Chronological

Solomon’s Wisdom: Architecture

5 Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon when he heard that they had anointed him as king in place of his father, for Hiram had always been a friend for David. ² Then Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, ³ “You knew David my father, that he was not able to build a house for the name of Yahweh his God, in view of the warfare^[a] which surrounded him, until Yahweh placed them^[b] under the soles of his feet. ⁴ But now Yahweh my God has given me rest all around me. There is no adversary, and there is no bad occurrence. ⁵ Here I am, intending to build a house for the name of Yahweh my God, as Yahweh promised to my father David, saying, ‘Your son, whom I will set in your place on your throne, shall build the house for my name.’ ⁶ So then, command that they may cut cedars for me from Lebanon, and let my servants be with your servants. The wage of your servants I will give to you according to all that you say, for you know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.” ⁷ When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly, and he said, “Blessed be Yahweh this day, who has given to David a wise son over this great people.” ⁸ Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, “I have heard what you have sent to me; I will do all of your desire concerning the timber of cedars and concerning the timber of cypresses. ⁹ My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will make them into rafts in the sea to float to the place which you indicated to me. Then I shall break them up there, and you may carry them further, and you shall meet my needs^[c] by giving food for my house.” ¹⁰ So Hiram was giving to Solomon the cedar timbers and the cypress timbers, everything he needed.^{[d] 11} Then Solomon gave to Hiram twenty thousand dry measures of wheat as food for his household, and twenty dry measures of specially prepared olive oil;^[e] thus Solomon gave to Hiram year by year. ¹² Yahweh gave wisdom to Solomon as he promised to him, and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made^[f] a covenant.

¹³ Then King Solomon conscripted a forced labor from all Israel, and the forced labor numbered thirty thousand men. ¹⁴ He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand every month;^[g] the work groups were a month in Lebanon and two months at home; now Adoniram was over the forced labor. ¹⁵ Solomon had seventy thousand common laborers^[h] and eighty thousand stone craftsmen in the hill country. ¹⁶ Besides the chiefs of the officers Solomon had, there were three thousand three hundred having charge over the people who were doing the work. ¹⁷ When the king commanded, they quarried great stones and precious stones to lay the foundation of the house with hewn stones. ¹⁸ So Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites hewed stones, and they prepared the timber and the stone to build the house.

Solomon Builds the Temple for Yahweh

6 It happened in the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites^[i] went out from the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s rule^[j] over Israel, the month of Ziv (that is the second month), that he began to build the house for Yahweh. ² Now the house that King Solomon built for Yahweh was sixty cubits in its length and twenty cubits in its width and thirty cubits in its height. ³ The vestibule on the face of the main hall of the temple^[k] was twenty cubits in its length, and the width of the temple^[l] was ten cubits wide on the face of the temple.^{[m] 4} And he made for the temple^[n] specially designed framed windows, ⁵ and he built a structure against the wall of the temple^[o] running all along the walls of the house, for the outer sanctuary and for the inner sanctuary, and made side rooms all around. ⁶ The lower structure was five cubits in its width and the middle was six cubits in its width and the third was seven cubits in its width, for he made niches for the temple^[p] all around to the outside, so that beams would not attach to the walls of the temple.^{[q] 7} Now while the temple^[r] was being built, it was built with stones finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or stone shaping tool or any instrument of iron was heard in the temple^[s] as it was being built. ⁸ The doorway of the side room in the middle of the side of the temple^[t] was on the south; they went up with a stairway to the middle and from the middle to the third floor. ⁹ So he built the house and finished it. He covered the temple^[u] with rafters and wood planks and with the cedars. ¹⁰ He also built the structure against all of the temple^[v] five cubits in height and fastened it to the temple^[w] with beams of cedar.

¹¹ Then the word of Yahweh came to Solomon, saying, ¹² “Regarding this temple^[x] that you are building: if you walk in my ordinances and if you do my judgments and you keep all my commandments to walk in them, then I will establish my promise with you which I made to David your father. ¹³ And I will dwell among^[y] the Israelites,^[z] and I will not forsake my people Israel.”

