1 Kings 6
1 480 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.
So Solomon began to build the temple of Yahweh. This happened in the 480th year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month.
2 Inside, [the main part of] the temple was 90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 45 feet high.
The temple that King Solomon built for Yahweh was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.
3 The entrance room was 15 feet long and 30 feet wide, just as wide as the main part of the temple.
The portico in front of the temple's main hall was twenty cubits in length, equal to the width of the temple, and ten cubits deep in front of the temple.
4 There were windows in [the walls of] the temple. The windows were narrower on the outside than on the inside.
For the house he made windows with frames that made them more narrow at the outside than on the inside.
5 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].
Against the walls of the main chamber he built rooms around it, around both the outer room and the inner room. He built rooms all around the sides.
6 [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.
The lowest story was five cubits wide, the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide. For on the outside he made offsets in the wall of the house all around so that the beams would not be inserted in the walls of the house.
7 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.
The house was built of stones prepared at the quarry. No hammer, ax, or any iron tool was heard in the house while it was being built.
8 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.
On the south side of the temple there was an entrance at the ground level, then one went up by stairs to the middle level, and from the middle to the third level.
9 So Solomon’s [workers] finished building the [framework of the] temple. They made the ceiling from cedar beams and boards.
So Solomon built the temple and finished it; he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar.
10 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.
He built the side rooms against the inner chambers of the temple, each side five cubits high; they were joined to the house with timbers of cedar.
11 Then Yahweh said this to Solomon:
The word of Yahweh came to Solomon, saying,
12 “[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.
“Concerning this temple which you are building, if you walk in my statutes and do justice, keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will confirm my promise with you that I had made to David your father.
13 I will live among the Israeli people, [in this temple, ] and I will never abandon them.”
I will live among the people of Israel and will not forsake them.”
14 Solomon’s [workers] finished building the temple.
So Solomon built the house and finished it.
15 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.
Then he built the interior walls of the house with boards of cedar. From the floor of the house to the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood, and he covered the floor of the house with cypress boards.
16 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.
He built twenty cubits onto the rear of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the ceiling. He built this room to be the inner room, the most holy place.
17 In front of the Very Holy Place there was a room that was 60 feet long.
The main hall, that is, the holy place that was in front of the most holy place, was forty cubits long.
18 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.
There was cedar inside the house, carved in the shape of gourds and open flowers. All was cedar inside. No stonework was visible on the inside.
19 At the back of the temple they made the Very Holy Place, where the Sacred Chest would be put.
Solomon prepared the inner room inside the house in order to place the ark of the covenant of Yahweh there.
20 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].
The inner room was twenty cubits in length, twenty cubits in width, and twenty cubits in height. Solomon overlaid the walls with pure gold and covered the altar with cedar wood.
21 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.
Solomon overlaid the inside of the temple with pure gold, and he placed chains of gold across the front of the inner room, and overlaid the front with gold.
22 They covered all the walls of the temple and the altar that was outside the Very Holy Place with [very thin sheets of] gold.
He overlaid the entire interior with gold until all the temple was finished. He also overlaid with gold the whole altar that belonged to the inner room.
23 Inside the Very Holy Place, they made from olive tree wood [large statues of] two creatures with wings. Each one was 15 feet tall.
Solomon made two cherubim of olivewood, each ten cubits high, for the inner room.
24 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.
One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long and its other wing was also five cubits long. So from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other there was a distance of ten cubits.
The other cherub also had a wingspan ten cubits. Both the cherubim were of the same dimensions and shape.
The height of one cherub was ten cubits and the other cherub was the same.
27 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.
Solomon placed the cherubim in the innermost room. The wings of the cherubim were stretched out so that the wing of one touched one wall and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall. Their wings touched one another in the middle of the most holy place.
28 They covered the statues with [very thin sheets of] gold.
Solomon overlaid the cherubim with gold.
29 [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.
He carved all the walls of the house around about with figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, in the outer and inner rooms.
30 They also covered the floor of both rooms with [very thin sheets of] gold.
Solomon overlaid the floor of the house with gold, in both the outer and inner rooms.
31 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.
Solomon made doors of olivewood for the entrance to the inner room. The lintel and doorposts had five indented sections.
32 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.
So he made two doors of olivewood, and he made on them carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. He overlaid them with gold and he spread the gold on the cherubim and palm trees.
33 They made a rectangular door frame from olive tree wood, and put it [between the entrance room and] the main room.
In this way, Solomon also made for the temple entrance doorposts of olive wood having four indented sections
34 They made two folding doors from cypress wood [and fastened them to the door frame].
and two doors of cypress wood. The two leaves of the one door were folding and the two leaves of the other door were folding.
35 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.
He carved on them cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and he evenly overlaid gold on the carved work.
36 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.
He built the inner courtyard with three rows of cut stone and a row of cedar beams.
37 They laid the foundation of the temple of Yahweh in early May, in the fourth year [that Solomon ruled].
The foundation of the house of Yahweh was laid in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv.
38 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.
In the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its parts and conforming to all its specifications. Solomon took seven years to build the temple.
