Historical

I. The Reign of Solomon

Chapter 1

Solomon at Gibeon. ¹ Solomon, son of David, strengthened his hold on the kingdom, for the Lord, his God, was with him, making him ever greater. ² Solomon summoned all Israel, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, the judges, the princes of all Israel, and the family heads; ^3 (A)and, accompanied by the whole assembly, Solomon went to the high place at Gibeon, because the tent of meeting of God, made in the wilderness by Moses, the Lord’s servant, was there. ⁴ David had, however, brought up the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim to Jerusalem, where he had provided a place and pitched a tent for it; ⁵ the bronze altar made by Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, he put in front of the tabernacle of the Lord.^[a] There Solomon and the assembly sought out the Lord,^{(B) 6} and Solomon offered sacrifice in the Lord’s presence on the bronze altar at the tent of meeting; he sacrificed a thousand burnt offerings upon it.

⁷ That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him: Whatever you ask, I will give you. ⁸ Solomon answered God: “You have shown great favor to David my father, and you have made me king to succeed him. ⁹ Now, Lord God, may your word to David my father be confirmed, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth.^{(C) 10} Give me, therefore, wisdom and knowledge to govern this people, for otherwise who could rule this vast people of yours?” ¹¹ God then replied to Solomon: Because this has been your wish—you did not ask for riches, treasures, and glory, or the life of those who hate you, or even for a long life for yourself, but you have asked for wisdom and knowledge in order to rule my people over whom I have made you king— ¹² wisdom and knowledge are given you. I will also give you riches, treasures, and glory, such as kings before you never had, nor will those who come after you.

Solomon’s Wealth. ¹³ Solomon returned to Jerusalem from the high place at Gibeon, from before the tent of meeting, and became king over Israel. ¹⁴ Solomon amassed chariots and horses: he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses; these he allocated among the chariot cities and to the king’s service in Jerusalem.^{(D) 15} The king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars as numerous as the sycamores of the Shephelah.^{(E) 16} Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and Cilicia,^[b] where the king’s agents purchased them at the prevailing price.^{(F) 17} A chariot imported from Egypt cost six hundred shekels of silver, a horse one hundred and fifty shekels; so they were exported to all the Hittite and Aramean kings.^(G)

Preparations for the Temple. ¹⁸ Solomon gave orders for the building of a house for the name of the Lord and also a king’s house for himself.

Chapter 2

¹ Solomon conscripted seventy thousand men to carry stones and eighty thousand to cut the stones in the mountains, and over these he placed three thousand six hundred overseers.^{(H) 2 (I)}Moreover, Solomon sent this message to Huram, king of Tyre: “As you dealt with David my father, and sent him cedars to build a house for his dwelling— ³ now I am going to build a house for the name of the Lord, my God, and to consecrate it to him, for the burning of fragrant incense in his presence, for the perpetual display of the showbread, for burnt offerings morning and evening, and for the sabbaths, new moons, and festivals of the Lord, our God: such is Israel’s perpetual obligation.^{(J) 4} And the house I am going to build must be great, for our God is greater than all other gods. ⁵ Yet who is really able to build him a house, since the heavens and even the highest heavens cannot contain him? And who am I that I should build him a house,^(K) unless it be to offer incense in his presence? ⁶ Now, send me men skilled at work in gold, silver, bronze, and iron, in purple, crimson, and violet fabrics, and who know how to do engraved work, to join the skilled craftsmen who are with me in Judah and Jerusalem, whom David my father appointed. ⁷ Also send me boards of cedar, cypress and cabinet wood from Lebanon, for I realize that your servants know how to cut the wood of Lebanon. My servants will work with yours ⁸ in order to prepare for me a great quantity of wood, since the house I intend to build must be great and wonderful. ⁹ I will furnish as food for your servants, the woodcutters, twenty thousand kors of wheat, twenty thousand kors of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.”^[c](L)

¹⁰ Huram, king of Tyre, wrote an answer which he sent to Solomon: “Because the Lord loves his people, he has placed you over them as king.” ¹¹ He added: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, for having given King David a wise son of intelligence and understanding, who will build a house for the Lord and also his own royal house.^{(M) 12 (N)}I am now sending you a craftsman of great skill, Huram-abi, ¹³ son of a Danite woman^[d] and of a father from Tyre; he knows how to work with gold, silver, bronze, and iron, with stone and wood, with purple, violet, fine linen, and crimson, and also how to do all kinds of engraved work and to devise every type of design that may be given him and your craftsmen and the craftsmen of my lord David your father. ^14 (O)And now, let my lord send to his servants the wheat, barley, oil, and wine which he has promised. ¹⁵ For our part, we will cut trees on Lebanon, as many as you need, and send them down to you in rafts to the port of Joppa, whence you may take them up to Jerusalem.”^(P)

