Beginning
Preparations for Building the Temple
2 Solomon said that he would build a temple for the Name of the Lord and a palace for his kingdom.[a] 2 He assigned seventy thousand men to transport materials, eighty thousand to quarry stone in the hills, and thirty-six hundred to supervise them.
Solomon’s Letter
3 Solomon sent this message to Huram[b] king of Tyre:
Send me cedar as you did for my father David, when you sent him cedar to build a house for himself to live in.
4 I am building a house for the Name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to him for burning fragrant incense before him, for the continual arrangement of bread, for burnt offerings in the morning and evening, for the sabbaths, the new moons, and the appointed festivals of the Lord our God. This is to be a permanent regulation for Israel.
5 The house that I am building will be great, because our God is greater than all the gods. 6 But who is able to build a house for him? The heavens, even the highest heaven,[c] cannot contain him. Who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to send incense and sacrifices up in smoke before him?
7 Now send me a man who is skillful at working with gold, silver, bronze, and iron, as well as with purple, crimson, and blue material, and who is trained in engraving. He will work with the skilled craftsmen who are with me in Judah and Jerusalem, whom my father David provided.
8 Send me cedar, fir, and algum[d] timber from Lebanon, because I know that your servants know how to cut timber from Lebanon. Look, my servants will work with your servants 9 to prepare lumber for me in abundance because the house which I am building will be great and wonderful.
10 To support the lumberjacks who work for you, I have set aside one hundred twenty thousand bushels[e] of crushed wheat, and one hundred twenty thousand bushels of barley, one hundred twenty thousand gallons[f] of wine, and one hundred twenty thousand gallons of olive oil.
Huram’s Reply
11 Huram king of Tyre sent a letter to Solomon which said:
Because of the love of the Lord for his people, he has made you king over them.
12 Huram also said:
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who made the heavens and the earth. He has given King David a wise son, who has discretion and understanding, who will build a house for the Lord and a house for his kingdom.
13 Now I have sent a skilled man who has expertise, Huram Abi, 14 the son of a woman from among the daughters of Dan. His father is a man from Tyre. He is skillful at working with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and with purple, blue, and crimson material and fine white linen. He is qualified to do all the engraving and to execute every design which is given to him, together with your craftsmen and the craftsmen of my lord David, your father.
15 Now let my lord Solomon send the wheat, barley, oil, and wine that he promised to us, his servants. 16 We will cut timber from Lebanon according to all your needs and will ship it to you at Joppa, as rafts upon the sea. You can then transport it up to Jerusalem.
17 Solomon took a census of all the male aliens who were residing in the land of Israel, after the census his father David had taken. There were 153,600.
18 Out of that number he designated 70,000 to transport materials, 80,000 to quarry stone in the hills, and 3600 overseers to make the people work.
The Construction of the Temple
3 Then Solomon began to build the House of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David. He constructed it on the site that David had specified,[g] namely, the threshing floor of Ornan[h] the Jebusite. 2 He began building on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.
The Sanctuary
3 Now these are the dimensions of the foundations which Solomon laid for the building of God’s house. The length was ninety feet and the width thirty feet.[i] 4 The porch[j] that was in front of the temple building was thirty feet wide, the same as the width of the building, and it was thirty feet high.[k]
He overlaid the inside with pure gold. 5 He lined the larger front room of the building with fir paneling,[l] which he overlaid with fine gold and decorated with palm trees and chains. 6 He beautified the house with dazzling precious stones. The gold was gold of Parvaim.[m] 7 He also overlaid the house, the beams and rafters, the thresholds and door frames, its walls, and its doors with gold, and he carved cherubim on the walls.
8 He made the Most Holy Place. It was thirty feet by thirty feet, the same dimensions as the width of the building, and he overlaid it with six hundred talents of fine gold.[n] 9 The weight of the gold nails was more than a pound.[o] He overlaid the upper areas with gold.
The Cherubim
10 In the Most Holy Place he made two carved cherubim that were overlaid with gold. 11 The total wingspan of the cherubim was thirty feet. One wing of the first cherub was seven and a half feet long and touched the outer wall of the house. The other wing was also seven and a half feet long and touched the wing of the other cherub. 12 One wing of the other cherub was seven and a half feet long and touched the outer wall of the house. The other wing was also seven and a half feet long and touched the wing of the first cherub. 13 The wings of these cherubim spread out over thirty feet. They stood upright on their feet, and they faced toward the front of the sanctuary building.[p] 14 He made the veil of blue, purple, and crimson material and fine white linen, and he decorated it with cherubim.
