Chronological
5 News of Solomon’s succession of David reached the ears of Hiram, king of Tyre. Because Hiram was a friend of David,[a] he sent a group of his servants to visit Solomon. 2 Solomon gave a message to Hiram’s servants, which they took back to Hiram.
Solomon’s Message: 3 You remember that David did not have the opportunity to construct a temple honoring the reputation of the Eternal his God, because of my father’s involvement in the warfare which plagued him until the Eternal suppressed all of his enemies under his feet. 4 But the Eternal One my God now grants me rest everywhere. We are not plagued by enemies or troubles. 5 Therefore, I am going to construct a temple for the name of the Eternal my God. It will be just as He told David, my father: “Your son, whom I will put upon your throne after you are gone, will construct a temple honoring Me.”[b] 6 So tell your people to start cutting down Lebanon’s cedars for my project. My servants will work alongside your servants, and I will pay you whatever you ask for your servants’ work. It is no secret that the best timber cutters around are the Sidonians who are at your command.
7 When Hiram received this message from Solomon, he celebrated.
Hiram: Blessed is the Eternal today! Praise Him for giving David Solomon, the wise son who rules a great people!
8 (replying to Solomon) I have received your message, and I will do exactly as you have asked. We will start the timberwork with the cedars and cypress immediately. 9 Those who serve me will transport them from Lebanon to the sea. I will make rafts out of the timber and float the logs to the place of your choosing. There I will have them break apart the rafts, and you can carry the logs to wherever it is that you want them. Then all I ask is that you feed my house and my servants.
10 Hiram sent all the cedar and cypress trees Solomon had requested. 11 In return, Solomon presented Hiram with food for his house and servants: 130,000 bushels of wheat and 1,200 gallons of purified oil. Solomon gave this same amount to Hiram every year.
12 The Eternal One upheld His promise to Solomon and granted him much wisdom. Hiram and Solomon were at peace with each other, and they entered into a covenant.
13 King Solomon assembled forced laborers from all over Israel—30,000 men in all. 14 He sent them to Lebanon in cycles—10,000 men per month. They stayed in Lebanon for an entire month, then they were able to return home for two months. Adoniram was the head administrator of the workers.
15 Solomon enlisted 70,000 men to transport the materials and 80,000 stonecutters to quarry, carve, and dress stone from the mountains. 16 These numbers do not include Solomon’s 3,300[c] agents who were head administrators over the project and the workers. 17 The king gave instructions, and the workers laid the giant, expensive stones to form the foundation of the temple. 18 Both Solomon’s construction workers and Hiram’s skilled workers, along with the Gebalites, cut the materials to make the timber and stones ready for the temple.
6 During the second month called Ziv in the 4th year of Solomon’s reign, 480 years after the Israelites had departed from Egypt, Solomon began constructing the Eternal’s temple.
The timing of the construction of the temple reveals the incredible importance of this event. First, by connecting its construction to the exodus, the writer recognizes this as the culminating event of Israel’s journey from slavery to an autonomous, God-led nation. God is completing His promise to give Israel a nation. Second, by beginning construction in the spring, Solomon uses his resources for a peaceful endeavor instead of war. Kings have always attacked in the spring because of the favorable weather, so Solomon is putting his devotion to God over his desire for more power. This choice of peace over war fits with Solomon’s name, which means “peace,” and characterizes his reign.
2 The Eternal’s temple was 90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 45 feet high. 3 The front porch of the temple was 30 feet long (the same measurement as the width) and 15 feet deep at the front. 4 Solomon made windows that had artistic frames. 5-6 He built the structure surrounding the central sanctuary of the temple that supported the sanctuary’s walls and served as storehouses. The lower level of the structure was 7½ feet wide, the middle level was 9 feet wide, and the top level was 10½ feet wide. He constructed coffers in the temple so that the ceiling beams would not intersect with the temple walls.
7 The temple was constructed out of rocks that had been finished and polished at the quarry. Not a single hammer, hatchet, or other iron tool was heard inside the temple during construction. 8 The entrance into the lowest[d] level was on the right side of the temple. From there a winding staircase led up to the middle level, and from there, to the top level.
9 Solomon completed the temple, and he roofed it with beams and cedar boards. 10 He constructed the structure on the outside of the temple as well. Each level was 7½ feet high and was connected to the temple by cedar beams.
11 The voice of the Eternal One spoke to Solomon.
Eternal One: 12 Regarding the temple which you are building: if you live by My laws and enforce My ways, if you honor My instructions by keeping them, then I will honor the promise I made to your father, David, and establish that promise with you. 13 I will live among the Israelites, and I will not abandon the community of Israel, My people.
