1 Kings 6:12-22

12 "About this Temple you are building - what's important is that you live the way I've set out for you and do what I tell you, following my instructions carefully and obediently. Then I'll complete in you the promise I made to David your father.
13 I'll personally take up my residence among the Israelites - I won't desert my people Israel."
14 Solomon built and completed The Temple.
15 He paneled the interior walls from floor to ceiling with cedar planks; for flooring he used cypress.
16 The thirty feet at the rear of The Temple he made into an Inner Sanctuary, cedar planks from floor to ceiling - the Holy of Holies.
17 The Main Sanctuary area in front was sixty feet long.
18 The entire interior of The Temple was cedar, with carvings of fruits and flowers. All cedar - none of the stone was exposed.
19 The Inner Sanctuary within The Temple was for housing the Chest of the Covenant of God.
20 This Inner Sanctuary was a cube, thirty feet each way, all plated with gold. The Altar of cedar was also gold-plated.
21 Everywhere you looked there was pure gold: gold chains strung in front of the gold-plated Inner Sanctuary
22 - gold everywhere - walls, ceiling, floor, and Altar. Dazzling!

1 Kings 6:12-22 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.

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.