1 Kings / Temple Furnishings and the Work of Hiram

Temple Furnishings and the Work of Hiram

1 Kings 7:13-51

Chapter 7

¹³ And King Solomon sent and took Hiram from Egypt. ¹⁴ He is a son of a widow woman from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze. And he was filled with wisdom and understanding and knowledge to do all work in bronze. And he came to King Solomon, and he did all his work. ¹⁵ And he formed the two bronze pillars, eighteen cubits the height of the one pillar, and a cord twelve cubits would encircle the second pillar. ¹⁶ And he made two capitals to put on the tops of the pillars, cast in bronze, five cubits the height of the one capital and five cubits the height of the second capital. ¹⁷ Networks, the work of a network, great ones, the work of chains for the capital which is on the top of the pillars, seven for the one capital and seven for the second capital. ¹⁸ And he made the pillars and two rows around upon the one latticework to cover the capital that is upon the head of the pomegranates, and thus he made for the second capital. ¹⁹ And the capital which is on the top of the pillars is lily-work in the porch, four cubits. ²⁰ And there was a capital on the two pillars, also above, opposite the belly—which was on the side of the network. And the pomegranates were two hundred, hanging all around on the second capital. ²¹ He set up the pillars at the porch of the temple. He set up the right pillar and called its name Jachin, and he set up the left pillar and called its name Boaz. ²² And on the head of the pillars was the work of lily, and it was complete, the work of the pillars. ²³ And he made the sea—cast bronze—from its lip to its lip, round all around; five cubits its height; and a line of thirty cubits surrounds it all around. ²⁴ And gourds below its lip, encircling it all around, ten per cubit, encircling the Sea all around; two rows, the gourds cast in its casting. ²⁵ It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing seaward, three facing south, and three facing east. The sea was upon them from above, and all their hindquarters were inward toward the House of God. ²⁶ Its thickness was a handbreadth, and its lip was like the work of the lip of a cup, a blossom of Shushan. It contained two thousand baths. ²⁷ And he made the stands—ten bronze stands; four cubits the length of one stand, and four cubits its width, and three cubits its height. ²⁸ And this is the workmanship of the base: framing for them and framing between the struts. ²⁹ And on the frames which were between the wreaths—lions, oxen, and cherubim—and on the wreaths, from above and below to the lions and to the oxen, there is work of beaten work. ³⁰ And four bronze wheels for the one base, and bronze axles, and four bronze shoulders for them from under the laver; the shoulders were cast on the outside to reach the height of a man. ³¹ Its mouth from the house to the capital and upward was a cubit, and its mouth was round work of such a cubit and a half. And also on its mouth were lattices and their frames from its foursquares, not wheels. ³² And the four wheels were below the frames, and the hands of the wheels were in the base, and the height of the one wheel was a cubit and a half cubit. ³³ And the work of the wheels was like the work of the wheels of the chariot-throne—their hands and their backs and their rims and their struts—everything cast. ³⁴ And it had four shoulders to the four corners of the one stand, from the stand its shoulders. ³⁵ And on the top of the base was half a cubit high all around, and on the top of the base its hands and its frames were from it. ³⁶ And he engraved on the plates of its hands and on its frames: cherubim, lions, and palm trees, like the palm tree of a man, and lions all around. ³⁷ In this way he made the ten stands, one cast, one measure, one engraving for all of them. ³⁸ And he made ten bronze lavers. Forty bath it contains, the one laver. Four cubits, the one laver. One laver on the one base, to the ten bases. ³⁹ And he placed the stands, five on the shoulder of the house from the right and five on the shoulder of the house from its left. And the sea he placed from the shoulder of the house, the rightward facing eastward from the circumcised toward south. ⁴⁰ And Hiram made the cauldrons and the stands and the bowls. And Hiram finished doing all the work that he made for King Solomon in the house of the LORD. ⁴¹ two pillars, and the bowl-shaped capitals that were on the tops of the two pillars, and the two networks to cover the two bowl-shaped capitals that were on the tops of the pillars. ⁴² and the pomegranates, four hundred for the two networks—two rows of pomegranates for the one network, to cover the two capitals of the crowns which were on the faces of the Pillars. ⁴³ and the stands, ten, and the basins, ten, on the stands ⁴⁴ And the sea, the one, and the cattle, twelve, under the sea. ⁴⁵ And the pots and the shovels and the bowls and all these vessels that Hiram made for King Solomon for the house of the LORD were polished bronze. ⁴⁶ In the plain of the Jordan the king cast them, in the thickness of the land between Succoth and Zarethan. ⁴⁷ And Solomon set down all the Temple vessels; the weight of the bronze was not investigated. ⁴⁸ And Solomon made all the vessels that were in the house of the LORD: the golden altar and the table upon which was the bread of the Presence, of gold. ⁴⁹ and the menorahs, five on the right and five on the left before the Debir, refined gold, and the flower, the lamps, and the tongs, gold. ⁵⁰ and the basins, the harps, the bowls, the palms, and the censers, gold-sealed, and the doors for the doors of the house—the inner doors for the holy of holies, and the doors of the house for the temple, gold. ⁵¹ And all the work was completed which King Solomon made for the temple of the LORD. And Solomon brought the holy things of David his father—the silver and the gold and the vessels—and he gave them into the treasuries of the temple of the LORD.