1 Kings 7
1 They also built a palace for Solomon, but it required 13 years to build it.
Solomon was thirteen years building a house for himself till it was complete.
2 One of the buildings they constructed was [a] large [ceremonial hall]. It was called the Hall of the Forest of Lebanon. It was 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. It was supported/held up by four rows of pillars of [wood from] cedar [trees]. There were 15 pillars in each row. There were cedar beams across each row.
And he made the house of the Woods of Lebanon, which was a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high, resting on four lines of cedar-wood pillars with cedar-wood supports on the pillars.
3 [To support the roof] there were cedar beams that connected the rows of pillars.
And it was covered with cedar over the forty-five supports which were on the pillars, fifteen in a line.
4 On each of the two side walls there were three rows of windows.
There were three lines of window-frames, window facing window in every line.
5 All the windows and doorways had rectangular frames. The windows along the long wall on one side faced the windows on the other side.
And all the doors and windows had square frames, with the windows facing one another in three lines.
6 They also built another building called the Hall of Pillars. It was 75 feet long and 45 feet wide. It had a covered porch [whose roof was] supported by pillars.
And he made a covered room of pillars, fifty cubits long and thirty cubits wide, and ... with steps before it.
7 Then they made a building called the Hall of the Throne. It was also called the Hall of Judgment. That was where Solomon decided/judged concerning people’s disputes. The walls were covered with cedar boards, from the floor to the rafters.
Then he made a covered room for his high seat when he gave decisions; this was the covered room of judging; it was covered with cedar-wood from floor to roof.
8 In the courtyard behind the Hall of Judgment they built a house for Solomon to live in that was made like the other buildings. They also built the same kind of house for his wife, who was the daughter of the king of Egypt.
And the house for his living-place, the other open square in the covered room, was made in the same way. And then he made a house like it for Pharaoh's daughter, whom Solomon had taken as his wife.
9 All of those buildings and the walls around the palace courtyard were made from costly blocks of stone, from the foundations up to the eaves. The stones were cut [at the quarry], according to the sizes that were needed, and the sides of the stones were shaped by cutting/smoothing them with saws.
All these buildings were made, inside and out, from base to crowning stone, and outside to the great walled square, of highly priced stone, cut to different sizes with cutting-instruments.
10 The foundations were also made from huge blocks of stone [that were prepared at the quarry]. Some of them were twelve feet long and some were fifteen feet long.
And the base was of great masses of highly priced stone, some ten cubits and some eight cubits square.
11 On top of the foundation stones were other blocks of stone that were cut according to the sizes they needed, and cedar beams.
Overhead were highly priced stones cut to measure, and cedar-wood.
12 The palace courtyard, the inner courtyard in front of the temple, and the entrance room of the temple had walls made by putting down three layers of cut stones between each layer of cedar beams.
The great outer square all round was walled with three lines of squared stones and a line of cedar-wood boards, round about the open square inside the house of the Lord and the covered room of the king's house.
13 There was a man who lived in Tyre [city] whose name was Huram. He knew how to make very nice things from bronze. His father had also lived in Tyre and had also been very skilled at making things from bronze, but Huram’s father was no longer living. His mother was from the tribe of Naphtali. Huram was very wise and intelligent and was very skilled at making things from bronze. Solomon invited him to come [to Jerusalem and supervise] all the work of making things from bronze, and Huram agreed.
Then King Solomon sent and got Hiram from Tyre.
He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass; he was full of wisdom and knowledge and an expert worker in brass. He came to King Solomon and did all his work for him.
15 He made two bronze pillars. Each one was 27 feet tall and 18 feet around. Each was hollow, and the walls of the pillars were 3 in./7.4 cm. thick.
He it was who made the two brass pillars; the first pillar was eighteen cubits high, and a line of twelve cubits went round it; and the second was the same.
16 He also made two bronze caps to be put on top of the pillars. Each cap was 7-1/2 feet tall.
And he made the two crowns to be put on the tops of the pillars, of brass made soft in the fire; the crowns were five cubits high.
17 Then he made bronze wreaths of chains to decorate the top part of each pillar.
There were nets of open-work for the crowns on the tops of the pillars, a net of open-work for one and a net of open-work for the other.
18 He also made bronze [figures that resembled] pomegranates. He put two rows of pomegranates over the top parts of each pillar.