14 Solomon built the temple, and he completed the task. 15 He covered the inner walls with cedar boards, overlaying the stone inner walls with wood from the floor to the ceiling, and he laid the floor with cypress boards. 16 He covered 30 feet of the back end of the temple with cedar boards that reached from the floor to the ceiling. He made this inner place the most holy sanctuary. 17 The part of the temple in front of the inner sanctuary was 60 feet long. 18 The cedar paneling inside of the temple was carved with gourds and flowers. There was no stone showing between the wood panels. Only the cedar boards could be seen.
19 Solomon then prepared the inner sanctuary in the temple specifically to hold the Eternal’s covenant chest. 20 This inner sanctuary was 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 30 feet high. The walls were gilded, and the altar was paneled with cedar. 21 Solomon covered the inside of the temple with the purest gold. He stretched gold chains in front of the inner sanctuary and covered it in gold. 22 He gilded the entire temple as the finishing touch to his work. The altar beside the inner sanctuary was covered with gold as well.
23 Solomon made two 15-foot-high winged creatures out of olive wood, and these guarded the inner sanctuary. 24 Each wing of one creature was 7½ feet long. The entire wingspan was 15 feet. 25-26 The other creature had the same measurements and shape: a wingspan 15 feet across and 15 feet high. 27 Solomon set up the creatures inside the inner sanctuary. Both of their wings were stretched out so that one creature’s left wing reached all the way to one wall, and the other creature’s right wing reached all the way to the other wall. Their other wings touched each other at the very center of the temple. 28 Solomon gilded both creatures.
Composed of the parts of various animals, these monstrous winged creatures, called cherubim in Hebrew, serve several purposes in the Bible. They are symbols of divine power, presence, and mobility. They first appear in Genesis, guarding the entrance to Eden (3:24); as part of the throne of mercy, they are God’s footstool in the congregation tent and the temple, and God occasionally takes a ride on them (2 Samuel 22:11; Psalm 18:10; Ezekiel 1). Wherever their images appear—on walls, in tapestries, on the covenant chest—they signify God’s presence and protection.
29 He decorated the temple walls with carvings of the winged guardian creatures, palm trees, and flowers. He did this for both the inner sanctuary and outer rooms. 30 He covered the temple floor with gold as well—both the inner sanctuary and outer rooms.
31 He crafted olive wood doors, a lintel, and five-sided doorposts for the entryway into the inner sanctuary. 32 He crafted two olive wood doors, and he decorated them with engravings of winged guardian creatures, palm trees, and flowers. He also gilded the doors, winged creatures, and palm trees.
33 He crafted olive wood doorposts for the entryway into the square central hall. 34 He also made two cypress doors for the entryway. Two of the leaves on one of the doors rotated on an axle, and two leaves of the other door also rotated on an axle. 35 He carved winged guardian creatures, palm trees, and flowers into them; and he gilded the doors and engravings carefully. 36 He constructed the interior court with three rows of cut stones and one row of cedar boards.
37 The foundation of the Eternal’s temple was completed during the spring of the fourth year of Solomon’s reign, in the month of Ziv. 38 The temple was finally completed as planned in all its fine details during the autumn of the eleventh year, in the eighth month of Bul. It took seven years in all to complete construction.
2 Having amassed his wealth, Solomon fulfilled God’s prediction that David’s son would build His house. Solomon decided to build a house honoring the reputation of the Eternal, a temple, and a house for himself, a palace. 2 First Solomon procured the stone: 80,000 men would quarry it in the mountains, 70,000 men would carry it, and 3,600 men would supervise them. 3 Then Solomon wrote to Huram, king of Tyre, asking for cedar.
Solomon: I come to ask for your fine cedarwood, just as my father David did so he could build his royal palace. Please do the same for me.
4 I am preparing to build a temple honoring the reputation of the Eternal One my God. It will be dedicated to Him and will be the site of our religious practices. There we will perform all the duties He perpetually requires of Israel: burning fragrant incense before Him, preparing the unleavened bread continually, and giving burnt offerings each morning and evening, on Sabbaths, new moons, and appointed feasts of the Eternal One our God. 5 This temple must be great because our True God is more powerful than all the other gods. 6 Though no one can build a house for Him because He inhabits the heavens and beyond, I am humbly building a place where we can encounter Him and burn incense before Him.
This temple on the elevated area overlooking the city of Jerusalem is truly remarkable. Moving from the outer court area, one observes a massive 15 by 30 foot altar to ritually sacrifice clean land animals and a huge “sea” or wash container 7½ by 15 feet to ceremonially wash the priests before they enter the next two areas: the holy place and the most holy place.
