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

1 King Hiram of Tyre sent his officials to Solomon when he heard that Solomon had been anointed king to succeed his father. Hiram had always been David's friend.

2 Solomon sent word to Hiram, by saying,

3 "You know that my father David was surrounded by war. He couldn't build a temple for the name of the LORD our God until the LORD let him defeat his enemies.

4 But the LORD my God has surrounded me with peace. I have no rival and no trouble.

5 Now I'm thinking of building a temple for the name of the LORD my God as the LORD spoke to my father David: 'Your son, whom I will put on your throne to succeed you, will build a temple for my name.'

6 So order men to cut down cedars from Lebanon for me. My workers will work with your workers. I will pay you whatever wages you ask for your workers. You know we don't have any skilled lumberjacks like those from Sidon."

7 Hiram was very glad to hear what Solomon had said. Hiram responded, "May the LORD be praised today. He has given David a wise son to rule this great nation."

8 Hiram sent men to Solomon to say, "I've received the message you sent me. I will do everything you want in regard to the cedar and cypress logs.

9 My workers will bring logs from Lebanon to the sea, and I will have them make them into rafts to go by sea to any place you specify. There I will have them taken apart, and you can use them. You can pay me by providing food for my palace."

10 So Hiram gave Solomon all the cedar and cypress wood he wanted.

11 Solomon gave Hiram 120,000 bushels of wheat and 120,000 gallons of pure olive oil. Solomon paid Hiram this much every year.

12 The LORD gave Solomon wisdom as he had promised. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they made a treaty with one another.

13 King Solomon forced 30,000 men from all over Israel to work for him.

14 He sent a shift of 10,000 men to Lebanon for a month. They would spend one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of forced labor.

15 Solomon had 70,000 men who carried heavy loads, 70,000 who quarried stone in the mountains,

16 and 3,300 foremen who were in charge of the workers.

17 The king commanded them to quarry large, expensive blocks of stone in order to provide a foundation of cut stone for the temple.

18 Solomon's workmen, Hiram's workmen, and men from Gebal quarried the stone and prepared the logs and stone to build the temple.

1 Solomon began to build the LORD's temple 480 years after Israel left Egypt. He began building in the month of Ziv (the second month) of the fourth year of his reign over Israel.

2 The temple that King Solomon built for the LORD was 90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 45 feet high.

3 The entrance hall in front of the main room of the temple was the same length as the shorter side of the temple. It extended 15 feet in front of the temple.

4 He also made latticed windows for the temple.

5 He built an annex containing side rooms all around the temple. This annex was next to the walls of the main building and the inner sanctuary.

6 The [interior of] the lowest story of the annex was 7½ feet wide, the second story was 9 feet wide, and the third story was 10½ feet wide. Solomon made ledges all around the temple so that this annex would not be fastened to the walls of the temple.

7 The temple was built with stone blocks that were finished at the quarry. No hammer, chisel, or any other iron tool made a sound at the temple construction site.

8 The entrance to the first story was on the south side of the temple. A staircase went up to the middle story and then to the third story.

9 When he had finished building the walls, he roofed the temple with rows of cedar beams and planks.

10 He built [each story of the] annex 7½ feet high alongside the entire temple. Its cedar beams were attached to the temple.

11 The LORD spoke to Solomon, saying,

12 "This concerns the temple you are building: If you live by my laws, follow my rules, and keep my commands, I will fulfill the promise I made about you to your father David.

13 I will live among the Israelites and never abandon my people."

14 When Solomon had finished building the temple's [frame],

15 he began to line the inside walls of the temple with cedar boards. He paneled the inside of the temple with wood from floor to ceiling. He covered the floor of the temple with cypress planks.

16 He sectioned off a 30-foot-long room at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from the floor to the rafters. He built it to serve as an inner room, the most holy place.

17 The 60-foot-long room at the front of the temple served as the main hall.

18 Gourds and flowers were carved into the cedar paneling inside the temple. Everything was [covered with] cedar. No stone could be seen.

19 He prepared the inner room of the temple in order to put the ark of the LORD's promise there.

20 The inner room was 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 30 feet high. Solomon covered it and the cedar altar with pure gold.

21 He covered the inside of the temple with pure gold. He put golden chains across the front of the inner room which was covered with gold.

22 He covered the entire inside of the temple with gold. He also covered the entire altar in the inner room with gold.

23 In the inner room he made two 15-foot-tall angels out of olive wood.

24 Each wing of the angels was 7½ feet long. The distance from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other was 15 feet.

25 Both angels had a 15-foot [wingspan]. Both had the same measurements and the same shape.

26 Each was 15 feet high.

27 Solomon put the angels in the inner room of the temple. The wings of the angels extended so that the wing of one of the angels touched the one wall, and the wing of the other touched the other wall. Their remaining wings touched each other in the center of the room.

28 He covered the angels with gold.

29 He carved angels, palm trees, and flowers into the walls all around the inner and outer rooms of the temple.

30 He covered the floor of the inner and outer rooms of the temple with gold.

31 He made doors for the entrance to the inner room out of olive wood. The doorposts had five sides.

32 The two doors were [made out of] olive wood. He carved angels, palm trees, and flowers into them and covered them with gold. The gold was hammered onto the angels and the palm trees.