And he made ornaments of apples; and two lines of apples all round over the network, covering the crowns of the pillars, the two crowns in the same way.
19 The top part over each pillar was shaped like a lily. Each [lily leaf] was six feet tall.
The crowns on the tops of the pillars were ornamented with a design of flowers, and were four cubits across.
20 These top parts were placed on a bowl-shaped section around which was draped the wreaths of chains. He made 200 [figures that represented] pomegranates and put them in two rows around the top/head of each pillar.
And there were crowns on the two pillars near the round part by the network, and there were two hundred apples in lines round every crown.
21 His [helpers] set up the pillars in front of the entrance of the temple. The pillar on the south side was named Jakin, and the pillar on the north side was named Boaz.
He put up the pillars at the doorway of the Temple, naming the one on the right Jachin, and that on the left Boaz.
22 The bronze top parts that were shaped like lilies were placed on top of the pillars. So Huram and his helpers finished making the bronze pillars.
The tops of the pillars had a design of flowers; and the work of making the pillars was complete.
23 Huram also constructed a very large round bronze tank that was made of metal and cast [in a clay mold]. It was 7-1/2 ft./2.3 meters high, 30 feet/9 meters across/wide, and 45 feet/13.5 meters around it.
And he made a great metal water-vessel ten cubits across from edge to edge, five cubits high and thirty cubits round.
24 Around the outer edge of the rim of the tank were two rows of gourds that were made of bronze. [But] the gourds [were not cast separately; they] were cast in the same mold as the rest of the tank. For each foot of length around the rim of the tank there were six [figures of] gourds.
And under the edge of it, circling it all round for ten cubits, were two lines of flower buds, made together with it from liquid metal.
25 Huram [also cast] twelve [bronze statues of] oxen. He placed them to face outward. He placed three of them to face north, three to face west, three to face south, and three to face east. His helpers put the bronze tank on the backs of [the statues of] the oxen.
It was supported on twelve oxen, with their back parts turned to the middle of it, three of them facing to the north, three to the west, three to the south, and three to the east; the vessel was resting on top of them.
26 The sides [of the tank] were 3 in./8 cm. thick. The rim was like the rim of a cup. It [curved outward, ] like the petals of a lily. [When the tank was full, ] it held about 10,000 gallons [of water].
It was as thick as a man's open hand, and was curved like the edge of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it would take two thousand baths.
27 Huram also made ten bronze carts. Each was six feet long and six feet wide and 4-1/2 feet tall.
And he made ten wheeled bases of brass; every one four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three cubits high.
28 [On the sides of the carts] there were panels which were set in frames.
And the bases were made in this way; their sides were square, fixed in a framework;
29 On those panels were [bronze figures of] lions, bulls, and winged creatures. Below and above the lions and bulls there were decorations of bronze wreaths.
And on the square sides between the frames were lions, oxen, and winged ones; and the same on the frame; and over and under the lions and the oxen and the winged ones were steps.
30 Each cart had four bronze wheels and two axles made of bronze. At the top corners of each cart were bronze supports to hold up a basin. On these supports were also decorations of bronze wreaths.
Every base had four wheels of brass, turning on brass rods, and their four angles had angle-plates under them; the angle-plates under the base were of metal, and there were ornaments at the side of every one.
31 On top of each cart, [under each basin, ] was a frame [that resembled] a circular collar. The top of each circular frame was 18 inches above the top of the cart, and the bottom of it was nine inches below the top of the cart. There were also decorations of bronze wreaths on the frame engraved within square panels.
The mouth of it inside the angle-plate was one cubit across; it was round like a pillar, a cubit and a half across; it had designs cut on it; the sides were square, not round.
32 The wheels were 27 inches high. They were below the panels. The wheels were connected to axles that had been cast in the same mold as the rest of the cart.
The four wheels were under the frames, and the rods on which the wheels were fixed were in the base; the wheels were a cubit and a half high.
33 The wheels of the carts were like the wheels of chariots. The axles, the rims, the spokes, and the hubs were all cast [from bronze].
The wheels were made like carriage-wheels, the rods on which they were fixed, the parts forming their edges, their rods and the middle points of them, were all formed out of liquid metal.
34 At the top corners of each cart there were handles. These were cast in the same mold as the rest of the cart.
And there were four angle-plates at the four angles of every base, forming part of the structure of the base.
