1 Kings 6:1-7

Solomon Builds the Temple

1 In the four hundred and eightieth^[a] year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the LORD.

2 The temple that King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty wide and thirty high.^[b]

3 The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple extended the width of the temple, that is twenty cubits,^[c] and projected ten cubits^[d] from the front of the temple.

4 He made narrow windows high up in the temple walls.

5 Against the walls of the main hall and inner sanctuary he built a structure around the building, in which there were side rooms.

6 The lowest floor was five cubits^[e] wide, the middle floor six cubits^[f] and the third floor seven.^[g] He made offset ledges around the outside of the temple so that nothing would be inserted into the temple walls.

7 In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.

1 Kings 6:1-7 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Cross References

• 1. Ezra 3:8
• 2. Ezra 5:11; Acts 7:47
• 3. Exodus 26:1; Ezekiel 41:1
• 4. Ezekiel 40:49
• 5. Ezekiel 40:16; Ezekiel 41:16
• 6. ver 16,19-21; Jeremiah 35:2; Ezekiel 41:5-6
• 7. S Exodus 20:25
• 8. S Deuteronomy 27:5

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew; Septuagint "four hundred and fortieth"
• [b]. That is, about 90 feet long, 30 feet wide and 45 feet high or about 27 meters long, 9 meters wide and 14 meters high
• [c]. That is, about 30 feet or about 9 meters; also in verses 16 and 20
• [d]. That is, about 15 feet or about 4.5 meters; also in verses 23-26
• [e]. That is, about 7 1/2 feet or about 2.3 meters; also in verses 10 and 24
• [f]. That is, about 9 feet or about 2.7 meters
• [g]. That is, about 11 feet or about 3.2 meters