1 Kings / Solomon Builds the Temple

Solomon Builds the Temple

1 Kings 6:1-38

Chapter 6

¹ It was in the four hundred and eightieth year after the sons of Israel went out from the land of Egypt, in the fourth year, in this month, that is, the second month, of Solomon reigning over Israel, and he built the house for the LORD. ² And the house that King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits in length, twenty in width, and thirty cubits in height. ³ And the porch upon the face of the temple of the house was twenty cubits its length upon the face of the width of the house; ten cubits its width upon the face of the house. ⁴ And he made recessed window frames for the house. ⁵ He built side-chambers against the wall of the house all around, both the walls of the house all around, to the temple and to the Debir, and he made ribs all around. ⁶ The lower side-room was five cubits wide, the middle one six cubits wide, and the third seven cubits wide; for he made offsets to the house all around outside so as not to grasp the walls of the house. ⁷ The house, when it was being built, was made ready from stone; no noise was heard, and no hammers, no axe, no iron tool of any kind was heard in the house while it was being built. ⁸ The entrance of the middle side was toward the right shoulder of the house, and by windings they went up to the middle one and from the middle one to the third one. ⁹ He built the house and finished it, and he paneled the house with beams and lined it with cedars. ¹⁰ And he built the platform against all of the house, five cubits its height, and it grasped the house with cedar woods. ¹¹ The word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying: ¹² This house which you are building—if you walk in my statutes and my judgments, and you keep all my commandments to walk in them—then I will establish my word with you which I spoke to David your father. ¹³ And I will dwell in the midst of the sons of Israel and will not leave my people Israel. ¹⁴ Solomon built the house and completed it. ¹⁵ And he built the walls of the house from its inside with cedar sides from the floor of the house up to the walls of the ceiling; he overlaid the wood from the inside, and he overlaid the floor of the house with cypress sides. ¹⁶ He built the twenty-cubit length from the rear of the house with cedar sides from the ground up to the walls, and he built for it an inner house for the Debir, for the holy of holies. ¹⁷ And the house, that is, the temple, was forty cubits long in front. ¹⁸ The house inside had fir latticework, gourds, and openwork blossoms. All was fir, so that no stone was seen. ¹⁹ He prepared the inner sanctuary in the middle of the house inside, to put the ark of the covenant of the LORD there. ²⁰ And before the Debir twenty cubits in length and twenty cubits in width and twenty cubits in height, and he overlaid it with refined gold, and he overlaid the altar of cedar. ²¹ Solomon overlaid the house inside with pure gold. He had chains of gold pass before the inner sanctuary, and he overlaid it with gold. ²² And he overlaid the entire house with gold until the completion of the entire house, and he overlaid with gold the entire altar that belonged to the Debir. ²³ He made two cherubim of olive trees in the Debir, ten cubits in height. ²⁴ And the wing of the one cherub was five cubits, and the wing of the second cherub was five cubits; ten cubits from the ends of its wings to the ends of its wings. ²⁵ And the second cherub was ten cubits, with one measurement and one shape for the two cherubim. ²⁶ The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and likewise the second cherub. ²⁷ He placed the cherubim within the inner house, and they spread the wings of the cherubim. The wing of the one touched the wall, and the wing of the second cherub touched the second wall. And their wings in the middle of the house touched wing to wing. ²⁸ He overlaid the cherubim with gold. ²⁹ And he paneled all the walls of the house all around—openwork lattices of cherubim and palm trees and openwork blossoms—from the inside and the outside. ³⁰ He overlaid the floor of the house with gold inside and outside. ³¹ And he made the entrance of the Debir with doors of olive trees, five-sided doorposts. ³² He made two doors of olive wood, and he carved on them carvings of cherubim and palms and open flowers, and he overlaid them with gold, and he overlaid the cherubim and the palms with gold. ³³ He made doorposts of olive trees for the entrance of the temple from a fourth. ³⁴ The two doors were of fir wood. Each had two folding leaves, and the second door also had two folding leaves. ³⁵ He engraved cherubim, palm trees, and openworked blossoms on them and overlaid them with gold fitted upon the carving. ³⁶ He built the inner court with three rows of cut stone and a row of cut cedars. ³⁷ In the fourth year he founded the temple of the LORD in the second month. ³⁸ In the eleventh year, in the month Bul—that is, the eighth month—the house was finished according to all its specifications and all its decrees. And he built it in seven years.