Historical

King Solomon speaks to his people

1 David's son Solomon made himself a strong ruler over his kingdom.^[a] The Lord his God was with Solomon, so that he became a great king.^[b]

² Solomon called all the people of Israel to come together. They included the army officers who had authority over 1,000 men, and those who had authority over 100 men. They also included the judges, the leaders in Israel and the leaders of families. ³ Then Solomon went with all those people to Gibeon town to worship God. The special tent that the Lord's servant Moses had made in the desert was there. It was the tent where God met with his people. ⁴ Before that, King David had brought God's Covenant Box from Kiriath-Jearim to Jerusalem. He had prepared a place for it in a tent there. ⁵ But the bronze altar that Bezalel had made was in Gibeon, in front of the Lord's tent. (Bezalel was the son of Uri, and the grandson of Hur.) So Solomon and the people went to meet the Lord there in Gibeon. ⁶ Solomon went up to the bronze altar which was in front of the Lord's special tent. He offered 1,000 burnt offerings on the altar to the Lord.

God meets with Solomon

⁷ That night, God showed himself to Solomon. God said, ‘Ask me to give you whatever you want.’

⁸ Solomon answered God, ‘You always showed your faithful love to my father David. Now you have chosen me to be king after him. ⁹ Now, Lord God, please do as you promised to my father David. You have chosen me to rule as king over a great nation with as many people as the dust on the ground. ¹⁰ So please give me wisdom and knowledge, so that I can be a good leader of these people. I will only be able to rule this great nation of your people if you do that for me.’

¹¹ God said to Solomon, ‘I am pleased that you have not asked to have riches or many valuable things. You have not asked me to give you great honour or for me to punish your enemies with death. You have not asked for a long life. Instead you asked me to give you wisdom and knowledge to rule over my people that I have chosen you to rule as king. ¹² Because of that, I will give to you wisdom and knowledge, as you asked. But I will also give you riches, valuable things and honour. You will have more of those than any king who has lived before you and more than any king who will live after you.’

¹³ Solomon left the special tent in Gibeon where God met with his people. He returned to Jerusalem. There he ruled over Israel as king.

Solomon buys horses and chariots

¹⁴ Solomon brought together many chariots and horses for his soldiers to ride. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses. He kept some of them in Jerusalem where he lived as king. He kept the others in cities that he had chosen for this. ¹⁵ While Solomon ruled as king, there was as much silver and gold in Jerusalem as stones! There was as much wood from cedar trees as there were fig trees that grew in the low hills in the west. ¹⁶ Solomon brought his horses from Egypt and from Kue. He sent traders to Kue to buy them for him. ¹⁷ They paid 600 pieces of silver for each chariot that they bought in Egypt. They paid 150 pieces of silver for each horse. They also sold chariots and horses to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Syria.^[c]

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^[d] 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.’^[e]

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.^[f] David had prepared a place for the temple there, at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.^{[g] 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.^[h]

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.^[i] 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.^[j] 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’.^[k]

Solomon's workers make things for the temple

4 Solomon's workers made a bronze altar. It was 9 metres long, 9 metres wide and 4 metres high. ² They used bronze to make a big bath which they called ‘the Sea’. It was in the shape of a circle 4½ metres across. It was 2½ metres deep. It was 14 metres around the outside.^{[l] 3} All around its edge, below the top, there were two rows of images of things that looked like bulls. They were all part of the same piece of bronze as the big bath. There were 20 bulls for every metre around the edge.

⁴ They put the bronze ‘Sea’ on top of 12 bronze bulls. Three pointed north, three pointed west, three pointed south and three pointed east. Their backs were towards the middle of the ‘Sea’. ⁵ The bronze walls of the ‘Sea’ were 7½ centimetres thick. Its top edge was like a cup in the shape of a lily flower. The ‘Sea’ contained about 65,000 litres of water.

⁶ They made ten bowls to wash in. They put five bowls on the south side and five bowls on the north side. The priests used them to wash all the things that they used for the burnt offerings. But the priests washed themselves in the water from the bronze ‘Sea’.

⁷ They used gold to make ten lampstands. They made them in the way that Solomon told them. They put the lampstands in the temple, five lampstands on the south side and five lampstands on the north side.^[m]

⁸ They also made ten tables. They put them in the temple, five tables on the south side and five tables on the north side. They also used gold to make 100 bowls.

⁹ They made a small yard for the priests and another big yard with doors. They covered the doors with bronze. ¹⁰ They put the bronze ‘Sea’ on the south side of the temple, at its south-east corner.

¹¹ Huram-Abi also made more pots, small tools and bowls. So he finished all the work in God's temple that King Solomon had asked him to do. He made these things:

King Solomon asked Huram-Abi to make all these things for the Lord's temple. He used bright bronze to make all these things. ¹⁷ The king told his workers to pour the hot bronze into shapes in the ground. They did that at a special place in the region of the Jordan Valley, between Succoth and Zarethan. ¹⁸ Solomon did not weigh any of these things, because there were so many of them. No one ever knew the weight of the bronze.

Inside the temple

¹⁹ Solomon's workers also made all these things for God's temple: