Chronological

Solomon and Hiram

5 Hiram was the king of Tyre. He had always been David’s friend. So when Hiram heard that Solomon had become the new king after David, he sent his servants to Solomon. ² This is what Solomon said to King Hiram:

³ “You remember that my father, King David, had to fight many wars all around him. So he was never able to build a temple to honor the Lord his God. King David was waiting until the Lord allowed him to defeat all his enemies. ⁴ But now the Lord my God has given me peace along all the borders of my country. I have no enemies, and my people are in no danger.

⁵ “The Lord made a promise to my father David. He said, ‘I will make your son king after you, and he will build a temple to honor me.’ Now, I plan to build that temple to honor the Lord my God. ⁶ And so I ask you to help me. Send your men to Lebanon to cut down cedar trees for me. My servants will work with yours. I will pay you any price that you decide as your servants’ wages, but I need your help. Our carpenters^[a] are not as good as the carpenters of Sidon.”

⁷ Hiram was very happy when he heard what Solomon asked. He said, “I praise the Lord today for giving David a wise son to rule this great nation!” ⁸ Then Hiram sent this message to Solomon:

“I heard what you asked for. I will give you all the cedar trees and the fir trees you want. ⁹ My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea. Then I will tie them together and float them down the shore to the place you choose. There I will separate the logs, and you can take them from there. As payment for this, you will give food to all those who live in my palace.”

¹⁰ So Hiram gave Solomon all the cedar and fir logs that he wanted.

¹¹ Solomon gave Hiram about 120,000 bushels^[b] of wheat and about 120,000 gallons^[c] of pure olive oil every year for his family.

¹² The Lord made Solomon wise as he had promised. Hiram and Solomon made a treaty between themselves and were at peace with one another.

¹³ King Solomon forced 30,000 men of Israel to help in this work. ¹⁴ He chose a man named Adoniram to be in charge of them. Solomon divided the men into three groups with 10,000 men in each group. Each group worked one month in Lebanon and then went home for two months. ¹⁵ Solomon also forced 80,000 men to work in the hill country cutting stone. There were also 70,000 men to carry the stones. ¹⁶ There were 3300 men to supervise the workers. ¹⁷ King Solomon commanded them to cut large, expensive stones for the foundation of the Temple. ¹⁸ Then Solomon and Hiram’s builders and the men from Byblos^[d] carved the stones and prepared them and the logs for use in building the Temple.

Solomon Builds the Temple

6 So in the month of Ziv, the second month of the year, during Solomon’s fourth year as king, he began work on the Temple. This was 480 years after the Israelites left Egypt.^{[e] 2} The Temple was 60 cubits^[f] long, 20 cubits^[g] wide, and 30 cubits^[h] high. ³ The porch of the Temple was 20 cubits long and 10 cubits^[i] wide. The porch ran along the front of the main part of the Temple itself. Its length was equal to the width of the Temple. ⁴ There were narrow windows in the Temple. These windows were smaller on the inside of the wall than on the outside.^{[j] 5} Then Solomon built a row of rooms around the main part of the Temple. This row of rooms was three stories tall with the rooms built one above the other. ⁶ The rooms touched the Temple wall, but their beams were not built into that wall. The Temple wall became thinner at the top, so the rooms on the upper floors were larger than the ones below them. The rooms on the bottom floor were 5 cubits^[k] wide. The rooms on the middle floor were 6 cubits^[l] wide. The rooms above that were 7 cubits^[m] wide. ⁷ The stones were completely finished before they were brought into the Temple area, so there was no noise of hammers, axes, or any other iron tools in the Temple.

⁸ The entrance to these rooms was on bottom floor at the south side of the Temple. Inside there were stairs that went up to the second floor and from there to the third floor.

⁹ Solomon finished building the main part of the Temple and then covered it inside with cedar boards. ¹⁰ Then he finished building the rooms around the Temple. Each story was 5 cubits tall. The cedar beams in these rooms rested on a ledge of the Temple wall.

¹¹ The Lord said to Solomon, ¹² “If you obey all my laws and commands, I will do for you what I promised your father David. ¹³ I will live among the children of Israel in this Temple that you are building, and I will never leave the people of Israel.”

