Chronological

Solomon prepares to build the temple

5 Hiram was the king of Tyre.^[a] He heard that Solomon had become king of Israel after his father David. Hiram had always been a friend of King David, so he sent his men to say ‘hello’ to Solomon. ² Solomon then sent this message to Hiram:

³ ‘You know that my father David could not build a temple for the Lord his God. This was because he had to fight battles against enemies that were all around Israel. He did that until the Lord helped him to win against all of them. ⁴ But now the Lord my God has made us safe from danger. No enemy tries to attack us on any of our borders. ⁵ So I have decided to build a temple to give honour to the Lord my God.^[b] The Lord said to my father David, “I will put your son on your throne to rule as king after you. He will build a temple for people to give honour to my name.” ⁶ So please tell your men to cut down cedar trees in Lebanon for me. We ourselves do not have people who know how to cut wood from trees as well as your men from Sidon. So our men will help your men with the work. And I will pay your workers whatever you decide is right.’^[c]

⁷ Hiram was very happy when he received Solomon's message. He said, ‘Praise the Lord today, because he gave David a wise son to rule over the great nation, Israel.’ ⁸ Then Hiram sent this message to Solomon:

‘I have received the message that you sent to me. I will give you the wood that you have asked for. I will send you cedar wood and pine wood, as much as you need. ⁹ My men will take the trees from the hills of Lebanon down to the sea. Then we will tie several trees together like a boat. We will take them on the sea to the place where you want them. There we will undo the ropes so that your men can carry the trees away. You will pay me with enough food to feed the people of my palace.’

¹⁰ So Hiram supplied Solomon with all the cedar trees and pine trees that Solomon asked for. ¹¹ Then Solomon supplied Hiram with 2,000 tons of wheat as food for the people in his palace. He also supplied 450,000 litres of olive oil. Solomon sent this every year to Hiram.

¹² The Lord gave wisdom to Solomon, as he had promised to do. King Hiram and King Solomon made an agreement that their nations would not fight against each other. So there was peace between them.

¹³ King Solomon commanded 30,000 men from everywhere in Israel to do the work. ¹⁴ He sent them to Lebanon in groups of 10,000 men each month. They worked in Lebanon for one month, then they lived at home for two months. Adoniram was the officer who had authority over them. ¹⁵ Solomon also had 80,000 men to cut stones in the hills. He had 70,000 men to carry the stones to Jerusalem. ¹⁶ He also had 3,300 officers who told the workers what they should do. ¹⁷ The king commanded the workers to cut large pieces of stone from the rocks. They cut the best stones into the right shape to build the foundation of the temple. ¹⁸ Solomon's men and Hiram's men worked together with men from Gebal.^[d] They cut the stones and the wood and they prepared them to build the temple.

Solomon builds the temple^[e]

6 Solomon began to build the Lord's temple 480 years after the Israelites had left Egypt. It was in the fourth year that he had ruled Israel as king. He started the work in the month called Ziv, the second month of the year.^[f]

² The temple that King Solomon built for the Lord was 27 metres long. It was 9 metres wide. It was 13.5 metres high. ³ The temple had an entrance room in front of its big hall. The entrance room was as wide as the temple, 9 metres wide. It came 4.5 metres out from the front of the temple itself. ⁴ Solomon made narrow windows near the tops of the temple walls.^{[g] 5} Solomon built rooms around the outside of the temple walls. These rooms continued outside the big hall and the inside room. The side rooms were on three levels.^{[h] 6} The lowest level of rooms was 2.3 metres wide. The middle level was 2.7 metres wide and the top level was 3.2 metres wide. Each floor was built on wooden beams. The beams rested on stones in the temple walls, so that there were no holes that they cut into the walls.

⁷ When they built the temple, they used stones that were the right shape. Workers had already cut the stones at the place where they came from. There was no sound of hammers, axes or any iron tools at the place of the temple. ⁸ The door to the lowest level of rooms on the sides of the temple was on the south side of the temple. Stairs went up to the middle level and to the top level.^[i]

⁹ Solomon finished building the temple. He made the roof with wooden beams and with cedar boards. ¹⁰ He also built the rooms around the sides of the temple. Each room was 2.3 metres high. Cedar beams fixed the rooms to the temple building.

¹¹ Then the Lord gave this message to Solomon:

¹² ‘I will make my home in this temple that you are building. I will do everything for you that I promised to your father David. But you must obey my laws, rules and commands. ¹³ Then I will live among my people, the Israelites. I will never leave them.’

