Chronological
Chapter 5
Temple Plans. 1 Hiram, the king of Tyre, sent his servants to Solomon for he had heard that he had been anointed as king in his father’s place, for Hiram had always been a friend of David.[a] 2 Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, 3 “You know that David, my father, could not build a temple for the name of the Lord, his God, because he had to fight battles on every side until the Lord placed them under his feet. 4 Now the Lord, my God, has given me rest on every side, so that there are neither adversaries nor disasters. 5 I therefore intend to build a temple for the name of the Lord, my God, as the Lord foretold to David, my father, when he said, ‘Your son whom I will establish to take your place upon your throne will be the one who will build a temple for my name.’ 6 Give orders to cut cedars of Lebanon for me. My servants will work alongside your servants, and I will pay your servants whatever wage you set. You know that we have no one among us who is as skilled as the Sidonians in cutting down trees.”
7 When Hiram heard Solomon’s message, he rejoiced greatly. He said, “Blessed be the Lord today, for he has given David a wise son to rule over this great nation.” 8 Hiram sent word to Solomon, saying, “I have received the message you sent me, and I will do everything that you wish concerning the cedar trees and fir trees. 9 My servants will haul them down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will float them across the water by rafts, bringing them to the place that you establish for me. They will be broken apart for you there, and you can take them away. You, in turn, can fulfill my desire by providing food for my household.”
10 So Hiram gave Solomon all the cedar trees and fir trees that he desired, 11 and Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand cors of wheat as food for his household and twenty cors of pure oil. This is what Solomon gave to Hiram every year. 12 The Lord gave Solomon wisdom, just as he had promised him. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they made a covenant with each other.
13 [b]Then King Solomon raised up a labor force from all of Israel, and the labor force numbered thirty thousand men. 14 He sent ten thousand of them each month to Lebanon in shifts. They were in Lebanon for one month, and then they were home for two months. Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor.
15 Solomon also had sixty thousand who served as porters, and eighty thousand who carved stone in the hill country. 16 In addition, Solomon had three thousand and three hundred supervisors in charge of the work. They directed the people who did the work. 17 The king gave orders, and they prepared huge, costly stones to lay the foundation of the temple with hewn stones. 18 Thus Solomon’s workmen, and Hiram’s workmen, and the men of Gebal prepared the timber and the stone for the construction of the temple.
Chapter 6
Solomon Builds the Temple.[c] 1 And so he began to build the temple of the Lord in the four hundred and eighteenth year after the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in Ziv, the second month.[d]
2 The temple that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. 3 The portico in front of the main part of the temple was as wide as the temple, that is, twenty cubits wide. It extended ten cubits in front of the temple. 4 He made windows with recessed frames for the temple. 5 He built chambers all around the outside walls of the main part and the inner sanctuary of the temple in which there were side rooms. 6 The lowest chamber was five cubits wide, the middle chamber was six cubits wide, and the third level was seven cubits wide. He made narrow ledges all around the temple so that nothing had to be fastened to the walls of the temple.
7 Stone that had been made ready was used in the building of the temple so that one did not hear the sound of hammers or chisels or any other iron tool while the temple was being built.[e]
8 The entrance for the lowest level was on the right side of the temple. One went up by stairs from there to the middle level, and from the middle to the third level. 9 Thus he built the temple and completed it by roofing it with beams and cedar planks.
10 He built side rooms all along the temple. They were five cubits high, and they were attached to the temple with cedar beams.
11 The word of the Lord then came to Solomon, 12 “As for this temple that you are building, if you walk in my statutes and carry out my ordinances and observe my commandments, walking in them, then I will fulfill the promise I made to David, your father, through you. 13 I will dwell among the Israelites and I will not abandon my people Israel.”
14 Thus Solomon built the temple and completed it. 15 He lined the inside walls of the temple with cedar boards, covering the temple from the floor to its ceiling. He covered the floor of the temple with fir planks.
16 He separated off twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar planks that ran from the floor to the ceiling, making an inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. 17 The part in front of the temple sanctuary was forty cubits long. 18 The inside of the temple was covered with cedar carved with buds and open flowers. Everything was covered in cedar, and no stone could be seen.
19 He set up the inner sanctuary in the temple as a place to set the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. 20 The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. It was covered in pure gold, as was also the cedar altar.
21 Solomon covered the inside of the temple in pure gold. He stretched gold chains in front of the inner sanctuary, and he covered it in pure gold. 22 He covered the entire temple with gold until he had completed the whole temple. He also covered the altar that was in the inner sanctuary with gold.
23 He made two cherubim for the inner sanctuary out of olive wood, each ten cubits high. 24 The first wing of the cherub was five cubits and the other wing was also five cubits, making ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. 25 The other cherub was also ten cubits, for the two cherubim were the same size and shape. 26 Each of the cherubim was ten cubits high. 27 He set the cherubim in the innermost room of the temple. The wings of the cherubim were spread out, so that the wing of one touched one wall, while the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched one another in the middle of the room. 28 He covered the cherubim with gold.
29 He carved images of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers on all of the walls around the temple, both in the inner and the outer rooms. 30 The floor of the temple was covered with gold, both in the inner and outer rooms.
31 He made doors of olive wood for the entrance to the sanctuary. It had a five-sided frame. 32 There were two olive wood doors, and upon them he carved images of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. He covered the cherubim and the palm trees with beaten gold.
