Historical

1 King David’s son Solomon was now the undisputed ruler of Israel, for the Lord his God had made him a powerful monarch. ^2-3 He summoned all the army officers and judges to Gibeon^[a] as well as all the political and religious leaders of Israel. He led them up the hill to the old Tabernacle constructed by Moses, the Lord’s assistant, while he was in the wilderness. ⁴ (There was a later Tabernacle in Jerusalem, built by King David for the Ark of God when he removed it from Kiriath-jearim.) ^5-6 The bronze altar made by Bezalel (son of Uri, son of Hur) still stood in front of the old Tabernacle, and now Solomon and those he had invited assembled themselves before it, as he sacrificed upon it 1,000 burnt offerings to the Lord.

⁷ That night God appeared to Solomon and told him, “Ask me for anything, and I will give it to you!”

⁸ Solomon replied, “O God, you have been so kind and good to my father David, and now you have given me the kingdom— ⁹ this is all I want! For you have fulfilled your promise to David my father and have made me king over a nation as full of people as the earth is full of dust! ¹⁰ Now give me wisdom and knowledge to rule them properly, for who is able to govern by himself such a great nation as this one of yours?”

¹¹ God replied, “Because your greatest desire is to help your people, and you haven’t asked for personal wealth and honor, and you haven’t asked me to curse your enemies, and you haven’t asked for a long life, but for wisdom and knowledge to properly guide my people— ¹² yes, I am giving you the wisdom and knowledge you asked for! And I am also giving you riches, wealth, and honor such as no other king has ever had before you! And there will never again be so great a king in all the world!”

¹³ Solomon then left the Tabernacle, returned down the hill, and went back to Jerusalem to rule Israel. ¹⁴ He built up a huge force of 1,400 chariots and recruited 12,000 cavalry to guard the cities where the chariots were garaged, though some, of course, were stationed at Jerusalem near the king. ¹⁵ During Solomon’s reign, silver and gold were as plentiful in Jerusalem as rocks on the road! And expensive cedar lumber was used like common sycamore! ¹⁶ Solomon sent horse traders to Egypt to purchase entire herds at wholesale prices. ¹⁷ At that time Egyptian chariots sold for $400 each and horses for $100, delivered at Jerusalem. Many of these were then resold to the kings of the Hittites and Syria.

2 Solomon now decided that the time had come to build a temple for the Lord and a palace for himself. ² This required a force of 70,000 laborers, 80,000 stonecutters in the hills, and 3,600 foremen. ³ Solomon sent an ambassador to King Hiram at Tyre, requesting shipments of cedar lumber such as Hiram had supplied to David when he was building his palace.

⁴ “I am about to build a temple for the Lord my God,” Solomon told Hiram. “It will be a place where I can burn incense and sweet spices before God, and display the special sacrificial bread, and sacrifice burnt offerings each morning and evening, and on the Sabbaths, and at the new moon celebration and other regular festivals of the Lord our God. For God wants Israel always to celebrate these special occasions. ⁵ It is going to be a wonderful temple because he is a great God, greater than any other. ⁶ But who can ever build him a worthy home? Not even the highest heaven would be beautiful enough! And who am I to be allowed to build a temple for God? But it will be a place to worship him.^[b]

⁷ “So send me skilled craftsmen—goldsmiths and silversmiths, brass and iron workers; and send me weavers to make purple, crimson, and blue cloth; and skilled engravers to work beside the craftsmen of Judah and Jerusalem who were selected by my father David. ⁸ Also send me cedar trees, fir trees, and algum trees from the forests of Lebanon, for your men are without equal as lumbermen, and I will send my men to help them. ⁹ An immense amount of lumber will be needed, for the temple I am going to build will be large and incredibly beautiful. ¹⁰ As to the financial arrangements, I will pay your men 20,000 sacks of crushed wheat, 20,000 barrels of barley, 20,000 barrels of wine, and 20,000 barrels of olive oil.”

¹¹ King Hiram replied to King Solomon: “It is because the Lord loves his people that he has made you their king! ¹² Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who made the heavens and the earth and who has given to David such a wise, intelligent, and understanding son to build God’s Temple and a royal palace for himself.