¹⁴ So Solomon finished building the temple. ¹⁵ He used cedar boards to cover the walls on the inside of the temple. The boards went from the floor of the temple up to its ceiling. He covered the floor of the temple with wood from pine trees. ¹⁶ He built a wall across the inside of the temple to make a separate room. That wall was 9 metres from the back wall of the temple. The inside room was the Most Holy Place.^[j] The walls were covered with cedar boards from the floor to the ceiling. ¹⁷ The big hall in front of the Most Holy Place was 18 metres long. ¹⁸ The inside of the temple was covered with boards made of cedar wood. The workers cut pictures of fruits and flowers on the wood. The cedar boards completely covered the stone walls, so you could not see any stone.

¹⁹ Solomon prepared the inside room to be the Most Holy Place where they would put the Lord's Covenant Box. ²⁰ The inside room was 9 metres long, 9 metres wide and 9 metres high. Solomon used pure gold to cover the walls of this room. He also covered the cedar altar with gold. ²¹ Solomon covered all the walls inside the temple with gold. He also hung gold chains across the entrance to the Most Holy Place. He covered everything there with gold. ²² So he covered everything inside the whole temple with gold. That included the altar that was inside the Most Holy Place.

²³ Solomon used olive wood to make models of two cherubs to stand in the Most Holy Place. Each cherub was 4.4 metres tall. ²⁴ The first cherub had two wings that were 2.2 metres long each. So it was 4.4 metres from the end of one wing to the end of the other wing. ²⁵ The second cherub was also 4.4 metres across its wings. The two cherubs were the same size and the same shape. ²⁶ Each cherub was 4.4 metres high. ²⁷ Solomon put the cherubs in the inside room of the temple. Their wings went from one wall of the temple to the other wall. One cherub's wing touched one wall of the temple. One of the other cherub's wings touched the other wall. And their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. ²⁸ Solomon covered the cherubs with gold.

²⁹ Solomon's workers cut pictures in the wood on the walls of the big hall and the inside room. They were pictures of cherubs, palm trees and flowers. ³⁰ They also covered the floors of both the rooms with gold. ³¹ They used olive wood to make doors for the entrance to the Most Holy Place. The doors were fixed to wooden pillars which had five sides. ³² The wooden doors had pictures of cherubs, palm trees and flowers. Solomon covered the pictures of the cherubs and the palm trees with very thin gold. ³³ The doors to the big hall of the temple were fixed to pillars made of olive wood. Those pillars had four sides. ³⁴ Solomon also made two doors from pine wood. Each door had two separate parts that could turn. ³⁵ He cut pictures of cherubs, palm trees and flowers on those doors too. He covered them with gold in the same way.

³⁶ Solomon also built a yard around the temple building. The wall around the yard had three rows of special stones, then a row of cedar beams, and so on.

³⁷ They built the foundation of the Lord's temple in the fourth year that Solomon was king. It was in the month called Ziv. ³⁸ They finished building the temple in the 11th year that Solomon was king. It was the eighth month, the month called Bul. So they built the temple in seven years, exactly as the plans showed that it should be.

Solomon begins to build the temple

2 Solomon decided to build a house to give honour to the Lord's name. He also decided to build a royal palace for himself. ² He chose 70,000 men to carry the heavy things for the buildings, and 80,000 men to cut rocks in the hills. He also chose 3,600 men to lead these workers.

Solomon asks Huram for help

³ Solomon wrote this letter to King Huram of Tyre:

‘You helped my father King David when you sent him wood from cedar trees to build his palace. Please help me now. ⁴ I am ready to build a temple to give honour to the Lord my God. It will be a holy place that belongs to him. We Israelites will burn sweet incense for him there. We will put special bread there every day. We will burn sacrifices to the Lord our God every morning and every evening. We will also do that on Sabbath days, on New Moon festival days and on other special days that God has chosen. He has told us to do this for all time.

⁵ The house that I will build for our God will be a great temple, because he is greater than all gods. ⁶ I know that nobody can really build a house for our God. The whole sky, or even heaven itself, is not big enough to contain him. So I certainly cannot build a place for him to live in, but it will be a place where we can offer sacrifices to him.