¹⁴ When Solomon finished the stonework on the Temple, ¹⁵ the stone walls inside the Temple were covered with cedar boards from floor to ceiling. Then the stone floor was covered with pine boards. ¹⁶ They built an inner room 20 cubits long in the back part of the Temple. This room was called the Most Holy Place. They covered the walls in this room with cedar boards, from floor to ceiling. ¹⁷ In front of the Most Holy Place was the main part of the Temple. This room was 40 cubits^[n] long. ¹⁸ They covered the walls in this room with cedar boards—none of the stones in the walls could be seen. They carved pictures of flowers and gourds into the cedar.

¹⁹ Solomon finished the inner room in the back part of the Temple. This room was for the Box of the Lord’s Agreement. ²⁰ This room was 20 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 20 cubits high. Solomon covered this room with pure gold. He also covered the cedar altar with gold. ²¹ He covered the inside of the Temple with pure gold and wrapped gold chains around it. ²² The inside of the Temple was covered with gold, and the altar in front of the Most Holy Place was covered with gold.

²³ The workers made two statues of Cherub angels with wings. They made the statues from olive wood and put them in the Most Holy Place. Each angel was 10 cubits tall. ^24-26 Both Cherub angels were the same size and built the same way. Each one had two wings. Each wing was 5 cubits long. From the end of one wing to the end of the other wing was 10 cubits. And each Cherub angel was 10 cubits tall. ²⁷ They put the Cherub angels beside one another in the Most Holy Place. Their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. The other two wings touched each side wall. ²⁸ The two Cherub angels were covered with gold.

²⁹ The walls around the main room and the inner room were carved with pictures of Cherub angels, palm trees, and flowers. ³⁰ The floor of both rooms was covered with gold.

³¹ The workers made two doors from olive wood. They put these doors at the entrance of the Most Holy Place. The frame around the doors was made with five sides.^{[o] 32} They made the two doors from olive wood. The workers carved pictures of Cherub angels, palm trees, and flowers on the doors. Then they covered the doors with gold.

³³ They also made doors for the entrance to the main room. They used olive wood to make a square doorframe. ³⁴ There were two doors made from pine. Each door had two parts that folded together. ³⁵ They carved pictures of Cherub angels, palm trees, and flowers on the doors. Then they covered them with gold.

³⁶ Then they built a wall around the inner yard. Each wall was made from three rows of cut stones and one row of cedar timbers.

³⁷ They started working on the Lord’s Temple in the month of Ziv, the second month of the year. This was during Solomon’s fourth year as king of Israel. ³⁸ The Temple was finished in the month of Bul, the eighth month of the year, in Solomon’s eleventh year as king. It took seven years to build the Temple. It was built exactly as planned.

Plans for the Temple and Palace

2 Solomon planned to build a Temple to give honor to the Lord’s name. He also planned to build a palace for himself. ² He got 70,000 laborers and 80,000 stonemasons to cut stones in the mountains. He chose 3600 foremen to supervise the workers.

³ Then Solomon sent this message to King Hiram of Tyre:

“Help me as you helped my father David. You sent him cedar logs so that he could build a palace for himself to live in. ⁴ I will build a Temple to honor the name of the Lord my God. At the Temple we will burn incense in front of him, and we will always put the holy bread on the special table. We will offer burnt offerings every morning and evening, on the Sabbath days, during New Moon celebrations, and on the other special meeting days that the Lord our God has commanded us to celebrate. This is a rule for the people of Israel to obey forever.

⁵ “I will build a great temple because our God is greater than all the other gods. ⁶ No one can really build a house to put our God in. The whole sky and the highest heaven cannot contain our God, so I cannot build a temple to put him in. I can only build a place to burn incense to honor him.

