Beginning

2 ⁽²⁾ Shlomo enlisted 70,000 men who carried loads, another 80,000 men who were stonecutters in the hills and 3,600 supervising them. ^2 (3) Then Shlomo sent this message to Huram the king of Tzor: “[Deal with me] as you dealt with David my father when you sent him cedar logs, so that he could build himself a palace to live in. ^3 (4) Here, I am about to build a house for the name of Adonai my God, to dedicate it to him, and to burn before Him incense made of sweet spices; the house will also be for the continuing showbread and for the burnt offerings presented every morning and evening, on the shabbats, at every Rosh-Hodesh, and at the designated times of Adonai our God. This is a perpetual regulation for Isra’el. ^4 (5) The house I will build will be great, because our God is greater than all gods. ^5 (6) But who is equal to building him a house? Why, heaven itself, even the heaven of heavens, cannot contain him; so who am I to build him a house, except to offer sacrifices before him?

^6 (7) “Now, therefore, send me a man skilled at working with gold, silver, bronze and iron; dealing with purple, crimson, and blue dyed materials; and capable of doing all kinds of engraving. He will be with the skilled craftsmen I have with me in Y’hudah and Yerushalayim, whom David my father provided. ^7 (8) Also send me cedar, cypress and sandalwood logs from the L’vanon; for I know that your servants are skilled in cutting timber in the L’vanon. I will have my servants work together with your servants ^8 (9) to prepare me an abundant supply of timber, for the house I am about to build must be magnificent and wonderful. ^9 (10) I will give your servants, the woodcutters who cut the timber, 100,000 bushels of cracked wheat, 100,000 bushels of barley, 100,000 gallons of wine, and 100,000 gallons of olive oil.”

^10 (11) Huram the king of Tzor wrote this answer and sent it to Shlomo: “Because the Lord loves his people, he has made you king over them.” ^11 (12) Huram continued, “Blessed be Adonai, the God of Isra’el, who made heaven and earth, who has given David the king a wise, knowledgeable son with common sense to build a house for Adonai and a royal palace for himself. ^12 (13) Now I am sending a man of skill and understanding, my master craftsman Huram, ^13 (14) the son of a woman who was one of the daughters of Dan, while his father was a man from Tzor. He is skilled in working gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and timber, as well as purple and blue dyed materials, fine linen and crimson material; he can do any kind of engraving; and he can make all the equipment necessary to accomplish any task assigned to him, with the help of your craftsmen and those of my lord David your father. ^14 (15) Therefore let my lord send his servants the wheat, barley, oil and wine he has spoken of; ^15 (16) and we will cut wood from the L’vanon, as much as you need; we will float it to you as rafts by sea to Yafo, and you will take it up to Yerushalayim.”

^16 (17) Shlomo took a census of all the foreigners in the land of Isra’el, following the pattern of the census of David his father; they were found to number 153,600. ^17 (18) He appointed 70,000 of them to carry loads, 80,000 to be stonecutters in the hills and 3,600 as supervisors to assign the people their work.

3 Then Shlomo began to build the house of Adonai in Yerushalayim on Mount Moriyah, where Adonai had appeared to David his father. Provision had been made for this at the place David had chosen, the threshing-floor of Ornan the Y’vusi. ² He began building in the fourth year of his reign, on the second day of the second month.

³ These are the foundations Shlomo laid for building the house of God: the length in old-standard cubits was sixty cubits [105 feet] and the width twenty cubits [thirty-five feet]. ⁴ The length of the hall fronting the house was the same as the house’s width, thirty-five feet and the height 210 [feet]; and he overlaid it with pure gold.

⁵ The larger house he covered with cypress-wood, which he overlaid with fine gold and embossed with palm trees and chains. ⁶ He also decorated the building with precious stones and gold from Parvayim, ⁷ overlaying the house and its beams, thresholds, walls and doors with gold and carving k’ruvim on the walls.

⁸ Then he made the Especially Holy Place; its length matched the width of the house, thirty-five feet, and its width was thirty-five feet. He overlaid it with twenty tons of fine gold. ⁹ The weight of the nails was one-and-a-quarter pounds of gold, and he overlaid the upper rooms with gold.

¹⁰ Inside the Especially Holy Place he made two k’ruvim of cast metal, and they overlaid them with gold. ¹¹ The wings of the k’ruvim were thirty-five feet long — the wing of the one keruv was eight-and-three-quarters feet long and touched the wall of the house; the other wing was also eight-and-three-quarters feet long, so that it touched the wing of the other keruv. ¹² The wing of the other keruv was eight-and-three-quarters feet long, touching the wall of the house; and the other wing was also eight-and-three-quarters feet long, touching the wing of the first keruv. ¹³ The wings of these k’ruvim spread out over thirty-five feet. They stood on their feet with their faces turned inward.

¹⁴ He made the curtain of blue, purple and crimson material and of fine linen, with a design of k’ruvim worked into it.

