1 Kings 6

Solomon builds the temple

1 In the four hundred eightieth year after the Israelites left Egypt, in the month of Ziv, the second month,^[a] in the fourth year of Solomon's rule over Israel, he built the LORD's temple.

2 The temple that King Solomon built for the LORD was ninety feet long, thirty feet wide, and forty-five feet high.

3 The porch in front of the temple's main hall was thirty feet long. It ran across the whole width of the temple and extended fifteen feet in front of the temple.

4 He made recessed and latticed windows^[b] for the temple

5 and built side rooms against the temple walls around both the main hall and the most holy place.

6 The lower walls were seven and a half feet wide. At the second floor the walls were nine feet wide, and at the third floor they were ten and a half feet wide. He made niches around the outside of the temple so the beams wouldn't be inserted into the temple walls.

7 When the temple was built, they did all the stonecutting at the quarry. No hammers, axes, or any iron tools were heard in the temple during its construction.

8 The door to the stairs was at the south side of the temple. Winding stairs went up to the second floor and from there to the third floor.

9 He completed the temple with a roof of cedar beams and cross-planks.

10 Then he built the side rooms all around the temple. They were seven and a half feet high. He attached them to the temple with cedarwood.

11 The LORD's word came to Solomon,

12 Regarding this temple that you are building: If you follow my laws, enact my regulations, and keep all my commands faithfully, then I will fulfill for you my promise that I made to your father David.

13 I will live among the Israelites. I won't abandon my people Israel.

14 So Solomon constructed the temple and completed it.

15 He built the walls within the temple with cedar planks, paneled from the floor to the ceiling. He overlaid the floor of the temple with pine planks.

16 At the back of the temple he built thirty feet of cedar panels from the floor to the ceiling. Solomon built the inner sanctuary, the most holy place.

17 In front of this, the main hall was sixty feet.

18 The cedar inside the temple was carved with gourds and blossoming flowers. The whole thing was cedar. No stone was seen.

19 He set up the inner sanctuary inside the temple so that he could put the chest containing the LORD's covenant there.

20 The inner sanctuary was thirty feet in length, width, and height. Solomon overlaid it with pure gold and covered the altar with cedar.

21 Solomon covered the temple's interior with pure gold. He placed gold chains in front of the inner sanctuary and covered it with gold.

22 He overlaid the whole temple inside with gold until the temple was completely covered. He covered the whole altar that was in the inner sanctuary with gold.

23 He made two winged creatures of olive wood for the inner sanctuary, each fifteen feet high.

24 The wings of the first winged creature were each seven and a half feet long. It was fifteen feet from the end of one wing to the end of the other.

25 The second winged creature also measured fifteen feet. Both winged creatures had identical measurements and form.

26 The height of both winged creatures was fifteen feet.

27 Solomon placed the winged creatures inside the temple. Their wings spread out so that the wing of the one touched one wall and the wing of the other touched the other wall. In the middle of the temple, the wings of the two winged creatures touched each other.

28 He covered the winged creatures with gold.

29 Solomon carved all the walls of the temple—inner and outer rooms—with engravings of winged creatures, palm trees, and blossoming flowers.

30 He also covered the floor of the temple with gold, in both the inner and the outer rooms.

31 He made the doors of the inner sanctuary from olive wood and carved the doorframes with five recesses.

32 He overlaid the two olive-wood doors with gold-plated carvings of winged creatures, palm trees, and blossoming flowers.

33 He made the door of the main hall with doorframes of olive wood with four recesses.

34 The two doors of pinewood each pivoted on a socket.

35 Solomon carved winged creatures, palm trees, and blossoming flowers, and covered them with gold.

36 He built the inner courtyard with three rows of cut stone followed by one row of trimmed cedar.

37 Solomon laid the foundation of the LORD's temple in the fourth year in the month of Ziv.

38 He finished the temple in all its details and measurements in the eleventh year during the eighth month, the month of Bul. He built it in seven years.

1 Kings 6 Commentary

Chapter 6

The building of Solomon's temple. (1-10) Promise given concerning the temple. (11-14) Particulars respecting the temple. (15-38)

Verses 1-10 The temple is called the house of the Lord, because it was directed and modelled by him, and was to be employed in his service. This gave it the beauty of holiness, that it was the house of the Lord, which was far beyond all other beauties. It was to be the temple of the God of peace, therefore no iron tool must be heard; quietness and silence suit and help religious exercises. God's work should be done with much care and little noise. Clamour and violence often hinder, but never further the work of God. Thus the kingdom of God in the heart of man grows up in silence, ( Mark 5:27 ) .

Verses 11-14 None employ themselves for God, without having his eye upon them. But God plainly let Solomon know that all the charge for building this temple, would neither excuse from obedience to the law of God, nor shelter from his judgments, in case of disobedience.

Verses 15-38 See what was typified by this temple. 1. Christ is the true Temple. In him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead; in him meet all God's spiritual Israel; through him we have access with confidence to God. 2. Every believer is a living temple, in ( 1 Corinthians. 3:16 ) built upon Christ as its Foundation, and will be perfect in due time. 3. The gospel church is the mystical temple. It grows to a holy temple in the Lord, enriched and beautified with the gifts and graces of the Spirit. This temple is built firm, upon a Rock. 4. Heaven is the everlasting temple. There the church will be fixed. All that shall be stones in that building, must, in the present state of preparation, be fitted and made ready for it. Let sinners come to Jesus as the living Foundation, that they may be built on him, a part of this spiritual house, consecrated in body and soul to the glory of God.

Footnotes

• [a]. April–May, Iyar; Ziv is a month from a Canaanite calendar.
• [b]. Heb architectural and decorative terminology in 6:4–6 and elsewhere in chaps 6–7 is often uncertain.
• [c]. Heb uncertain; Heb lacks the beams.
• [d]. Heb uncertain
• [e]. Heb uncertain
• [f]. Heb uncertain
• [g]. Heb uncertain
• [h]. April–May, Iyar; Ziv is a month in the Canaanite calendar.
• [i]. October–November, Heshvan; Bul is a month in the Canaanite calendar.

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST KINGS 6

This chapter gives an account of the building of the temple, for which preparations were before made and begins with the time of its building, 1Ki 6:1; gives the dimensions of it and the porch before it, 1Ki 6:2,3; observes the windows in it and chambers about it, 1Ki 6:4-10; and while it was building, Solomon had a word from the Lord relative to it, 1Ki 6:11-14; and then the account goes on concerning the walls of the house, and the flooring of it, 1Ki 6:15-18; and the oracle in it, and the cherubim in that, 1Ki 6:19-30; and the doors into it, and the carved work of them, 1Ki 6:31-36; and the chapter is concluded with observing the time when it was begun and finished 1Ki 6:37,38.