1 Kings 5; 1 Kings 6; 2 Chronicles 2; 2 Chronicles 3

1 Because King Hiram of Tyre was loyal to David throughout his rule, Hiram sent his servants to Solomon when he heard that Solomon had become king after his father.

2 Solomon sent the following message to Hiram:

3 "You know that my father David wasn't able to build a temple for the name of the LORD my God. This was because of the enemies that fought him on all sides until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet.

4 Now the LORD my God has given me peace on every side, without enemies or misfortune.

5 So I'm planning to build a temple for the name of the LORD my God, just as the LORD indicated to my father David, ‘I will give you a son to follow you on your throne. He will build the temple for my name.'

6 Now give the order and have the cedars of Lebanon cut down for me. My servants will work with your servants. I'll pay your servants whatever price you set, because you know we have no one here who is skilled in cutting wood like the Sidonians."

7 Hiram was thrilled when he heard Solomon's message. He said, "Today the LORD is blessed because he has given David a wise son who is in charge of this great people."

8 Hiram sent word back to Solomon: "I have heard your message to me. I will do as you wish with the cedar and pinewood.

9 My servants will bring the wood down the Lebanon Mountains to the sea. I'll make rafts out of them and float them on the sea to the place you specify. There I'll dismantle them, and you can carry them away. Now, as for what you must do for me in return, I ask you to provide for my royal house."

10 So Hiram gave Solomon all the cedar and pinewood that he wanted.

11 In return, Solomon gave an annual gift to Hiram of twenty thousand kors of wheat to eat, and twenty thousand kors of pure oil for his palace use.

12 Now the LORD made Solomon wise, just as he had promised. Solomon and Hiram made a covenant and had peace.

13 King Solomon called up a work gang of thirty thousand workers from all over Israel.

14 He sent ten thousand to work in Lebanon each month. Then they would spend two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the work gang.

15 Solomon had 70,000 laborers and 80,000 stonecutters in the highlands.

16 This doesn't include Solomon's 3,300 supervisors in charge of the work, who had oversight over the laborers.

17 At the king's command, they quarried huge stones of the finest quality in order to lay the temple's foundation with carefully cut stone.

18 The craftsmen of Solomon and Hiram, along with those of Byblos, prepared the timber and the stones for the construction of the temple.

1 In the four hundred eightieth year after the Israelites left Egypt, in the month of Ziv, the second month, in the fourth year of Solomon's rule over Israel, he built the LORD's temple.

2 The temple that King Solomon built for the LORD was ninety feet long, thirty feet wide, and forty-five feet high.

3 The porch in front of the temple's main hall was thirty feet long. It ran across the whole width of the temple and extended fifteen feet in front of the temple.

4 He made recessed and latticed windows for the temple

5 and built side rooms against the temple walls around both the main hall and the most holy place.

6 The lower walls were seven and a half feet wide. At the second floor the walls were nine feet wide, and at the third floor they were ten and a half feet wide. He made niches around the outside of the temple so the beams wouldn't be inserted into the temple walls.

7 When the temple was built, they did all the stonecutting at the quarry. No hammers, axes, or any iron tools were heard in the temple during its construction.

8 The door to the stairs was at the south side of the temple. Winding stairs went up to the second floor and from there to the third floor.

9 He completed the temple with a roof of cedar beams and cross-planks.

10 Then he built the side rooms all around the temple. They were seven and a half feet high. He attached them to the temple with cedarwood.

11 The LORD's word came to Solomon,

12 Regarding this temple that you are building: If you follow my laws, enact my regulations, and keep all my commands faithfully, then I will fulfill for you my promise that I made to your father David.

13 I will live among the Israelites. I won't abandon my people Israel.

14 So Solomon constructed the temple and completed it.

15 He built the walls within the temple with cedar planks, paneled from the floor to the ceiling. He overlaid the floor of the temple with pine planks.

16 At the back of the temple he built thirty feet of cedar panels from the floor to the ceiling. Solomon built the inner sanctuary, the most holy place.

17 In front of this, the main hall was sixty feet.

18 The cedar inside the temple was carved with gourds and blossoming flowers. The whole thing was cedar. No stone was seen.

19 He set up the inner sanctuary inside the temple so that he could put the chest containing the LORD's covenant there.

20 The inner sanctuary was thirty feet in length, width, and height. Solomon overlaid it with pure gold and covered the altar with cedar.

21 Solomon covered the temple's interior with pure gold. He placed gold chains in front of the inner sanctuary and covered it with gold.

22 He overlaid the whole temple inside with gold until the temple was completely covered. He covered the whole altar that was in the inner sanctuary with gold.

23 He made two winged creatures of olive wood for the inner sanctuary, each fifteen feet high.

24 The wings of the first winged creature were each seven and a half feet long. It was fifteen feet from the end of one wing to the end of the other.

25 The second winged creature also measured fifteen feet. Both winged creatures had identical measurements and form.

26 The height of both winged creatures was fifteen feet.

27 Solomon placed the winged creatures inside the temple. Their wings spread out so that the wing of the one touched one wall and the wing of the other touched the other wall. In the middle of the temple, the wings of the two winged creatures touched each other.

28 He covered the winged creatures with gold.

29 Solomon carved all the walls of the temple—inner and outer rooms—with engravings of winged creatures, palm trees, and blossoming flowers.