⁷ Please send me a man who has special skills to work with gold, silver, bronze and iron, as well as with valuable red, purple and blue materials. He must also know how to cut pictures on metal. He will help my own workers here in Judah^[a] and in Jerusalem. They are workers with special skills that my father David chose to do this work.

⁸ Please send me wood from cedar trees, cypress trees and other strong trees from Lebanon. I know that your men have good skills to cut down trees in Lebanon. My own men will help your men with the work. ⁹ I will need you to send me a lot of wood because I am ready to build a large and beautiful temple. ¹⁰ I will pay your men who cut down the trees. To pay them, I will send 2,000 tons of wheat, 2,000 tons of barley, 450,000 litres of wine and 450,000 litres of olive oil.’

Huram replies to Solomon's letter

¹¹ King Huram of Tyre replied to Solomon with this letter:

‘Because the Lord loves his people, he has chosen you to be their king.’

¹² Huram also said, ‘Praise the Lord, Israel's God! He made the whole universe. He has now given a wise son to King David, a son who is clever and who understands things well. He will build a temple for the Lord and a royal palace for himself.

¹³ I have decided to send Huram-Abi to you. He is a wise man who has special skills. ¹⁴ His mother belonged to the tribe of Dan. His father came from Tyre. He knows how to work with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone and wood. He can also work with purple, blue and red materials, and with white linen. He can make all kinds of pictures on metal, if you show him what you want. He will help your own workers and the workers that your father King David chose.

¹⁵ Please sir, now send us the wheat, barley, olive oil and wine that you promised. ¹⁶ Then we will cut the wood that you need from the trees in Lebanon. We will tie the wood together to make boats. Then we will send them on the sea to Joppa. You can take the wood from there up to Jerusalem.’^[b]

Solomon chooses men to build the temple

¹⁷ Solomon counted all the foreign men who were living in Israel, as his father David had done. There were 153,600 foreign men. ¹⁸ He chose 70,000 of them to carry things for the buildings and 80,000 of them to cut rocks in the hills. He also chose 3,600 of them to lead the workers, to make sure that they finished the work properly.

Solomon begins to build

3 Then Solomon began to build the Lord's temple in Jerusalem. He built it on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had shown himself to his father David.^[c] David had prepared a place for the temple there, at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.^{[d] 2} Solomon began to build the temple on the second day of the second month of the fourth year that he ruled Israel as king.^[e]

³ The foundation for God's temple was 27 metres long and 9 metres wide. (They measured it in cubits.)

⁴ There was an entrance room at the front of the temple's big hall. It was as wide as the temple, 9 metres wide. It was 9 metres high.^[f] Solomon's workers covered the inside of the entrance room with pure gold.

⁵ They covered the walls inside the big hall with boards of cypress wood. Then they covered the boards with pure gold. They drew pictures of palm trees and chains on the walls. ⁶ They used valuable stones to make the temple beautiful. The gold that they used came from Parvaim. ⁷ They used gold to cover all parts of the temple: the beams for its roof, the entrances, the walls and the doors. They cut pictures of cherubs on the walls.

The Most Holy Place in the temple

⁸ Solomon's workers built the Most Holy Place in the temple. It was 9 metres long and 9 metres wide. That was how wide the temple itself was. They used about 20,000 kilograms of pure gold to cover its walls. ⁹ The gold nails weighed the same as 50 gold coins. They also covered the walls of the upstairs rooms with gold.

¹⁰ In the Most Holy Place, they made models of two cherubs. They covered them with gold. ^11-13 The cherubs stood side by side in the Most Holy Place. Their faces looked towards the big hall. Each cherub had two wings. Each wing was 2.2 metres long. They held their wings out so that one wing of each cherub touched a wing of the other cherub. The other wing of each cherub touched a wall of the Most Holy Place. The four wings of the two cherubs reached across 9 metres.

¹⁴ Solomon's workers used blue, purple and red material and good linen to make a special curtain. It had pictures of cherubs on it.

The two pillars

¹⁵ Solomon's workers made two pillars to stand at the front of the temple. They were 16 metres high.^[g] There was a piece on the top of each pillar that was 2.2 metres high.

¹⁶ They made images of chains around the top pieces of the pillars. They also made 100 images of pomegranates among the chains. ¹⁷ Then they put the two pillars at the entrance of the temple. One pillar stood on the south side of the entrance. The other pillar stood on the north side. Solomon called the pillar on the south side ‘Jakin’. He called the pillar on the north side ‘Boaz’.^[h]