1 Kings 6:1-7

Solomon Builds the Temple for Yahweh

1 It happened in the four hundred and eightieth year [after] the {Israelites} went out from the land of Egypt, in the fourth year {of Solomon's rule} over Israel, the month of Ziv (that [is] the second month), that he began to build the house for Yahweh.

2 Now the house that King Solomon built for Yahweh [was] sixty cubits [in] its length and twenty cubits [in] its width and thirty cubits [in] its height.

3 The vestibule on the face of the main hall of the temple [was] twenty cubits [in] its length, and the width of the temple [was] ten cubits wide on the face of the temple.

4 And he made for the temple specially designed framed windows,

5 and he built a structure against the wall of the temple [running] all along the walls of the house, for the outer sanctuary and for the inner sanctuary, and made side rooms all around.

6 The lower structure [was] five cubits in its width and the middle [was] six cubits in its width and the third [was] seven cubits in its width, for he made niches for the temple all around to the outside, [so that] beams [would] not attach to the walls of the temple.

7 Now while the temple was being built, it was built [with] stones finished [at the] quarry, [so that] no hammer or stone shaping tool or any instrument of iron was heard in the temple as 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.

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "sons/children of Israel"
• [b] Literally "Solomon to rule"
• [c] Or "house"
• [d] Or "house"
• [e] Or "house"
• [f] Or "house"
• [g] Or "house"
• [h] Or "house"
• [i] Or "house"
• [j] Or "house"
• [k] Or "house"