1
Shlomo built a palace for himself, taking thirteen years to finish it.
2
For he built the House of the L'vanon Forest 175 feet long, eighty-seven-and-a-half feet wide and fifty-two-and-a-half feet high, on four rows of cedar posts, with cedar beams on the posts.
3
It had a roof made of cedar and supported by beams lying on forty-five posts, fifteen in a row.
4
There were three rows of window openings, placed so that the windows on facing walls were opposite each other at all three levels.
5
All the doors and doorways were rectangular and opposite each other at all three levels.
6
He made the columned hall eighty-seven-and-a-half feet long and fifty-two-and-a-half feet wide, with a columned, corniced porch in front of it.
7
He made the Hall of the Throne his place for dispensing justice, that is, the Hall of Judgment; it was covered with cedar from floor to ceiling.
8
His own living quarters, in the other courtyard, set back from the Hall, were similarly designed. He also made a house like this Hall for Pharaoh's daughter, whom Shlomo had taken as his wife.
9
All these buildings were made of expensive stone blocks, cut to measure and finished by saws on the inner surfaces as well as the outer ones. These stones were used from the foundation to the eaves and outward from the buildings all the way to the Great Courtyard.
10
The foundation was of expensive stone blocks, very large ones - stones fourteen to eighteen feet long.
11
Above these were costly stones, cut to measure, and cedar-wood.