30 He also covered the floor of the temple with gold, in both the inner and the outer rooms.

31 He made the doors of the inner sanctuary from olive wood and carved the doorframes with five recesses.

32 He overlaid the two olive-wood doors with gold-plated carvings of winged creatures, palm trees, and blossoming flowers.

33 He made the door of the main hall with doorframes of olive wood with four recesses.

34 The two doors of pinewood each pivoted on a socket.

35 Solomon carved winged creatures, palm trees, and blossoming flowers, and covered them with gold.

36 He built the inner courtyard with three rows of cut stone followed by one row of trimmed cedar.

37 Solomon laid the foundation of the LORD's temple in the fourth year in the month of Ziv.

38 He finished the temple in all its details and measurements in the eleventh year during the eighth month, the month of Bul. He built it in seven years.

1 Solomon gave orders to build a temple for the LORD's name and to build a royal palace for himself.

2 To work in the highlands, Solomon drafted 70,000 laborers, 80,000 stonecutters, and 3,600 supervisors.

3 Solomon sent the following message to King Huram of Tyre: When my father David was building his palace, you sent him cedar logs.

4 Now as his son I am about to build a temple in the name of the LORD my God. I will dedicate it to him to burn fragrant incense before him, to set out the bread that is regularly displayed, and to offer entirely burned offerings every morning and evening, on the sabbaths, the first of every month, and the festivals of the LORD our God, as Israel has been commanded to do forever.

5 The temple I am about to build must be magnificent, because our God is greater than all other gods.

6 But who is able to build such a temple when even the highest heaven can't contain God? And who am I that I should build this temple for God, except as a place to burn incense in his presence?

7 So now send me a craftsman skilled in gold, silver, bronze, and iron, as well as in purple, crimson, and violet yarn—someone also experienced as an engraver. He will work with my craftsmen in Judah and Jerusalem who were provided by my father David.

8 Also send me cedar, cypress, and sandalwood logs from Lebanon. I know your servants know how to cut Lebanese timber, so my servants will work with your servants

9 to prepare plenty of timber for me, because the temple that I am about to build will be magnificent and amazing.

10 I will pay the woodcutters twenty thousand kors of crushed wheat, twenty thousand kors of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of olive oil.

11 Tyre's King Huram replied in a letter that he sent to Solomon: The LORD must love his people Israel because he has made you their king!

12 Bless the LORD, Israel's God, who made heaven and earth. He gave King David a wise son who possesses the knowledge and understanding to build a temple for the LORD and a royal palace for himself.

13 I'm sending you a skilled and experienced craftsman, Huram-abi,

14 whose mother is from the tribe of Dan and whose father is from Tyre. He's skilled in working with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, as well as purple, violet, and crimson yarn, and fine linen. He can do any kind of engraving and make any design given to him with the assistance of your craftsmen and the craftsmen of my master, your father David.

15 So once my master sends the wheat, barley, olive oil, and wine he has promised,

16 we will cut as much timber as you need from Lebanon and bring it by raft on the sea to you at Joppa, where you can take it up to Jerusalem.

17 Then Solomon counted all the immigrants in the land of Israel, as his father David had done, and the total was 153,600.

18 He made 70,000 of these immigrants laborers, 80,000 of them stonecutters in the highlands, and 3,600 of them supervisors to keep the people working.

1 Solomon began to build the LORD's temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, on the place David had prepared at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

2 He began building in the second month of the fourth year of his rule.

3 Solomon laid the foundations for these structures in order to build the temple of God. The length according to the old standard of measurement was ninety feet and the width thirty feet.

4 Across the front of the temple was a porch as long as the temple was and thirty feet wide, and thirty feet high. He covered the inside walls with pure gold.

5 He paneled the walls of the main room with pine, covered them with fine gold, and decorated them with palm trees and chains.

6 He studded the room with precious stones for beauty; the gold was from Parvaim.

7 He covered the room, its beams, doorframes, walls, and doors with gold, and carved images of winged creatures on the walls.

8 Then he made the most holy place. It was as long as the temple was wide, thirty feet long and thirty feet wide. He covered it with six hundred kikkars of fine gold.

9 The gold nails weighed fifty shekels. He also covered the upper rooms with gold.

10 In the most holy place he formed two statues of winged creatures and covered them with gold.

11 Together the wingspan of these creatures was thirty feet. One of the first creature's wings was seven and a half feet long and touched the temple wall, while the other wing was seven and a half feet long, touching the wing of the other creature.

12 Similarly, one wing of the other creature was seven and a half feet long and touched the temple wall, while the other wing was seven and a half feet long and touched the other creature.

13 The wings of these creatures extended thirty feet. They stood on their feet facing the main room.

14 Then he made the curtain out of fine linen and violet, purple, and crimson yarn, weaving winged creatures into it.

15 Then he made two columns in front of the temple, fifty-two and a half feet high, with a seven and a half foot cap on top of each.

16 Then he made chains like a necklace and placed them on the tops of the columns. He made a hundred pomegranates and placed them into the chains.

17 Then he set up the pillars in front of the sanctuary, one on the south, the other on the north. The one on the south he named Jachin, and the one on the north he named Boaz.