¹⁵ In front of the house he made two columns sixty-one-and-a-quarter feet high, with a capital of eight-and-three-quarters feet on top of each. ¹⁶ He made chains in the sanctuary and added them to the tops of the columns, and he made a hundred pomegranates and attached them to the chains. ¹⁷ He erected the columns in front of the temple, one on the right and the other on the left; the one on the right he called Yakhin, and the one on the left he called Bo‘az.

4 He made an altar of bronze thirty-five feet long, thirty-five feet wide and seventeen-and-a-half feet high.

² He made the cast metal “Sea” circular, seventeen-and-a-half feet from rim to rim, eight-and-three quarters feet high and fifty-two-and-a-half feet in circumference. ³ Below the rim a ring of ox-like figures encircled it, ten for every twenty-one inches all the way around the Sea. The oxen were in two rows; they were cast when the Sea was cast. ⁴ It rested on twelve oxen, three looking north, three looking west, three looking south and three looking east, all with their hindquarters toward the center. The Sea was set on top of them. ⁵ It was a handbreadth thick, its rim was made like the rim of a cup, like the flower of a lily; and its capacity was 16,500 gallons. ⁶ He also made ten basins for washing and put five on the right and five on the left. Items needed for the burnt offerings would be cleansed in these, but the Sea was for the cohanim to wash in.

⁷ He made the ten menorahs of gold in accordance with their specifications and set them in the temple, five on the right and five on the left. ⁸ He also made ten tables and put them in the temple, five on the right and five on the left. And he made a hundred basins of gold.

⁹ He made the courtyard for the cohanim and the great courtyard, also the doors to the courtyard, which he overlaid with bronze.

¹⁰ The Sea he placed on the right side [of the house], toward the southeast.

¹¹ Huram made the ash pots, shovels and sprinkling basins. With that, Huram completed the work he had been doing for King Shlomo in the house of God — ¹² the two columns, the two moldings, the two capitals on top of the columns, the two nettings covering the two moldings of the capitals atop the columns, ¹³ and the 400 pomegranates for the two nettings, two rows of pomegranates for each netting, to cover the two moldings of the capitals atop the columns. ¹⁴ He also made the trolleys, the basins on the trolleys, ¹⁵ the one Sea, the twelve oxen under it, ¹⁶ the ash pots, the shovels, the forks and all the other equipment for it. All these articles that Huram the master craftsman made for King Shlomo in the house of Adonai were of brilliant bronze. ¹⁷ The king cast them in the plain of the Yarden, in the clay ground between Sukkot and Tz’redah. ¹⁸ Shlomo made so many of these objects that the total weight of the bronze could not be determined.

¹⁹ Shlomo made all the objects that were inside the house of God: the gold altar; the table on which the showbread was displayed; ²⁰ the menorahs with their lamps to burn in front of the sanctuary as specified, of pure gold; ²¹ the flowers, lamps and tongs of gold, solid gold; ²² and the snuffers, bowls, cups and fire pans of pure gold. As for the entryway to the house, the inner doors for the Especially Holy Place and the doors of the house (that is, of the temple) were of gold.

5 Thus all the work that Shlomo did for the house of Adonai was finished. Then Shlomo brought in the gifts which David his father had consecrated — the silver, the gold and all the utensils — and put them in the treasuries of the house of God.

² Shlomo assembled all the leaders of Isra’el and all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the paternal clans of the people of Isra’el, to Yerushalayim, to bring the ark for the covenant of Adonai out of the City of David, also known as Tziyon. ³ All the people of Isra’el assembled before the king at the festival in the seventh month. ⁴ All the leaders of Isra’el came. The L’vi’im took the ark ⁵ and brought up the ark, the tent of meeting and all the holy utensils that were in the tent; these are what the cohanim and L’vi’im brought up. ⁶ King Shlomo and the whole community of Isra’el who had assembled in his presence were in front of the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen in numbers beyond counting or recording. ⁷ The cohanim brought the ark for the covenant of Adonai in to its place inside the sanctuary of the house, to the Especially Holy Place, under the wings of the k’ruvim. ⁸ For the k’ruvim spread out their wings over the place for the ark, covering the ark and its poles from above. ⁹ The poles were so long that their ends could be seen [extending] from the ark into the sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside; they are there to this day. ¹⁰ There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets Moshe put there at Horev, when Adonai made the covenant with the people of Isra’el at the time of their leaving Egypt.

¹¹ When the cohanim came out of the Holy Place (for all the cohanim who were present had consecrated themselves; they didn’t keep to their divisions; ¹² also the L’vi’im who were the singers, all of them — Asaf, Heman, Y’dutun and their sons and relatives — dressed in fine linen, with cymbals, lutes and lyres, stood on the east side of the altar; and with them 120 cohanim sounding trumpets), ¹³ then, when the trumpeters and singers were playing in concord, to be heard harmoniously praising and thanking Adonai, and they lifted their voices together with the trumpets, cymbals and other musical instruments to praise Adonai: “for he is good, for his grace continues forever” — then, the house, the house of Adonai, was filled with a cloud; ¹⁴ so that because of the cloud, the cohanim could not stand up to perform their service; for the glory of Adonai filled the house of God.