¹⁴ So Solomon built the temple^[aa] and finished it. ¹⁵ He lined the walls of the inside of the house^[ab] with boards of cedar; from the floor of the temple^[ac] up to the rafters of the ceiling he covered them with wood on the inside.^[ad] He also covered the floor of the temple^[ae] with cypress boards. ¹⁶ He built twenty cubits from the rear of the house with boards of cedar from the floor up to the ceiling, and he built for it an inner sanctuary on the inside, as the most holy place.^{[af] 17} The main hall of the temple^[ag] was forty cubits in front of the inner sanctuary,^{[ah] 18} with the cedar within the inner house having carvings of gourds and buds of flowers. It was entirely of cedar; there was not a stone visible. ¹⁹ Now in the inner sanctuary in the middle of the temple^[ai] he prepared the inside to place the ark of the covenant of Yahweh there. ²⁰ In front, the inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide and twenty cubits high, and he overlaid it with pure gold and covered the altar with cedar. ²¹ Solomon overlaid the temple^[aj] on the inside with pure gold, and he drew across it with golden chains in front of the inner sanctuary, which he overlaid with gold.

²² All of the temple^[ak] he overlaid with gold until all of the temple^[al] was finished; all of the altar which belonged to the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold. ²³ He made two cherubim of olive wood for the inner sanctuary, ten cubits high. ²⁴ Five cubits was the first wing of the cherub, and five cubits the second wing of the cherub, from the tip of his one wing up to the tip of his other wing. ²⁵ The second cherub was ten cubits according to the same^[am] measurement, and there was one shape for the two cherubim. ²⁶ The height of the first cherub was ten cubits and so was the second cherub.

²⁷ He placed the cherubim in the middle of the inner house, and they spread out the wings of the cherubim; the wing of the first cherub touched against the wall and the wing of the second cherub was touching against the second wall; their wings spread to the middle of the house and were touching wing to wing. ²⁸ He also overlaid the cherubim with gold.

²⁹ On all of the walls around the house, he carved engravings of cherubim and palm tree images and budding flowers both inside and out. ³⁰ He overlaid the floor of the house with gold both inside and out. ³¹ He made doors of olive wood for the doorway of the inner sanctuary, as well as for the doorpost of the fifth doorframe. ³² On the two doors of olive wood he made carvings of cherubim and palm tree images and budding flowers, and he overlaid them with gold by beating^[an] out the gold on the cherubim and the palm tree images. ³³ Thus he made doorframes of olive wood on four sides for the doorway of the main hall ³⁴ and two doors of cypress wood; one door with two folding panels and the second door with two folding panels. ³⁵ He carved cherubim and palm tree images and budding flowers and overlaid them with gold evenly applied on the carved work. ³⁶ Then he built the inner courtyard with three rows of dressed stone and a row of cedar beams. ³⁷ In the fourth year,^[ao] the house of Yahweh was founded in the month of Ziv. ³⁸ In the eleventh year in the month of Bul, that is, the eighth month, the house was finished according to all his specifications and according to all his plans. He had built it in seven years.

Solomon Petitions the King of Tyre

2 ^[a] And Solomon planned to build a house for the name of Yahweh and a royal palace for himself.^{[b] 2} And Solomon assigned seventy thousand men to bear burdens^[c] and eighty thousand quarriers^[d] in the hill country, and three thousand six hundred men to supervise them. ³ And Solomon sent word to Huram^[e] king of Tyre, saying, “As you have dealt with David my father and sent cedar to him to build for himself a house in which to live, please deal with me. ⁴ Look, I am building a house for the name of Yahweh my God to dedicate to him, to offer sweet spices of incense before him, and for the regular rows of bread, and burnt offerings for mornings, evenings, Sabbaths, and new moon festivals, and for appointed feasts of Yahweh our God which are everlasting for Israel. ⁵ And the house that I am building will be great, for our God is greater than all gods. ⁶ Now who indeed has adequate strength to build a house for him? For the heavens and the highest heavens^[f] are not able to contain him. Now who am I that I would build a house for him, except to burn incense before him? ⁷ So then, send to me skilled men to work with gold, silver, bronze, and iron, and with purple, crimson, and blue fabric, knowledgeable in engraving, with the skilled men who are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father has established. ⁸ Send me trees of cedar, cypress, and algum from Lebanon, for I myself know that your servants are knowledgeable in cutting the trees of Lebanon. Now see, my servants will be with your servants ⁹ to prepare trees in abundance for me, for the house that I am building will be great and wonderful. ¹⁰ Now see, I will provide twenty thousand dry measures of crushed wheat, twenty thousand dry measures of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil to the woodcarvers and those who cut timber.”

