Beginning

2 Now Solomon decided to build a house for Yahweh’s name, and a house for his kingdom. ² Solomon counted out seventy thousand men to bear burdens, eighty thousand men who were stone cutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred to oversee them.

³ Solomon sent to Huram the king of Tyre, saying, “As you dealt with David my father, and sent him cedars to build him a house in which to dwell, so deal with me. ⁴ Behold,^[a] I am about to build a house for the name of Yahweh my God, to dedicate it to him, to burn before him incense of sweet spices, for the continual show bread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths, on the new moons, and on the set feasts of Yahweh our God. This is an ordinance forever to Israel.

⁵ “The house which I am building will be great, for our God is greater than all gods. ⁶ But who is able to build him a house, since heaven and the heaven of heavens can’t contain him? Who am I then, that I should build him a house, except just to burn incense before him?

⁷ “Now therefore send me a man skillful to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in iron, and in purple, crimson, and blue, and who knows how to engrave engravings, to be with the skillful men who are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father provided.

⁸ “Send me also cedar trees, cypress trees, and algum trees out of Lebanon, for I know that your servants know how to cut timber in Lebanon. Behold, my servants will be with your servants, ⁹ even to prepare me timber in abundance; for the house which I am about to build will be great and wonderful. ¹⁰ Behold, I will give to your servants, the cutters who cut timber, twenty thousand cors^[b] of beaten wheat, twenty thousand baths^[c] of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.”

¹¹ Then Huram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon, “Because Yahweh loves his people, he has made you king over them.” ¹² Huram continued, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who has given to David the king a wise son, endowed with discretion and understanding, who would build a house for Yahweh and a house for his kingdom.

¹³ Now I have sent a skillful man, endowed with understanding, Huram-abi,^{[d] 14} the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan; and his father was a man of Tyre. He is skillful to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in iron, in stone, in timber, in purple, in blue, in fine linen, and in crimson, also to engrave any kind of engraving and to devise any device, that there may be a place appointed to him with your skillful men, and with the skillful men of my lord David your father.

¹⁵ “Now therefore, the wheat, the barley, the oil, and the wine which my lord has spoken of, let him send to his servants; ¹⁶ and we will cut wood out of Lebanon, as much as you need. We will bring it to you in rafts by sea to Joppa; then you shall carry it up to Jerusalem.”

¹⁷ Solomon counted all the foreigners who were in the land of Israel, after the census with which David his father had counted them; and they found one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred. ¹⁸ He set seventy thousand of them to bear burdens, eighty thousand who were stone cutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred overseers to assign the people their work.

3 Then Solomon began to build Yahweh’s house at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where Yahweh appeared to David his father, which he prepared in the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ² He began to build in the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign. ³ Now these are the foundations which Solomon laid for the building of God’s house: the length by cubits^[e] after the first measure was sixty cubits, and the width twenty cubits. ⁴ The porch that was in front, its length, across the width of the house, was twenty cubits, and the height one hundred twenty; and he overlaid it within with pure gold. ⁵ He made the larger room with a ceiling of cypress wood, which he overlaid with fine gold, and ornamented it with palm trees and chains. ⁶ He decorated the house with precious stones for beauty. The gold was gold from Parvaim. ⁷ He also overlaid the house, the beams, the thresholds, its walls, and its doors with gold, and engraved cherubim on the walls.

⁸ He made the most holy place. Its length, according to the width of the house, was twenty cubits, and its width twenty cubits; and he overlaid it with fine gold, amounting to six hundred talents.^{[f] 9} The weight of the nails was fifty shekels^[g] of gold. He overlaid the upper rooms with gold.

¹⁰ In the most holy place he made two cherubim by carving, and they overlaid them with gold. ¹¹ The wings of the cherubim were twenty cubits long: the wing of the one was five cubits, reaching to the wall of the house; and the other wing was five cubits, reaching to the wing of the other cherub. ¹² The wing of the other cherub was five cubits, reaching to the wall of the house; and the other wing was five cubits, joining to the wing of the other cherub. ¹³ The wings of these cherubim spread themselves out twenty cubits. They stood on their feet, and their faces were toward the house. ¹⁴ He made the veil of blue, purple, crimson, and fine linen, and ornamented it with cherubim.

