1 Kings 5-7

1Now when Hiram king of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king in his father’s place, he sent envoys to Solomon; for Hiram had always been a friend of David.

2And Solomon relayed this message to Hiram:

3“As you are well aware, due to the wars waged on all sides against my father David, he could not build a house for the Name of the LORD his God until the LORD had put his enemies under his feet.

4But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side, and there is no adversary or crisis.

5So behold, I plan to build a house for the Name of the LORD my God, according to what the LORD said to my father David: ‘I will put your son on your throne in your place, and he will build the house for My Name.’

6Now therefore, order that cedars of Lebanon be cut down for me. My servants will be with your servants, and I will pay your servants whatever wages you set, for you know that there are none among us as skilled in logging as the Sidonians.”

7When Hiram received Solomon’s message, he rejoiced greatly and said, “Blessed be the LORD this day! He has given David a wise son over this great people!”

8Then Hiram sent a reply to Solomon, saying: “I have received your message; I will do all you desire regarding the cedar and cypress timber.

9My servants will haul the logs from Lebanon to the Sea, and I will float them as rafts by sea to the place you specify. There I will separate the logs, and you can take them away. And in exchange, you can meet my needs by providing my household with food.”

10So Hiram provided Solomon with all the cedar and cypress timber he wanted,

11and year after year Solomon would provide Hiram with 20,000 cors of wheat as food for his household, as well as 20,000 baths of pure olive oil.

12And the LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as He had promised him. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.

13Then King Solomon conscripted a labor force of 30,000 men from all Israel.

14He sent them to Lebanon in monthly shifts of 10,000 men, so that they would spend one month in Lebanon and two months at home. And Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor.

15Solomon had 70,000 porters and 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains,

16not including his 3,300 foremen who supervised the workers.

17And the king commanded them to quarry large, costly stones to lay the foundation of the temple with dressed stones.

18So Solomon’s and Hiram’s builders, along with the Gebalites, quarried the stone and prepared the timber and stone for the construction of the temple.

1In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the house of the LORD.

2The house that King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.

3The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple was twenty cubits long, extending across the width of the temple and projecting out ten cubits in front of the temple.

4He also had narrow windows framed high in the temple.

5Against the walls of the temple and the inner sanctuary, Solomon built a chambered structure around the temple, in which he constructed the side rooms.

6The bottom floor was five cubits wide, the middle floor six cubits, and the third floor seven cubits. He also placed offset ledges around the outside of the temple, so that nothing would be inserted into its walls.

7The temple was constructed using finished stones cut at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any other iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.

8The entrance to the bottom floor was on the south side of the temple. A stairway led up to the middle level, and from there to the third floor.

9So Solomon built the temple and finished it, roofing it with beams and planks of cedar.

10He built chambers all along the temple, each five cubits high and attached to the temple with beams of cedar.

11Then the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying:

12“As for this temple you are building, if you walk in My statutes, carry out My ordinances, and keep all My commandments by walking in them, I will fulfill through you the promise I made to your father David.

13And I will dwell among the Israelites and will not abandon My people Israel.”

14So Solomon built the temple and finished it.

15He lined the interior walls with cedar paneling from the floor of the temple to the ceiling, and he covered the floor with cypress boards.

16He partitioned off the twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling to form within the temple an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.

17And the main hall in front of this room was forty cubits long.

18The cedar paneling inside the temple was carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; not a stone could be seen.

19Solomon also prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the ark of the covenant of the LORD there.

20The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold, and he also overlaid the altar of cedar.

21So Solomon overlaid the inside of the temple with pure gold, and he extended gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, which was overlaid with gold.

22So he overlaid with gold the whole interior of the temple, until everything was completely finished. He also overlaid with gold the entire altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary.

23In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim, each ten cubits high, out of olive wood.

24One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long, and the other wing was five cubits long as well. So the full wingspan was ten cubits.

25The second cherub also measured ten cubits; both cherubim had the same size and shape,

26and the height of each cherub was ten cubits.

27And he placed the cherubim inside the innermost room of the temple. Since their wings were spread out, the wing of the first cherub touched one wall, while the wing of the second cherub touched the other wall, and in the middle of the room their wingtips touched.

28He also overlaid the cherubim with gold.

29Then he carved the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer sanctuaries, with carved engravings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers.

30And he overlaid the temple floor with gold in both the inner and outer sanctuaries.

31For the entrance to the inner sanctuary, Solomon constructed doors of olive wood with five-sided doorposts.

32The double doors were made of olive wood, and he carved into them cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers and overlaid the cherubim and palm trees with hammered gold.

33In the same way he made four-sided doorposts of olive wood for the sanctuary entrance.

34The two doors were made of cypress wood, and each had two folding panels.

35He carved into them cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and he overlaid them with gold hammered evenly over the carvings.

36Solomon built the inner courtyard with three rows of dressed stone and one row of trimmed cedar beams.

37The foundation of the house of the LORD was laid in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign, in the month of Ziv.

38In the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was finished in every detail and according to every specification. So he built the temple in seven years.