Moving into the actual temple structure is similar to being transported into the heavens. One passes between two larger-than-life tree-like columns and then into a brilliant golden room decorated with trees, pomegranates, winged creatures, and jewels. Upon entering the holy place during the eastern sunrise, one would be blinded as though looking into the sun. Then as the worshiper ascends the stairs, the most holy place has two enormous winged creatures flanking the Eternal’s temple footstool, the covenant chest. This room images the very heavenly throne room. To visualize and enter Solomon’s temple is to visualize and enter the heavens.
7 To this end, send me a man who can work gold, silver, brass, and iron; sew with purple, crimson, and violet fabrics; and engrave. Your servant will aid the skilled men whom David, my father, provided for me in Judah and Jerusalem. 8 Send me cedar, cypress, and algum timber from Lebanon, for I know your servants can skillfully cut timber from Lebanon; My servants will work with your servants 9 to prepare an abundance of timber for me to use in the temple, which will be great and wonderful. 10 I will pay your servants, the carpenters, 125,000 bushels of crushed wheat, 125,000 bushels of barley, 116,000 gallons of wine, and 116,000 gallons of oil.
Huram (in a letter answering Solomon): 11 Because the Eternal loves His people, He has made you their king. 12 The Eternal One, the God of Israel, creator of heaven and earth, is to be praised for giving King David such a wise son, endowed with discretion and understanding, who will build houses for both the Eternal and for himself.
13-14 I am sending Huram-abi, a discerning man skilled in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood; in purple, violet, and crimson linen and other fabrics; in engravings; and in executing any design. He is the son of an Israelite woman (from the tribe of Dan) and a Tyrian father, so he will work well with your skilled men and with those of my lord David, your father. 15-16 In addition to sending workers, we will cut the timber you need from Lebanon and float it down the coast to Joppa, so that you then may transport it up to Jerusalem. When the men and supplies arrive at Joppa, please send your servants, my countrymen, the wheat, barley, oil, and wine you have promised them.
17 In preparation for the building projects, Solomon ordered a census to count only the foreigners residing in Israel. This census differed from his father’s census, which counted everyone in the nation. There were 153,600 foreigners living in Israel: 18 80,000 men would quarry stone in the mountains, 70,000 men would carry it, and 3,600[a] men would supervise their work.
These foreigners are not paid day laborers; they are slaves forced to build a temple they may never enter. This scenario is similar to the Hebrews’ forced labor in Egypt and to the Israelites’ eventual forced labor in Babylonia. But one thing makes Solomon’s rule over them different: he presumably follows the laws of God regarding slaves (Leviticus 25:39–55). These laws specify that slaves may come from surrounding nations, must be treated fairly, and must be released in the jubilee year (a prescribed time every 50 years when debts are forgiven, seized land returns to its original owners, and slaves are freed).
3 1-2 Having assembled the materials and workers for the temple, Solomon began to build the Eternal’s temple on the second day in the second month of the fourth year of his reign. He built it in Jerusalem on Ornan the Jebusite’s threshing floor (which David had purchased and consecrated) on Mount Moriah (where Abraham had been willing to sacrifice Isaac to God generations before).
3 When Solomon prepared the plans of the True God’s temple, he modeled the design after temples in Syria and Canaan. The length was 90 feet and the width was 30 feet. 4 The length of the front porch was as wide as the temple (30 feet), and it was 30 feet[b] high. The rooms of the temple were highly ornamented. The porch was gilded inside. 5 The main room was paneled with gilded cypress wood and engraved with palm trees and ornamental chains. 6 The entire temple was decorated with precious stones and gilded with gold from Parvaim. 7-9 Even the supports and fasteners were gilded—the beams, the thresholds, the walls, the doors, and the nails (which weighed 20 ounces each). The walls were engraved with winged guardians, and the upper rooms were gilded.
The most holy place, which was located at the rear of the temple, was a 30-foot square room gilded with 23 tons of gold—the same amount that David paid for the temple site. 10 Inside the most holy place were two gilded, sculpted winged creatures, 11-12 each with a wingspan of 15 feet.
These fantastic creatures with bird wings, human faces, and animals’ body parts protect the covenant chest, and together they act as God’s footstool in the temple.
Each cherub touched one wing to the wall of the room and the other wing to the other cherub. 13 Together, their wings spanned across the room guarding the most holy place facing the main room and standing upright on their feet. 14 A veil of violet, purple, and crimson fabrics and fine linen, embroidered with winged creatures, covered the entrance to the most holy place.
15-17 Before the porch stood two columns, 52 feet high, crowned with 90-inch-high capitals. Solomon made decorative chains in the most holy place, adorned them with 100 pomegranates, and draped them on the tops of the columns. The column on the right was named Jachin, meaning “He establishes,” and the column on the left was named Boaz, meaning “He strengthens.”
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.