1 Kings 6
1 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt, in the month of Ziv, the second month of the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, he began to build the house of the LORD.
480 years after the Israeli people left Egypt, during the fourth year that Solomon ruled Israel, early in May, Solomon’s workers began to build the temple.
2 The house that King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.
Inside, [the main part of] the temple was 90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 45 feet high.
3 The 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.
The entrance room was 15 feet long and 30 feet wide, just as wide as the main part of the temple.
4 He also had narrow windows framed high in the temple.
There were windows in [the walls of] the temple. The windows were narrower on the outside than on the inside.
5 Against the walls of the temple and the inner sanctuary, Solomon built a chambered structure around the temple, in which he constructed the side rooms.
Against the two sides and against the back of the temple walls, they built a structure/building that had rooms in it. [This structure had three levels/stories and each was 7-1/2 feet high].
6 The 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.
[Each room in] the lowest level/story was 7-1/2 feet wide. [Each room in] the middle level/story was nine feet wide. [The rooms in] the top level/story were 10-1/2 feet wide. The wall of the temple at the top level/story was thinner than the wall at the middle level/story, and the wall of the middle level/story was thinner than the wall at the bottom level/story. The result was that the rooms could be supported by the wall underneath them, and did not require wooden beams to support them.
7 The 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.
The huge stones for [the foundation of] the temple were cut and shaped at the quarry [to become very smooth]. The result was that while the workers were building the temple there was no noise, because they did not use hammers or chisels or any other iron tools there.
8 The 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.
The entrance to the bottom level/story [of that attached structure] was on the south side of the temple. There were stairs from the bottom level/story to the middle and top level/story.
9 So Solomon built the temple and finished it, roofing it with beams and planks of cedar.
So Solomon’s [workers] finished building the [framework of the] temple. They made the ceiling from cedar beams and boards.
10 He built chambers all along the temple, each five cubits high and attached to the temple with beams of cedar.
They built the structure that had three levels/stories, that was against the walls of the temple. Each level/story was 7-1/2 feet high, and was joined to the temple with cedar beams.
11 Then the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying:
Then Yahweh said this to Solomon:
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.
“[I want to tell you] about this temple that you are building. If you continually obey all my statutes and laws and commands, I will do for you what I promised to your father David.
13 And I will dwell among the Israelites and will not abandon My people Israel.”
I will live among the Israeli people, [in this temple, ] and I will never abandon them.”
14 So Solomon built the temple and finished it.
Solomon’s [workers] finished building the temple.
15 He lined the interior walls with cedar paneling from the floor of the temple to the ceiling, and he covered the floor with cypress boards.
On the inside, they lined/covered the walls with cedar boards. They lined/covered them from the floor to the ceiling. They made the floor from cypress boards.
16 He 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.
Inside the back part of the temple they built an inner room, called the Very Holy Place. It was 30 feet long. All the walls of this room were lined with cedar boards.
17 And the main hall in front of this room was forty cubits long.
In front of the Very Holy Place there was a room that was 60 feet long.
18 The cedar paneling inside the temple was carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; not a stone could be seen.
The cedar [boards on the walls] inside the temple were decorated with carvings of gourds and flowers. [The walls were] completely covered with cedar boards, with the result that the stones [of the walls behind them] could not be seen.
19 Solomon also prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the ark of the covenant of the LORD there.
At the back of the temple they made the Very Holy Place, where the Sacred Chest would be put.
20 The 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.
That room was 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 30 feet high. They covered the walls with [very thin sheets of] pure gold. [For burning incense] they also made an altar of cedar [boards].
21 So 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.
Solomon told them to cover the other walls inside the temple with [very thin sheets of] pure gold and to fasten gold chains across the entrance to the Very Holy Place.
22 So 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.
They covered all the walls of the temple and the altar that was outside the Very Holy Place with [very thin sheets of] gold.
23 In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim, each ten cubits high, out of olive wood.
Inside the Very Holy Place, they made from olive tree wood [large statues of] two creatures with wings. Each one was 15 feet tall.
24 One 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.
They each were the same size and had the same shape. They each had two wings [which were spread out]. Each wing was 7-1/2 feet long, with the result that the distance between the outer ends of the two wings was 15 feet.
25 The second cherub also measured ten cubits; both cherubim had the same size and shape,
26 and the height of each cherub was ten cubits.
27 And 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.
They put those statues next to each other in the Very Holy Place so that the wing of the one touched the one wing of the other in the center of the room, and the outer wings touched the walls.
28 He also overlaid the cherubim with gold.
They covered the statues with [very thin sheets of] gold.
29 Then 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.
[Solomon told them to] decorate the walls of the main room and the Very Holy Place by carving representations of winged creatures and palm trees and flowers.
30 And he overlaid the temple floor with gold in both the inner and outer sanctuaries.
They also covered the floor of both rooms with [very thin sheets of] gold.
31 For the entrance to the inner sanctuary, Solomon constructed doors of olive wood with five-sided doorposts.
They made a set of doors from olive tree wood, and placed them at the entrance to the Very Holy Place. The doorposts joined at the top to form a pointed arch.
32 The 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.
The doors were decorated by carving on them representations of winged creatures, palm trees, and flowers. All of these things were covered with [very thin sheets of] gold.
33 In the same way he made four-sided doorposts of olive wood for the sanctuary entrance.
They made a rectangular door frame from olive tree wood, and put it [between the entrance room and] the main room.
34 The two doors were made of cypress wood, and each had two folding panels.
They made two folding doors from cypress wood [and fastened them to the door frame].
35 He carved into them cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers; and he overlaid them with gold, hammered evenly over the carvings.
The doors were also decorated with wood carvings of winged creatures, palm trees, and flowers, and they were also covered evenly with [very thin sheets of] gold.
36 Solomon built the inner courtyard with three rows of dressed stone and one row of trimmed cedar beams.
They built a courtyard in front of the temple. The walls around the courtyard were made of cedar and stone; to make the walls, between each layer of cedar beams they put down two layers of stone.
37 The foundation of the house of the LORD was laid in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign, in the month of Ziv.
They laid the foundation of the temple of Yahweh in early May, in the fourth year [that Solomon ruled].
38 In his eleventh year and eighth month, the month of Bul, the temple was finished in every detail and according to every specification. So he built the temple in seven years.
In the eleventh year [that he ruled], in the middle of October, they finished building the temple and all of its parts, doing exactly what Solomon told them to do. It required seven years to build it.
