1
Four hundred and eighty years after the people of Israel left Egypt, during the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the second month, the month of Ziv, Solomon began work on the Temple.
2
Inside it was 90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 45 feet high.
3
The entrance room was 15 feet deep and 30 feet wide, as wide as the sanctuary itself.
4
The walls of the Temple had openings in them, narrower on the outside than on the inside.
5
Against the outside walls, on the sides and the back of the Temple, a three-storied annex was built, each story 7 1/2 feet high.
6
Each room in the lowest story was 7 1/2 feet wide, in the middle story 9 feet wide, and in the top story 10 1/2 feet wide. The Temple wall on each floor was thinner than on the floor below, so that the rooms could rest on the wall without having their beams built into it.
7
The stones with which the Temple was built had been prepared at the quarry, so that there was no noise made by hammers, axes, or any other iron tools as the Temple was being built.
8
The entrance to the lowest story of the annex was on the south side of the Temple, with stairs leading up to the second and third stories.
9
So King Solomon finished building the Temple. He put in a ceiling made of beams and boards of cedar.
10
The three-storied annex, each story 7 1/2 feet high, was built against the outside walls of the Temple, and was joined to them by cedar beams.
11
The Lord said to Solomon,