33 In the same way he made four-sided frames out of olive wood for the entrance to the temple itself. 34 He also made two doors out of fir wood. Each of the doors had two folding panels. 35 He carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers upon them, and he carefully covered the carvings upon them with gold. 36 He built the inner court with three rows of hewn stone and then a row of cedar beams.
37 In the fourth year, the month of Ziv, the foundation of the temple of the Lord was laid. 38 In the eleventh year, the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the temple was completely finished according to its plans. He needed seven years to build it.
Chapter 2
Final Preparations for the Temple. 1 Solomon then resolved to build a house to honor the Lord as well as a palace for himself. 2 Therefore, he conscripted seventy thousand men to carry the stone and eighty thousand men to serve as stonecutters, as well as three thousand six hundred men to oversee them.
3 Then Solomon sent this message to King Huram of Tyre: “Some time ago you dealt with my father David, sending him cedars to build a palace in which he would dwell. 4 Now I am preparing to build a house in honor of the Lord, my God, and to consecrate it to him so that fragrant incense can be burned before him, along with the perpetual display of the loaves of permanent offering, for burnt offerings morning and evening, and for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the festivals of the Lord, our God, as is ordained forever for Israel.
5 “The house that I intend to build must be large, since our God is greater than all other gods. 6 But who is really able to build a house for him when the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain him? And who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to make offerings before him?
7 “Therefore, now send me an artisan who is highly skilled at working in gold, silver, bronze, and iron, and in purple, crimson, and blue fabrics, and who is expert in the art of engraving. I want him to work with the skilled craftsmen in Judah and Jerusalem who were provided by my father David. 8 Also send me cedar, cypress, and juniper timber from Lebanon, for I am well aware that your servants are skilled in felling the trees of Lebanon.
“My servants will work with your servants 9 in order to prepare for me a vast quantity of timber, for the house that I intend to build will be great in size and a marvel to behold. 10 Furthermore, I will provide for your servants the woodcutters who fell the trees, twenty thousand kors of wheat, and twenty thousand kors of barley, along with twenty thousand measures of wine and twenty thousand measures of oil.”[a]
11 In a letter that he sent to King Solomon in response, King Huram of Tyre replied: “Because of the love that the Lord has for his people, he has appointed you as their king.” 12 Then Huram went on to say: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth. He has given King David a wise son blessed with intelligence and discernment who will build a house for the Lord and a royal palace for himself.
13 “I have now sent you Huram-abi,[b] a skilled artisan and a man of intelligence. 14 He is the son of a Danite woman and of a father from Tyre. He is skilled in the art of working in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and in purple, crimson, and blue fabrics and fine linen. He also is competent to do all sorts of engraving and to execute any design that may be assigned to him, in collaboration with your own skilled craftsmen and those of my lord David, your father.
15 “And now, let my lord send to his servants the wheat, barley, oil, and wine which he has promised. 16 We shall cut down all the timber you need from Lebanon and float it all down to you as rafts by sea to Joppa. Then it will be your responsibility to transport it to Jerusalem.”
17 Shortly thereafter Solomon took a census of all the aliens who were residing in the land of Israel, similar to the census that his father David had taken. There were found to be one hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred aliens. 18 Solomon designated seventy thousand of them to be porters, eighty thousand to be stonecutters in the hill country, and three thousand six hundred as overseers to ensure that the people were doing the work assigned to them.
Chapter 3
Construction of the Temple.[c] 1 Then Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the site that David had chosen, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 2 He commenced building it on the second day of the second month of the fourth year of his reign.
3 These are the measurements specified by Solomon for building the house of God. According to the old standard of measurement, its length was sixty cubits and its width was twenty cubits.[d] 4 The vestibule was twenty cubits long, spanning the entire breadth of the house of God, and its height was also twenty cubits.
5 He overlaid the nave with cypress, which he covered with fine gold and embossed with palms and chains. 6 He also adorned the house beautifully with settings of precious stones and with gold from Parvaim. 7 Then he overlaid the house with gold, including its beams, its thresholds, its walls, and its doors, and he carved cherubim on the walls.
8 He also made the Holy of Holies. Its length, corresponding to the width of the house, was twenty cubits, and its width was also twenty cubits. He overlaid all of it with six hundred talents of fine gold. 9 The weight of the gold nails was fifty shekels. He also overlaid the upper chambers with gold.
10 For the Holy of Holies he made two carved cherubim which were then overlaid with gold. 11 The wings of the cherubim[e] together had a total span of twenty cubits. A wing of one cherub, five cubits in length, extended to a wall of the building, while the other wing reached out to meet a wing of the other cherub. 12 Similarly, one wing of the second cherub also extended five cubits to touch the other wall of the building, while its other wing reached out to meet a wing of the first cherub.
13 The combined wings of these two cherubim extended twenty cubits. They stood with their feet on the ground, facing the nave. 14 Solomon also made the curtain[f] of purple, crimson, and blue fabrics and fine linen and embroidered it with winged creatures.
15 In front of the temple he erected two pillars that totaled thirty-five cubits high, with a capital measuring five cubits on the top of each pillar. 16 Next he made chains in the form of a necklace and put them on the tops of the pillars, and then he carved one hundred pomegranates and attached them to the chains. 17 Finally, he erected the pillars in front of the temple, one on the right and the other on the left. The one on the right he called Jachin, and the one on the left he called Boaz.
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