The Message Bible MSG
New Living Translation NLT
1 So Solomon broke ground, launched construction of the house of God in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, the place where God had appeared to his father David. The precise site, the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, had been designated by David.
1
So Solomon began to build the Temple of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to David, his father. The Temple was built on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the site that David had selected.
2 He broke ground on the second day in the second month of the fourth year of his rule.
2
The construction began in midspring, during the fourth year of Solomon’s reign.
3 These are the dimensions that Solomon set for the construction of the house of God: ninety feet long and thirty feet wide.
3
These are the dimensions Solomon used for the foundation of the Temple of God (using the old standard of measurement). It was 90 feet long and 30 feet wide.
4 The porch in front stretched the width of the building, that is, thirty feet; and it was thirty feet high.
4
The entry room at the front of the Temple was 30 feet wide, running across the entire width of the Temple, and 30 feet high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold.
5 He paneled the main hall with cypress and veneered it with fine gold engraved with palm tree and chain designs.
5
He paneled the main room of the Temple with cypress wood, overlaid it with fine gold, and decorated it with carvings of palm trees and chains.
6 He decorated the building with precious stones and gold from Parvaim.
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He decorated the walls of the Temple with beautiful jewels and with gold from the land of Parvaim.
7 Everything was coated with gold veneer: rafters, doorframes, walls, and doors. Cherubim were engraved on the walls.
7
He overlaid the beams, thresholds, walls, and doors throughout the Temple with gold, and he carved figures of cherubim on the walls.
8 He made the Holy of Holies a cube, thirty feet wide, long, and high. It was veneered with 600 talents (something over twenty-two tons) of gold.
8
He made the Most Holy Place 30 feet wide, corresponding to the width of the Temple, and 30 feet deep. He overlaid its interior with 23 tons of fine gold.
9 The gold nails weighed fifty shekels (a little over a pound). The upper rooms were also veneered in gold.
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The gold nails that were used weighed 20 ounces each. He also overlaid the walls of the upper rooms with gold.
10 He made two sculptures of cherubim, gigantic angel-like figures, for the Holy of Holies, both veneered with gold.
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He made two figures shaped like cherubim, overlaid them with gold, and placed them in the Most Holy Place.
11 The combined wingspread of the side-by-side cherubim (each wing measuring seven and a half feet) stretched from wall to wall, thirty feet.
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The total wingspan of the two cherubim standing side by side was 30 feet. One wing of the first figure was 7 feet long, and it touched the Temple wall. The other wing, also 7 feet long, touched one of the wings of the second figure.
12
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In the same way, the second figure had one wing 7 feet long that touched the opposite wall. The other wing, also 7 feet long, touched the wing of the first figure.
13 They stood erect facing the main hall.
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So the wingspan of the two cherubim side by side was 30 feet. They stood on their feet and faced out toward the main room of the Temple.
14 He fashioned the curtain of violet, purple, and crimson fabric and worked a cherub design into it.
14
Across the entrance of the Most Holy Place he hung a curtain made of fine linen, decorated with blue, purple, and scarlet thread and embroidered with figures of cherubim.
15 He made two huge free-standing pillars, each fifty-two feet tall, their capitals extending another seven and a half feet.
15
For the front of the Temple, he made two pillars that were 27 feet tall, each topped by a capital extending upward another 7 feet.
16 The top of each pillar was set off with an elaborate filigree of chains, like necklaces, from which hung a hundred pomegranates.
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He made a network of interwoven chains and used them to decorate the tops of the pillars. He also made 100 decorative pomegranates and attached them to the chains.
17 He placed the pillars in front of The Temple, one on the right, and the other on the left. The right pillar he named Jakin (Security) and the left pillar he named Boaz (Stability).
17
Then he set up the two pillars at the entrance of the Temple, one to the south of the entrance and the other to the north. He named the one on the south Jakin, and the one on the north Boaz.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.