¹⁵ Also he made before the house two pillars thirty-five cubits high, and the capital that was on the top of each of them was five cubits. ¹⁶ He made chains in the inner sanctuary, and put them on the tops of the pillars; and he made one hundred pomegranates, and put them on the chains. ¹⁷ He set up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand and the other on the left; and called the name of that on the right hand Jachin, and the name of that on the left Boaz.

4 Then he made an altar of bronze, twenty cubits^[h] long, twenty cubits wide, and ten cubits high. ² Also he made the molten sea^[i] of ten cubits from brim to brim. It was round, five cubits high, and thirty cubits in circumference. ³ Under it was the likeness of oxen, which encircled it, for ten cubits, encircling the sea. The oxen were in two rows, cast when it was cast. ⁴ It stood on twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, three looking toward the west, three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east; and the sea was set on them above, and all their hindquarters were inward. ⁵ It was a handbreadth thick. Its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily. It received and held three thousand baths.^{[j] 6} He also made ten basins, and put five on the right hand and five on the left, to wash in them. The things that belonged to the burnt offering were washed in them, but the sea was for the priests to wash in.

⁷ He made the ten lamp stands of gold according to the ordinance concerning them; and he set them in the temple, five on the right hand and five on the left. ⁸ He made also ten tables, and placed them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. He made one hundred basins of gold. ⁹ Furthermore he made the court of the priests, the great court, and doors for the court, and overlaid their doors with bronze. ¹⁰ He set the sea on the right side of the house eastward, toward the south.

¹¹ Huram made the pots, the shovels, and the basins.

So Huram finished doing the work that he did for King Solomon in God’s house: ¹² the two pillars, the bowls, the two capitals which were on the top of the pillars, the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars, ¹³ and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks—two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars. ¹⁴ He also made the bases, and he made the basins on the bases— ¹⁵ one sea, and the twelve oxen under it. ¹⁶ Huram-abi^[k] also made the pots, the shovels, the forks, and all its vessels for King Solomon, for Yahweh’s house, of bright bronze. ¹⁷ The king cast them in the plain of the Jordan, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredah. ¹⁸ Thus Solomon made all these vessels in great abundance, so that the weight of the bronze could not be determined.

¹⁹ Solomon made all the vessels that were in God’s house: the golden altar, the tables with the show bread on them, ²⁰ and the lamp stands with their lamps to burn according to the ordinance before the inner sanctuary, of pure gold; ²¹ and the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs of gold that was purest gold; ²² and the snuffers, the basins, the spoons, and the fire pans of pure gold. As for the entry of the house, its inner doors for the most holy place and the doors of the main hall of the temple were of gold.

5 Thus all the work that Solomon did for Yahweh’s house was finished. Solomon brought in the things that David his father had dedicated, even the silver, the gold, and all the vessels, and put them in the treasuries of God’s house.

² Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the princes of the fathers’ households of the children of Israel, to Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of Yahweh’s covenant out of David’s city, which is Zion. ³ So all the men of Israel assembled themselves to the king at the feast, which was in the seventh month. ⁴ All the elders of Israel came. The Levites took up the ark. ⁵ They brought up the ark, the Tent of Meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the Tent. The Levitical priests brought these up. ⁶ King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled to him were before the ark, sacrificing sheep and cattle that could not be counted or numbered for multitude. ⁷ The priests brought in the ark of Yahweh’s covenant to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubim. ⁸ For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its poles above. ⁹ The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the ark in front of the inner sanctuary, but they were not seen outside; and it is there to this day. ¹⁰ There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets which Moses put there at Horeb, when Yahweh made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt.

¹¹ When the priests had come out of the holy place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, and didn’t keep their divisions; ¹² also the Levites who were the singers, all of them, even Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and their brothers, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals and stringed instruments and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them one hundred twenty priests sounding with trumpets); ¹³ when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking Yahweh; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised Yahweh, saying,

then the house was filled with a cloud, even Yahweh’s house, ¹⁴ so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for Yahweh’s glory filled God’s house.