35 There was a nine-inch bronze band around the top of each cart. There were braces attached to the corners of each cart. The bands and the braces were cast in the same mold as the rest of the cart.
And at the top of the base there was a round vessel, half a cubit high;
36 The braces and the panels [on the sides of the carts] were also decorated with [figures of] winged creatures, lions, and palm trees, whenever there was space for them, and there were bronze wreaths all around them.
In the spaces of the flat sides and on the frames of them, he made designs of winged ones, lions, and palm-trees, with ornamented edges all round.
37 That is how Huram made the ten carts. They [were all cast in the same mold, so they] were all alike: They all were the same size and had the same shape.
All the ten bases were made in this way, after the same design, of the same size and form.
38 Huram also made ten bronze basins, one for each cart. Each basin was six feet across and held 200 gallons [of water].
And he made ten brass washing-vessels, everyone taking forty baths, and measuring four cubits; one vessel was placed on every one of the ten bases.
39 Huram placed five of the carts on the south side of the temple and five on the north side. He put the big tank at the southeast corner.
And he put the bases by the house, five on the right side and five on the left; and he put the great water-vessel on the right side of the house, to the east, facing south.
40 Huram also made pots, shovels [for carrying ashes], and bowls [for carrying the blood of the animals that would be sacrificed]. He completed all the work that King Solomon requested him to do for the temple. [This is a list of the bronze things he made]:
And Hiram made the pots and spades and the basins. So Hiram came to the end of all the work he did for King Solomon in the house of the Lord:
41 the two pillars; the two top parts to be put over the pillars; the two wreaths of chains to decorate the tops of the pillars;
The two pillars and the two cups of the crowns which were on the tops of the two pillars; and the network covering the two cups of the crowns on the tops of the pillars,
42 the 400 [figures of] pomegranates, in two rows, with 100 in each row, that were placed over the top parts of the pillars;
And the four hundred apples for the network, two lines of apples for every network, covering the two cups of the crowns on the pillars;
43 the ten carts; the ten basins;
And the ten bases, with the ten washing-vessels on them;
44 the big tank; the twelve [statues of] oxen on whose backs the tank was placed;
And the great water-vessel, with the twelve oxen under it;
45 the pots, shovels [for the ashes of the altar], and bowls. Huram [and his workers] made all these things for King Solomon and put them outside the temple. They were all made of polished bronze.
And the pots and the spades and the basins; all the vessels which Hiram made for King Solomon, for the house of the Lord, were of polished brass.
46 They made them by pouring melted bronze into the clay molds that Huram had set up near the Jordan [River] Valley, between [the cities of] Succoth and Zarethan.
He made them of liquid metal in the lowland of Jordan, at the way across the river, at Adama, between Succoth and Zarethan.
47 Solomon did not [tell his workers to] weigh those bronze objects, because there were many items. So no one ever knew what they weighed.
The weight of all these vessels was not measured, because there was such a number of them; it was not possible to get the weight of the brass.
48 Solomon’s [workers] also made all the gold items for the temple: the altar; the table on which the priests put the sacred bread placed before God;
And Solomon had all the vessels made for use in the house of the Lord: the altar of gold and the gold table on which the holy bread was placed;
49 the ten lampstands [that were put] in front of the Very Holy Place, five on the south side and five on the north side; the [decorations that resembled] flowers; the lamps; the tongs [to grasp the hot coals];
And the supports for the lights, five on the right side and five on the left before the inmost room, of clear gold; and the flowers and the lights and all the instruments of gold;
50 the cups, the gold lamp wick snuffers, the small lamp bowls, the dishes for incense, the pans [for carrying the hot coals], and the hinges for the doors at the entrance to the Very Holy Place and for the doors at the entrance [to the main room] of the temple. Those things were all made of gold.
And the cups and the scissors and the basins and the spoons and the fire-trays, all of gold; and the pins on which the doors were turned, the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and the doors of the Temple, all of gold.
51 So Solomon’s [workers] finished all the work for the temple. Then they placed in the temple storerooms all the things that his father David had dedicated to Yahweh—all the silver and gold, and the other valuable items.
So all the work King Solomon had done in the house of the Lord was complete. Then Solomon took the holy things which David his father had given, the silver and the gold and all the vessels, and put them in the store-houses of the house of the Lord.