⁷ “Now I would like you to send me a man who is skilled in working with gold, silver, bronze, and iron. He must know how to work with purple, red, and blue cloth. He will work here in Judah and Jerusalem with the craftsmen my father chose. ⁸ Also send me wood from cedar trees, pine trees, and algum trees^[a] from the country of Lebanon. I know your servants are experienced at cutting down trees from Lebanon. My servants will help your servants. ⁹ I will need lots of wood because the Temple I am building will be very large and beautiful. ¹⁰ This is what I will pay for your servants to cut down the trees for wood. I will give them 125,000 bushels^[b] of wheat for food, 125,000 bushels of barley, 115,000 gallons^[c] of wine, and 115,000 gallons of oil.”

¹¹ Then Hiram answered Solomon and sent this message to him:

“Solomon, the Lord loves his people. That is why he chose you to be their king.” ¹² Hiram also said, “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel! He made heaven and earth. He gave a wise son to King David. Solomon, you have wisdom and understanding. You are building a Temple for the Lord. You are also building a palace for yourself. ¹³ I will send you a skilled craftsman named Huram Abi.^{[d] 14} His mother was from the tribe of Dan, and his father was from the city of Tyre. Huram Abi has skill in working with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood. He also has skill in working with purple, blue, and red cloth and expensive linen. Huram Abi can design and build anything you tell him. He will work with your craftsmen and with the craftsmen of your father King David.

¹⁵ “Now, sir, you offered to give us wheat, barley, oil, and wine. Give them to my servants, ¹⁶ and we will cut as much wood as you need from Lebanon. We will tie the logs together and float them by sea to the town of Joppa. Then you can carry the wood to Jerusalem.”

¹⁷ So Solomon counted all the foreigners living in Israel. (This was after the time when his father David counted the people.) They found 153,600 strangers in the country. ¹⁸ Solomon chose 70,000 men to carry the stones, 80,000 men to cut the stone in the mountains, and 3600 men to supervise the workers.

Solomon Builds the Temple

3 Solomon began building the Lord’s Temple at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared to David, Solomon’s father. This was the place David had prepared for the Temple. It had been the threshing floor of Araunah^[e] the Jebusite.^{[f] 2} Solomon started to build on the second day of the second month of his fourth year as king of Israel.

³ These are the measurements he used for building the foundation of God’s Temple, using the old cubit.^[g] The foundation was 60 cubits^[h] long and 20 cubits^[i] wide. ⁴ The porch in front of the Temple was 20 cubits long and 20 cubits high.^[j] He covered the inside of the porch with pure gold. ⁵ He put panels made of cypress wood on the walls of the larger room. Then he put pure gold over the cypress panels and then put pictures of palm trees and chains on the gold. ⁶ He put valuable stones in the Temple for beauty. The gold he used was gold from Parvaim.^{[k] 7} He covered the inside of the Temple with the gold. He put the gold on the ceiling beams, doorposts, walls, and doors. He carved Cherub angels on the walls.

⁸ Then he made the Most Holy Place. This room was 20 cubits long and 20 cubits wide. It was as wide as the Temple was. He put pure gold on the walls of the Most Holy Place. The gold weighed about 22 1/2 tons.^{[l] 9} The gold nails weighed 1 1/4 pounds.^[m] He covered the upper rooms with gold. ¹⁰ He made two Cherub angels to put in the Most Holy Place. The workers covered the Cherub angels with gold. ¹¹ Each wing of the Cherub angels was 5 cubits^[n] long. The total length of the wings was 20 cubits. One wing of the first Cherub angel touched the wall on one side of the room. The other wing touched one wing of the second Cherub angel. ¹² And the other wing of the second Cherub angel touched the wall on the other side of the room. ¹³ So the wings of the two Cherub angels together reached across the room—a total of 20 cubits. The Cherub angels stood facing the Holy Place.^[o]

¹⁴ He made the curtain^[p] from blue, purple, and red materials and expensive linen. There were Cherub angels on the curtain.

¹⁵ He put two columns in front of the Temple. The columns were 35 cubits^[q] tall. The top part of the two columns was 5 cubits long. ¹⁶ He made chains in a necklace and put them on the tops of the columns. He made 100 pomegranates^[r] and put them on the chains. ¹⁷ Then he put the columns up in front of the Temple. One column stood on the right side. The other column stood on the left side. He named the column on the right side “Jakin.”^[s] And he named the column on the left side “Boaz.”^[t]