¹³ “I am sending you a master craftsman—my famous Huramabi! He is a brilliant man, ¹⁴ the son of a Jewish woman from Dan in Israel; his father is from here in Tyre. He is a skillful goldsmith and silversmith, and also does exquisite work with brass and iron and knows all about stonework, carpentry, and weaving; and he is an expert in the dyeing of purple and blue linen and crimson cloth. He is an engraver besides, and an inventor! He will work with your craftsmen and those appointed by my lord David, your father. ¹⁵ So send along the wheat, barley, olive oil, and wine you mentioned, ¹⁶ and we will begin cutting wood from the Lebanon mountains, as much as you need, and bring it to you in log floats across the sea to Joppa, and from there you can take them inland to Jerusalem.”

¹⁷ Solomon now took a census of all foreigners in the country (just as his father David had done) and found that there were 153,600 of them. ¹⁸ He indentured 70,000 as common laborers, 80,000 as loggers, and 3,600 as foremen.

3 Finally the actual construction of the Temple began. Its location was in Jerusalem at the top of Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to Solomon’s father, King David, and where the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite had been. David had selected it as the site for the Temple. ² The actual construction began on the seventeenth day of April in the fourth year of King Solomon’s reign.

³ The foundation was ninety feet long and thirty feet wide. ⁴ A covered porch ran along the entire thirty-foot width of the Temple, with the inner walls and ceiling overlaid with pure gold! The roof was 180 feet high.

⁵ The main part of the Temple was paneled with cypress wood, plated with pure gold, and engraved with palm trees and chains. ⁶ Beautiful jewels were inlaid into the walls to add to the beauty; the gold, by the way, was of the best, from Parvaim. ⁷ All the walls, beams, doors, and thresholds throughout the Temple were plated with gold, with Guardian Angels engraved on the walls.

⁸ Within the Temple, at one end, was the most sacred room—the Holy of Holies—thirty feet square. This too was overlaid with the finest gold, valued at millions of dollars. ⁹ Twenty-six-ounce gold nails were used. The upper rooms were also plated with pure gold.

¹⁰ Within the innermost room, the Holy of Holies, Solomon placed two sculptured statues of Guardian Angels and plated them with gold. ^11-13 They stood on the floor facing the outer room, with wings stretched wing tip to wing tip across the room, from wall to wall.^{[c] 14} Across the entrance to this room he placed a veil of blue and crimson finespun linen, decorated with Guardian Angels.

¹⁵ At the front of the Temple were two pillars 52-1/2 feet high, topped by a 7-1/2-foot capital flaring out to the roof. ¹⁶ He made chains^[d] and placed them on top of the pillars, with 100 pomegranates attached to the chains. ¹⁷ Then he set up the pillars at the front of the Temple, one on the right and the other on the left. And he gave them names: Jachin (the one on the right), and Boaz (the one on the left).

4 He also made a bronze altar 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 15 feet high. ² Then he forged a huge round tank 15 feet across from rim to rim. The rim stood 7-1/2 feet above the floor, and was 45 feet around. ³ The tank was encircled at its base by two rows of gourd designs, cast as part of the tank. ⁴ The tank stood on twelve metal oxen facing outward; three faced north, three faced west, three faced south, and three faced east. ⁵ The walls of the tank were five inches thick, flaring out like the cup of a lily. It held 3,000 barrels of water.

⁶ He also constructed ten vats for water to wash the offerings, five to the right of the huge tank and five to the left. The priests used the tank, and not the vats, for their own washing.

⁷ Carefully following God’s instructions, he then cast ten gold lampstands and placed them in the Temple, five against each wall; ⁸ he also built ten tables and placed five against each wall on the right and left. And he molded 100 solid gold bowls. ⁹ Then he constructed a court for the priests, also the public court, and overlaid the doors of these courts with bronze. ¹⁰ The huge tank was in the southeast corner of the outer room of the Temple. ¹¹ Huramabi also made the necessary pots, shovels, and basins for use in connection with the sacrifices.

So at last he completed the work assigned to him by King Solomon:

This skillful craftsman, Huramabi, made all of the above-mentioned items for King Solomon using polished bronze. ^17-18 The king did the casting at the claybanks of the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Zeredah. Great quantities of bronze were used, too heavy to weigh.

¹⁹ Solomon commanded that all of the furnishings of the Temple—the utensils, the altar, and the table for the Bread of the Presence must be made of gold; ²⁰ also the lamps and lampstands, ²¹ the floral decorations, tongs, ²² lamp snuffers, basins, spoons, and firepans—all were made of solid gold. Even the doorway of the Temple, the main door, and the inner doors to the Holy of Holies were overlaid with gold.