^16 (Q)Thereupon Solomon took a census of all the alien men resident in the land of Israel (following the census David his father had taken of them); they were found to number one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred. ¹⁷ Of these he made seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand cutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred overseers to keep the people working.^(R)

Chapter 3

Building of the Temple. ^1 (S)Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah,^[e] which had been shown to David his father, in the place David had prepared, the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ² He began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign. ³ These were the specifications laid down by Solomon for building the house of God: the length was sixty cubits according to the old measure, and the width was twenty cubits;^{(T) 4} the front porch along the width of the house was also twenty cubits, and it was twenty cubits high.^[f] He covered its interior with pure gold.^{(U) 5} The nave he overlaid with cypress wood and overlaid that with fine gold, embossing on it palms and chains.^{(V) 6} He also covered the house with precious stones for splendor; the gold was from Parvaim. ⁷ The house, its beams and thresholds, as well as its walls and its doors, he overlaid with gold, and he engraved cherubim upon the walls. ⁸ He also made the room of the holy of holies. Its length corresponded to the width of the house, twenty cubits, and its width was also twenty cubits. He overlaid it with fine gold to the amount of six hundred talents.^{(W) 9} The weight of the nails was fifty gold shekels. The upper chambers he likewise overlaid with gold.

^10 (X)For the room of the holy of holies he made two cherubim of carved workmanship, which were then covered with gold. ¹¹ The wings of the cherubim spanned twenty cubits: one wing of each cherub, five cubits in length, extended to a wall of the house, while the other wing, also five cubits in length, touched the corresponding wing of the other cherub. ¹² The wing of the cherub, five cubits, touched the wall of the house, and the other wing, five cubits, was joined to the wing of the other cherub. ¹³ The combined wingspread of the two cherubim was thus twenty cubits. They stood upon their own feet, facing toward the nave. ¹⁴ He made the veil^[g] of violet, purple, crimson, and fine linen, and had cherubim embroidered upon it.^(Y)

^15 (Z)In front of the house he set two columns thirty-five cubits high; the capital of each was five cubits. ¹⁶ He devised chains in the form of a collar with which he encircled the capitals of the columns, and he made a hundred pomegranates which he set on the chains. ¹⁷ He set up the columns to correspond with the nave, one for the right side and the other for the left, and he called the one to the right Jachin and the one to the left Boaz.

Chapter 4

¹ Then he made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high.^{(AA) 2 (AB)}He also made the molten sea. It was made with a circular rim, and measured ten cubits across, five in height, and thirty in circumference. ³ Under the brim a ring of figures of oxen^[h] encircled it for ten cubits, all the way around the compass of the sea; there were two rows of oxen cast in one mold with the sea. ⁴ This rested on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east, with their haunches all toward the center; upon them was set the sea. ⁵ It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim resembled that of a cup, being lily-shaped. It had a capacity of three thousand baths.^[i]

⁶ Then he made ten basins for washing, placing five of them to the right and five to the left. In these the victims for the burnt offerings were washed; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.^(AC)

⁷ He made the menorahs of gold, ten of them as was prescribed, and placed them in the nave, five to the right and five to the left.^{(AD) 8} He made ten tables and had them set in the nave, five to the right and five to the left; and he made a hundred golden bowls.^{(AE) 9} He made the court of the priests and the great courtyard^(AF) and the gates of the courtyard; the gates he covered with bronze. ¹⁰ The sea he placed off to the southeast from the south side of the house.^(AG)

^11 (AH)When Huram had made the pots, shovels, and bowls, he finished all his work for King Solomon in the house of God: ¹² two columns; two nodes for the capitals on top of the columns; and two pieces of netting covering the two nodes for the capitals on top of the columns; ¹³ four hundred pomegranates in double rows on both pieces of netting that covered the two nodes of the capitals on top of the columns. ¹⁴ He made the stands, and the basins on the stands; ¹⁵ one sea, and the twelve oxen under it; ¹⁶ pots, shovels, forks, and all the articles Huram-abi made for King Solomon for the house of the Lord; they were of burnished bronze. ¹⁷ The king had them cast in the neighborhood of the Jordan, between Succoth and Zeredah, in thick clay molds. ¹⁸ Solomon made all these vessels, so many in number that the weight of the bronze could not be determined.

¹⁹ Solomon made all the articles that were for the house of God: the golden altar, the tables on which the showbread lay, ²⁰ the menorahs and their lamps of pure gold which were to burn as prescribed before the inner sanctuary, ²¹ flowers, lamps, and gold tongs (this was of purest gold), ²² snuffers, bowls, cups, and firepans of pure gold. As for the entrance to the house, its inner doors to the holy of holies, as well as the doors to the nave of the temple, were of gold.