Chronological
Solomon Prepares to Build the Temple
5 Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon because he heard that Solomon had been anointed king in his father’s place, and because Hiram had been a dear friend of David all his days.[a]
2 Solomon sent the following message to Hiram.
3 You know that my father David was not able to build a house for the Name of the Lord his God, because of the wars that swirled around him until the Lord put his enemies under the soles of his feet. 4 But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side. I have no adversary and face no dangerous situations. 5 Listen to this! I intend to build a house for the Name of the Lord my God, just as the Lord told my father, “Your son, whom I will put on your throne in your place, will build the house for my Name.” 6 Now give the order to cut cedar logs for me from Lebanon. My servants will work with your servants, and I will reimburse you whatever you specify as the pay for your servants, for you know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut lumber like the Sidonians.
7 When Hiram heard Solomon’s words, he was very happy and he said:
Blessed be the Lord this day because he has given David a wise son to rule over this great people.
8 So Hiram sent word to Solomon:
I have heard the message you sent me. I will provide all the cedar and fir logs that you desire. 9 My servants will bring the logs down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will put them into the sea as rafts and float them to the place that you tell me. Then we will dismantle them there, and you can transport them up from there. In exchange, you will provide all the food I desire for my palace.
10 So Hiram gave Solomon all the cedar and fir that he desired. 11 In return, Solomon gave Hiram one hundred twenty thousand bushels[b] of wheat as provisions for his palace and one hundred twenty thousand gallons[c] of beaten[d] olive oil. Solomon gave this amount to Hiram every year. 12 The Lord gave wisdom to Solomon just as he had promised him, so there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they made a treaty.
13 King Solomon drafted a labor force from all over Israel. It numbered thirty thousand men. 14 He sent ten thousand men per month to Lebanon in shifts. They would spend one month in Lebanon. Then for two months they would be at home. Adoniram was in charge of this forced labor. 15 Solomon had seventy thousand men to transport materials and eighty thousand men to quarry stones in the mountains, 16 not counting the officials who were overseeing the work for Solomon. There were thirty-three hundred men supervising the people who were doing the work. 17 The king gave a command, and they quarried large, high-quality stones to serve as a foundation for the temple building, which was made of trimmed stones. 18 Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the men from Gebal[e] cut and prepared the wood and stones to construct the temple building.[f]
The Construction of the Temple
6 In the four hundred eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, during the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month named Ziv,[g] which is the second month, Solomon began to build the house for the Lord.
2 The house which King Solomon built for the Lord was ninety feet long, thirty feet wide, and forty-five feet high.[h] 3 The porch[i] in front of the temple building[j] was thirty feet wide, the same as the width of the building. It extended out fifteen feet from the front of the building.
4 He made latticed windows[k] high on the walls of the building.
5 He added a structure along the outer walls of the building, all the way around the three sides of the building. It was built against the walls of both the front room[l] and the inner room[m] of the sanctuary. In this structure he constructed three levels of storage rooms, all the way around the building. 6 The width of the rooms on the lowest story was seven and a half feet. The rooms of the middle story were nine feet wide, and the rooms of the third story were ten and a half feet wide, because he had built three receding ledges into the outside wall of the temple building all the way around, so that the floor beams of each story would not have to be inserted into the walls of the main building.
7 While the building was under construction, only stones that had been finished at the quarry were used in the building. No hammer or chisel or any other iron tool was heard in the building while it was under construction. 8 The entrance into the lowest story[n] of the side rooms was on the south side[o] of the building. Winding stairs[p] went up to the middle floor, and also from the middle floor to the third floor. 9 So Solomon finished building the house, and he covered[q] the house with beams and planks of cedar. 10 He built the floors for the storerooms that were all around the house. Each story was seven and a half feet high. Each story was supported by cedar timbers which rested on the receding ledges constructed along the walls of the building.[r]
11 The word of the Lord came to Solomon. He said, 12 “In regard to this house which you are building, if you walk according to my statutes and carry out my ordinances and keep all my commands by walking according to them, you will be the one through whom I will fulfill my promise which I spoke to your father David. 13 I will dwell among the descendants of Israel, and I will not forsake my people Israel.”
14 So Solomon finished building the house. 15 He paneled the inside walls of the building with cedar boards, from the floor of the building to the rafters[s] of the ceiling. He covered the inside walls with wood. He also covered the floor of the building with boards of fir wood.
16 Thirty feet from the back wall of the building he built a wall of cedar boards from the floor to the ceiling. He built this wall inside the building to create an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.
17 The front part of the building became a main room sixty feet long. 18 Gourds[t] and open flowers were carved into the cedar on the inside of the building. Everything was covered with cedar. No stone was visible.
19 He prepared the inner room of the sanctuary inside the building as a place to set the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. 20 The inner sanctuary was thirty feet long, thirty feet wide, and thirty feet high, and he overlaid it with pure gold.
He also overlaid the cedar altar with gold. 21 So Solomon covered the inside of the building with pure gold. He stretched gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, and he overlaid the sanctuary with gold. 22 He overlaid the whole building with gold, until the whole building had been covered. He also overlaid the whole altar, which was in front of the inner sanctuary, with gold.
The Cherubim
23 For the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim[u] of olive wood. Each one was fifteen feet tall. 24 Seven and a half feet was the length of one wing of a cherub, and seven and a half feet was the length of the other wing of a cherub. The distance from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other was fifteen feet.[v] 25 The other cherub also was fifteen feet wide. Both of the cherubim were the same size and looked the same. 26 One cherub was fifteen feet tall, and so was the other cherub. 27 He set the cherubim inside the inner sanctuary of the house. The wings of the cherubim were stretched out, so that the outer wing of the first one touched the wall, and the outer wing of the other cherub touched the opposite wall, and their wings touched one another in the middle of the room. 28 He overlaid the cherubim with gold.
29 He decorated the walls on all sides of both rooms of the building with carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. 30 He overlaid the floor of the building with gold in both the inner and outer rooms.
The Doors
31 For the entrance to the inner sanctuary, he made olive wood doors with five-sided frames.[w] 32 He carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers on them and overlaid them with gold. He shaped sheets of hammered gold to cover the cherubim and the palm trees.
33 He did the same for the entrance to the front room. It had door posts of olive wood that were four-sided 34 and two doors of fir wood. The door on one side was made with two folding leaves, and the door on the other side was made with two folding leaves. 35 He carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers on them, and he overlaid them with gold leaf, shaped to the carvings.
The Courtyard
36 He built the inner courtyard with three courses of cut stone and one course of cedar beams.
37 The foundation of the Lord’s house was laid in the fourth year, in the month named Ziv.[x] 38 In the eleventh year, in the month named Bul,[y] which is the eighth month, all the parts of the house were finished according to all its specifications. Solomon had spent seven years building it.
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 Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.