1Solomon, however, took thirteen years to complete the construction of his entire palace.

2He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon a hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high, with four rows of cedar pillars supporting the cedar beams.

3The house was roofed with cedar above the beams that rested on the pillars—forty-five beams, fifteen per row.

4There were three rows of high windows facing one another in three tiers.

5All the doorways had rectangular frames, with the openings facing one another in three tiers.

6Solomon made his colonnade fifty cubits long and thirty cubits wide, with a portico in front of it and a canopy with pillars in front of the portico.

7In addition, he built a hall for the throne, the Hall of Justice, where he was to judge. It was paneled with cedar from floor to ceiling.

8And the palace where Solomon would live, set further back, was of similar construction. He also made a palace like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had married.

9All these buildings were constructed with costly stones, cut to size and trimmed with saws inside and out from the foundation to the eaves, and from the outside to the great courtyard.

10The foundations were laid with large, costly stones, some ten cubits long and some eight cubits long.

11Above these were costly stones, cut to size, and cedar beams.

12The great courtyard was surrounded by three rows of dressed stone and a row of trimmed cedar beams, as were the inner courtyard and portico of the house of the LORD.

13Now King Solomon sent to bring Huram from Tyre.

14He was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a craftsman in bronze. Huram had great skill, understanding, and knowledge for every kind of bronze work. So he came to King Solomon and carried out all his work.

15He cast two pillars of bronze, each eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in circumference.

16He also made two capitals of cast bronze to set on top of the pillars, each capital five cubits high.

17For the capitals on top of the pillars he made a network of lattice, with wreaths of chainwork, seven for each capital.

18Likewise, he made the pillars with two rows of pomegranates around each grating to cover each capital atop the pillars.

19And the capitals atop the pillars in the portico were shaped like lilies, four cubits high.

20On the capitals of both pillars, just above the rounded projection next to the network, were the two hundred pomegranates in rows encircling each capital.

21Thus he set up the pillars at the portico of the temple. The pillar to the south he named Jachin, and the pillar to the north he named Boaz.

22And the tops of the pillars were shaped like lilies. So the work of the pillars was completed.

23He also made the Sea of cast metal. It was circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim, five cubits in height, and thirty cubits in circumference.

24Below the rim, ornamental buds encircled it, ten per cubit all the way around the Sea, cast in two rows as a part of the Sea.

25The Sea stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The Sea rested on them, with all their hindquarters toward the center.

26It was a handbreadth thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold two thousand baths.

27In addition, he made ten movable stands of bronze, each four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three cubits high.

28This was the design of the stands: They had side panels attached to uprights,

29and on the panels between the uprights were lions, oxen, and cherubim. On the uprights was a pedestal above, and below the lions and oxen were wreaths of beveled work.

30Each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles and a basin resting on four supports, with wreaths at each side.

31The opening to each stand inside the crown at the top was one cubit deep, with a round opening like the design of a pedestal, a cubit and a half wide. And around its opening were engravings, but the panels of the stands were square, not round.

32There were four wheels under the panels, and the axles of the wheels were attached to the stand; each wheel was a cubit and a half in diameter.

33The wheels were made like chariot wheels; their axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were all of cast metal.

34Each stand had four handles, one for each corner, projecting from the stand.

35At the top of each stand was a circular band half a cubit high. The supports and panels were cast as a unit with the top of the stand.

36He engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees on the surfaces of the supports and panels, wherever each had space, with wreaths all around.

37In this way he made the ten stands, each with the same casting, dimensions, and shape.

38He also made ten bronze basins, each holding forty baths and measuring four cubits across, one basin for each of the ten stands.

39He set five stands on the south side of the temple and five on the north, and he put the Sea on the south side, at the southeast corner of the temple.

40Additionally, Huram made the pots, shovels, and sprinkling bowls. So Huram finished all the work that he had undertaken for King Solomon in the house of the LORD:

41the two pillars; the two bowl-shaped capitals atop the pillars; the two sets of network covering both bowls of the capitals atop the pillars;

42the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of network (two rows of pomegranates for each network covering both the bowl-shaped capitals atop the pillars);

43the ten stands; the ten basins on the stands;

44the Sea; the twelve oxen underneath the Sea;

45and the pots, shovels, and sprinkling bowls. All the articles that Huram made for King Solomon in the house of the LORD were made of burnished bronze.

46The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zarethan.

47Solomon left all these articles unweighed, because there were so many. The weight of the bronze could not be determined.

48Solomon also made all the furnishings for the house of the LORD: the golden altar; the golden table on which was placed the Bread of the Presence;

49the lampstands of pure gold in front of the inner sanctuary, five on the right side and five on the left; the gold flowers, lamps, and tongs;

50the pure gold basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, ladles, and censers; and the gold hinges for the doors of the inner temple (that is, the Most Holy Place) as well as for the doors of the main hall of the temple.

51So all the work that King Solomon had performed for the house of the LORD was completed. Then Solomon brought in the items his father David had dedicated—the silver, the gold, and the furnishings—and he placed them in the treasuries of the house of the LORD.