovels and the bowls. So Huram-abi finished the work that he had undertaken for King Solomon in the House of God: ¹² the two pillars, the bowls and the two capitals on the top of the pillars, and the two lattice-works to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars, ¹³ and the 400 pomegranates for the two lattice-works (two rows of pomegranates for each lattice-work to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were upon the top of the pillars). ¹⁴ He also made the stands, the basins upon the stands, ¹⁵ and the one Sea with the 12 bulls under it, ¹⁶ as well as the pots, the shovels and the meat hooks. All the utensils Huram-abi made for King Solomon for the House of Adonai were of polished bronze. ¹⁷ The king had them cast with clay earth from the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Zeredah. ¹⁸ Solomon made all these utensils in such great quantities that the weight of the bronze could not be determined.

¹⁹ Solomon also made all the furnishings that were in the House of God, including the golden altar, the tables on which was the Bread of Presence, ²⁰ the menorot with their lamps of pure gold to burn in front of the inner sanctuary as prescribed ²¹ with the flowers and the lamps and the tongs of gold, the purest gold, ²² and the snuffers, the bowls, the spoons and the fire-pans of pure gold, and the doors of the House—the inner doors for the Holy of Holies and the doors of the House, that is, the Temple—were of gold.

5 When all the work that Solomon undertook for the House of Adonai was finished, Solomon brought in the things David his father consecrated—the silver, gold and all the furnishings—and put them in the treasuries of the House of God.

Consecration of the Temple

² Then Solomon gathered to Jerusalem the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the patriarchal leaders of Bnei-Yisrael, in order to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of Adonai from the city of David, which is Zion. ³ All the men of Israel gathered together to the king at the feast that is in the seventh month.

⁴ So all the elders of Israel came and the Levites took up the Ark ⁵ and brought up the Ark and the Tent of Meeting along with all the sacred furnishings that were in the Tent. The Levitical kohanim brought them up. ⁶ Meanwhile, King Solomon and the entire congregation of Israel who gathered with him before the Ark, were sacrificing so many sheep and bulls that they could not be counted or numbered.

⁷ The kohanim brought in the Ark of the Covenant of Adonai to its place, into the inner Sanctuary of the House, into the Holy of Holies under the wings of the cheruvim. ⁸ The cheruvim spread their wings over the place of the Ark so that the cheruvim covered the Ark and its poles from above. ⁹ Now the poles were so long that the ends of the poles extending from the Ark could be seen in front of the inner Sanctuary, though they could not be seen from outside; and they are there to this day. ¹⁰ There was nothing in the Ark except the two tablets that Moses had placed there at Horeb, where Adonai made a covenant with Bnei-Yisrael when they came out of Egypt.

God’s Glory Fills the Temple

¹¹ And it came to pass, when the kohanim came out of the Holy Place—for all the kohanim that were present had consecrated themselves, without regard to divisions— ¹² all the Levite singers—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, their sons and their relatives—dressed in fine linen with cymbals, harps and lyres, were standing at the east end of the altar and with them were 120 kohanim blowing trumpets. ¹³ Then it came to pass that when the trumpeters and singers joined as one to extol and praise Adonai, and when the sound of the trumpets, cymbals and musical instruments and the praise of Adonai—“For He is good, for His mercy endures forever”—grew louder, the Temple, the House of Adonai, was filled with a cloud. ¹⁴ The kohanim could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of Adonai filled the House of God.