¹¹ Then Huram^[g] king of Tyre answered in a letter, and he sent word to Solomon: “Because Yahweh loves his people, he has made you king over them.” ¹² Then Huram^[h] said, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who has made the heavens and the earth, who has given to King David a wise son knowing discretion and understanding, who will build for Yahweh a house and a royal palace for himself. ¹³ So now I have sent a skilled man, knowledgeable and with understanding: my master^[i] Huram, ¹⁴ a son of a woman from the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre, knowledgeable for working with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and with purple, blue, and crimson fabric, and with fine linen, for engraving any engraving and devising any plan that is given to him, with your skilled men and the skilled men of my lord David your father. ¹⁵ Now as for the wheat, barley, oil, and wine that my lord mentioned, let him send that to his servants. ¹⁶ And we ourselves will cut trees from Lebanon according to all your need, and we will bring them to you on rafts over the sea to Joppa, so that you may bring them up to Jerusalem.”

¹⁷ Then Solomon counted all the resident alien men who were in the land of Israel after the census that David his father had taken of them. And there were found one hundred and fifty-three thousand. ¹⁸ And he appointed from them seventy thousand to bear burdens,^[j] eighty thousand to quarry^[k] in the hill country, and three thousand six hundred overseers to make the people work.

Solomon Builds the Temple

3 Then Solomon began to build the house of Yahweh in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, where Yahweh had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had established, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ² And he began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign.

³ Now these were the measurements of Solomon for building the house of God: the length in cubits by the former measurement was sixty cubits, and the width was twenty cubits. ⁴ The length of the portico that was in front was the same as the front of the width of the house:^[l] twenty cubits. And its height was one hundred and twenty cubits. And he overlaid it on the inside with pure gold. ⁵ And the great house itself he covered with cypress wood, then he overlaid it with pure gold. And he put on it palm tree images and ornate chains. ⁶ Then he overlaid the house with precious stone as decoration. (Now the gold was the gold of Parvaim.) ⁷ And he overlaid the house with gold—the beams, the thresholds, the walls, and the doors. And he carved cherubim upon the walls. ⁸ Then he made the most holy place.^[m] Its length was equal to^[n] the width of the house: twenty cubits. And its breadth was twenty cubits. And he overlaid it with six hundred talents of fine gold. ⁹ And the weight for the nails was fifty shekels of gold. And he overlaid its upper rooms with gold. ¹⁰ And he made two sculpted wood cherubim in the most holy place,^[o] and he overlaid them with gold. ¹¹ The length of the outstretched wings of the cherubim were twenty cubits; one wing of five cubits touched the wall of the house, and the other wing of five cubits was touching the outstretched wing of the other cherub. ¹² And the wing of five cubits of the other cherub was touching the wall of the house, and its other wing five cubits long touching the wing of the first^[p] cherub. ¹³ The wings of these cherubim extended twenty cubits, and they were standing on their feet, their faces toward the house. ¹⁴ And he made the curtain of blue and purple and crimson and fine linen, and put cherubim on it. ¹⁵ And at the front of the house he made two columns, thirty-five cubits high, and the capital on their top was five cubits. ¹⁶ And he made decorative chains in the inner sanctuary and put them on top of the columns. And he made one hundred pomegranate ornaments, and put them on the chains. ¹⁷ And he erected the columns in front of the temple, one on the south and one on the north. He called the name of the southern one Jakin, and the name of the northern one Boaz.