1 Rois 6

Solomon builds the temple

¹In the 480th year after the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year that Solomon reigned over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the LORD.^{ab 2}The temple that King Solomon built for the LORD was about 90 feet long, about 30 feet wide and about 45 feet high. ³The porch in front of the main hall of the temple was about 30 feet long, matching the width of the temple, and it reached out about 15 feet from the front of the temple. ⁴He made windows for the temple with recessed frames.^{c 5}Against the wall of the temple he built a side structure that ran all around it, along the walls of both the main hall and the inner sanctuary, and he made side rooms all around. ⁶The lowest story was about 7 1/2 feet wide, the middle one about 9 feet wide, and the third about 10 1/2 feet wide. He had made ledges around the outside of the temple wall, so that the beams would not be set into the walls of the temple. ⁷The temple was built of stone that had been dressed at the quarry, so the sound of hammer, axe or any iron tool was never heard at the temple during the building. ⁸The entrance to the middle story of side rooms was on the south side of the temple, and stairways led up to the middle story and from the middle to the third.^{d 9}So he built the temple and finished it, and he roofed it with beams and planks of cedar. ¹⁰He built the side structure against the whole temple, each story about 7 1/2 feet high, and joined it to the temple with cedar beams.

The LORD speaks to Solomon

¹¹Then the word of the LORD came to Solomon: ¹²“As for this house you are building, if you live by my statutes, carry out my rulings and keep all my commandments by following them, I will carry out through you the word I gave to David your father, ¹³and I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel.”

The inside of the temple

¹⁴So Solomon built the temple and finished it. ¹⁵He lined the inside walls of the temple with cedar boards, paneling them with wood from the floor of the temple up to the rafters of the ceiling, and he covered the floor of the temple with boards of cypress.^{e 16}He partitioned off about 30 feet at the back of the temple with cedar boards from the floor to the rafters, and built it inside as the inner sanctuary, the most holy place. ¹⁷The rest of the temple, the main hall in front of the inner sanctuary, was about 60 feet long.^{f 18}Inside, the temple’s cedar was carved with gourds and open flowers. It was all cedar; no stone showed. ¹⁹He prepared the inner sanctuary inside the temple to place the ark of the covenant of the LORD there. ²⁰The inner sanctuary was about 30 feet long, about 30 feet wide and about 30 feet high, and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid an altar of cedar.^{g 21}Inside the temple Solomon overlaid everything with pure gold. He drew gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, which he also overlaid with gold. ²²So he overlaid the whole temple with gold until it was all finished. He also overlaid with gold the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary. ²³He made two cherubim of olive wood for the inner sanctuary, each about 15 feet high. ²⁴One wing of the cherub was about 7 1/2 feet long and the other wing about 7 1/2 feet, so its wings spanned about 15 feet from wingtip to wingtip. ²⁵The second cherub also measured about 15 feet. The two cherubim were the same size and the same shape. ²⁶The height of one cherub was about 15 feet, and so was the other. ²⁷He placed the cherubim in the middle of the inner sanctuary of the temple. Their wings were spread out, so that the wing of one touched one wall and the wing of the other touched the other wall, while their wings met each other in the middle of the room. ²⁸He also overlaid the cherubim with gold. ²⁹On all the walls of the temple, all around, in both the inner and the outer rooms, he carved figures of cherubim, palm trees and open flowers. ³⁰He also overlaid the floor of the temple with gold, in both the inner and the outer rooms. ³¹He made doors of olive wood for the entrance to the inner sanctuary, with a lintel and doorposts forming a five-sided frame.^{h 32}On the two olive-wood doors he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers, and he overlaid them with gold, beating the gold down onto the cherubim and the palm trees. ³³In the same way he made doorposts of olive wood for the entrance of the main hall, in a four-sided frame.^{i 34}The two doors were of cypress wood. Each door had two leaves that folded. ³⁵He carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers on them, and overlaid them with gold fitted evenly over the carving. ³⁶He built the inner courtyard with three courses of dressed stone and one course of cedar beams. ³⁷In the fourth year, in the month of Ziv, the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. ³⁸In the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the temple was finished in all its parts and just as it had been planned. He had been seven years building it.