33 In the same way he made square doorposts out of olive wood for the temple's entrance.

34 He made two doors from cypress. Each of the doors had two folding panels.

35 On them he carved angels, palm trees, and flowers. He evenly covered them with gold.

36 He built the inner courtyard with three courses of finished stones and a course of finished cedar beams.

37 In the month of Ziv of the fourth year of Solomon's reign, the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid.

38 In the month of Bul (the eighth month) of the eleventh year [of his reign], the temple was finished according to all its plans and specifications. He spent seven years building it.

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

2 Solomon drafted 70,000 men to carry heavy loads, 80,000 to quarry stones in the mountains, and 3,600 foremen.

3 Solomon sent word to King Huram of Tyre by saying, "Do what you did for my father David. You sent him cedar so that he could build a palace to live in.

4 I want to build the temple for the name of the LORD my God. I want to dedicate it to him, burn sweet-smelling incense in his presence, and have rows of bread there continually. I want to [sacrifice] burnt offerings every morning and evening, on weekly worship days, New Moon Festivals, and during the annual festivals appointed by the LORD our God. ([These festivals] are always to be celebrated by Israel.)

5 The temple I am building will be great because our God is greater than all other gods.

6 But who is able to build him a temple when heaven itself, the highest heaven, cannot hold him? Who am I to build him a temple except as a place to sacrifice in his presence?

7 "Send me a man who has the skill to work with gold, silver, bronze, and iron as well as purple, dark red, and violet cloth. He should know how to make engravings with the skilled men whom my father David provided for me in Judah and Jerusalem.

8 Send me cedar, cypress, and sandalwood from Lebanon. I know that your servants are skilled Lebanese lumberjacks. My workers will work with your workers.

9 They'll prepare plenty of lumber for me, because the temple I want to build will be large and astonishing.

10 I will give your lumberjacks 120,000 bushels of ground wheat, 120,000 bushels of barley, 200,000 gallons of wine, and 200,000 gallons of olive oil."

11 Then King Huram of Tyre responded to Solomon by sending a letter that said, "Because the LORD loves his people, he made you their king."

12 Huram added, "May the LORD God of Israel be praised. He made the heavens and the earth and has given King David a wise son who has insight and intelligence and can build the LORD's temple and a royal palace.

13 And now, I'm sending a man with skill and intelligence--Huram Abi.

14 He was the son of a woman from the tribe of Dan, and his father is a native of Tyre. Huram knows how to work with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, wood, purple, violet, and dark red cloth, and linen. He also knows how to make all kinds of engravings and follow any set of plans that will be given to him. [He can work] with your skilled workmen and the skilled workmen of His Majesty David, your father.

15 Your Majesty may now send the wheat, barley, olive oil, and wine he promised the workers.

16 We will cut all the lumber you need in Lebanon. Then we will make rafts out of it and send them to you in Joppa by sea. You can take it [from there] to Jerusalem."

17 Solomon counted all the men who were foreigners in the land of Israel, as his father David had counted them. Solomon counted 153,600 foreigners.

18 He made 70,000 of them carry heavy loads, 80,000 of them quarry stone in the mountains, and 3,600 of them supervise the work as foremen.

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

2 He began to build on the second day in the second month of the fourth year of his reign.

3 This is how Solomon laid the foundation to build God's temple. It was 90 feet long and 30 feet wide. (They used the old standard measurement.)

4 The entrance hall in front of [the main room] was 30 feet wide (the same as the width of the temple) and 30 feet high. He covered its inside walls with pure gold.

5 He paneled the larger building with cypress, overlaid it with fine gold, and decorated it with [designs in the form of] palm trees and chains.

6 He covered the building with gems to beautify it and used gold from Parvaim.

7 He also overlaid the building, the rafters, the threshold, the walls, and the doors with gold, and he carved angels into the walls.

8 He made the most holy place. It was as long as the temple was wide, 30 feet long. It was also 30 feet wide. He overlaid it with 45,000 pounds of fine gold.

9 The gold nails weighed 20 ounces. He also overlaid the upper rooms with gold.

10 In the most holy place he made two sculptured angels and covered them with gold.

11 The combined length of the angels' wings was 30 feet. A wing of one of the angels was 7½ feet long and touched the wall of the building. Its other wing was 7½ feet long and touched one wing of the other.

12 The wing of the other one of the angels was 7½ feet long and touched the other wall of the building. Its other wing was 7½ feet long and touched the wing of the first. So the angels' combined wingspan was 30 feet.

13 They stood on their feet and faced the main hall.

14 Solomon made the canopy of violet, purple, and dark red cloth and of linen and decorated it with angels.

15 He made two pillars for the front of the temple. They were 53 feet long, and the capital on each pillar was 7½ feet [high].

16 He made chains for the inner room and [also] put them on the capitals. He made 100 pomegranates and put them on the chains.

17 He set up the pillars in front of the temple, one on the right and the other on the left. He named the one on the right Jachin [He Establishes] and the one on the left Boaz [In Him Is Strength].