Pillars
15 For the front of the house he made two pillars with a combined height of fifty-three feet,[q] and the capitals that were on top of each of them were seven and a half feet tall. 16 He made chains for the inner sanctuary[r] and also put them on the tops of the pillars. He also made one hundred pomegranates and put them on the chains. 17 He set up the pillars in front of the temple building,[s] one on the south side and the other on the north. He named the one on the south Jakin[t] and the one on the north Boaz.[u]
The Temple Furnishings
4 He made a bronze altar thirty feet long, thirty feet wide, and fifteen feet high.
2 He also made the sea of cast metal. It was round and fifteen feet from rim to rim. It was seven and a half feet high and forty-five feet in circumference. 3 Under the rim, figurines of cattle[v] completely encircled it, one every two inches, all the way around the sea. These cattle were in two rows, cast as one piece with the sea. 4 The sea stood on twelve cattle, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The sea was set on them, with all their hindquarters toward the center. 5 The sea was three inches[w] thick. Its rim was shaped like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held eighteen thousand gallons.[x]
6 He also made ten basins for washing and put five on the south side and five on the north. The pieces of the burnt offering were washed in the basins, but the priests washed in the sea.
7 He made ten gold lampstands according to the specifications that had been given for them, and he set them in the outer room of the temple building, five on the south side and five on the north.
8 He made ten tables and placed them in the outer room of the temple, five on the south side and five on the north. He also made one hundred gold sprinkling bowls.
9 He also made the courtyard of the priests and the great enclosure,[y] and he made doors for the enclosure and overlaid them with bronze. 10 He set the sea on the south side of the temple building near its southeast corner.
11 Huram[z] also made the pots, the shovels, and the bowls.
So Huram finished the work that he carried out for King Solomon for God’s house: 12 the two pillars, the two globe-shaped capitals on top of the pillars, the two latticeworks to cover the two globe-shaped capitals on top of the pillars, 13 and the four hundred pomegranates for the two latticeworks (two rows of pomegranates for each latticework to cover the two globe-shaped capitals that were on the pillars). 14 He also made the carts, and he made the basins on the carts, 15 one sea, and the twelve cattle under it. 16 Huram Abi also made the pots, the shovels, the meat hooks,[aa] and all the vessels of burnished bronze for King Solomon, for the House of the Lord.
17 The king cast them in clay molds, in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zeredatha.[ab] 18 Solomon made all these vessels in such great quantity that the weight of the bronze was not determined.
19 Solomon made all the furnishings that were in God’s house: the gold altar, the tables on which the Bread of the Presence was arranged, 20 and the lampstands with their lamps, which were to burn in front of the inner sanctuary according to the regulations. He made them of pure gold.[ac] 21 He also made the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs of the purest gold,[ad] 22 and the snuffers, the sprinkling bowls, the small dishes, and the fire pans[ae] of pure gold. For the entrances into the sanctuary, he made the gold inner doors for the Most Holy Place and the gold doors for the front room of the sanctuary.
5 All the work which Solomon carried out for the House of the Lord was completed, so Solomon brought the things his father David had dedicated, namely, the silver, the gold, and all the vessels and utensils, and put them into the treasuries of the House of God.
The Ark Is Placed in the Temple
2 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leading fathers[af] of the people of Israel, in Jerusalem, in order to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the City of David, that is, from Zion. 3 All the men of Israel gathered in the presence of the king at the festival that takes place during the seventh month.[ag] 4 Then when all the elders of Israel had come, the priests, who were Levites,[ah] lifted up the Ark. 5 They brought the Ark, the Tent of Meeting, and all the holy vessels which were in the tent. The priests and Levites[ai] brought them up.
6 King Solomon and the whole congregation of Israel that had gathered with him in front of the Ark were sacrificing sheep and oxen, too many to be counted or numbered.
7 The priests brought the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord to its place in the inner sanctuary of the House, that is, to the Most Holy Place, and they placed it under the wings of the cherubim. 8 The cherubim were spreading their wings over the place for the Ark, so that the cherubim covered the Ark and its poles from above. 9 The poles were so long that the ends of the poles could be seen from the Holy Place[aj] in front of the inner 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 which Moses placed there at Horeb, where the Lord had made a covenant with the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt.
11 The priests then came out from the Holy Place. (All the priests who were present had consecrated themselves. They did not remain separated by their divisions.)
12 The levitical musicians, the divisions of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, including their sons and their relatives, were standing east of the altar. They were clothed in fine linen and had their cymbals, harps, and lyres with them. With them there were also one hundred twenty priests who blew trumpets.
13 The trumpeters and the singers joined together as one to praise and give thanks to the Lord. As they raised their voices to praise the Lord, accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and other musical instruments, they sang:
Truly, he is good, because his mercy endures forever.
Then the sanctuary of the House of the Lord was filled with a cloud. 14 The priests were not able to take their positions to minister because of the presence of the cloud, because the Glory of the Lord had filled the House of God.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.