1 Kings 4; 1 Kings 6

1 Kings 4

1 King Solomon was king over all Israel.

2 These were the princes whom he had: Azariah the son of Zadok, the priest;

3 Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, scribes; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, the recorder;

4 and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the host; and Zadok and Abiathar were priests;

5 and Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers; and Zabud the son of Nathan was chief minister, [and] the king's friend;

6 and Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the men subject to forced labor.

7 Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided victuals for the king and his household: each man had to make provision for a month in the year.

8 These are their names: Ben-hur, in the hill-country of Ephraim;

9 Ben-deker, in Makaz, and in Shaalbim, and Beth-shemesh, and Elon-beth-hanan;

10 Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (to him [pertained] Socoh, and all the land of Hepher);

11 Ben-abinadab, in all the height of Dor (he had Taphath the daughter of Solomon as wife);

12 Baana the son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean which is beside Zarethan, beneath Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as beyond Jokmeam;

13 Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead (to him [pertained] the towns of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead; [even] to him [pertained] the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and brazen bars);

14 Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim;

15 Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he also took Basemath the daughter of Solomon as wife);

16 Baana the son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth;

17 Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar;

18 Shimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin;

19 Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan; and [he was] the only officer who was in the land.

20 Judah and Israel were many as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry.

21 Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt: they brought tribute, and served Solomon all the days of his life.

22 Solomon's provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour, and sixty measures of meal,

23 ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and one hundred sheep, besides harts, and gazelles, and roebucks, and fattened fowl.

24 For he had dominion over all [the region] on this side the River, from Tiphsah even to Gaza, over all the kings on this side the River: and he had peace on all sides round about him.

25 Judah and Israel lived safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.

26 Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.

27 Those officers provided victuals for king Solomon, and for all who came to king Solomon's table, every man in his month; they let nothing be lacking.

28 Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds brought they to the place where [the officers] were, every man according to his charge.

29 God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and very great understanding, even as the sand that is on the sea-shore.

30 Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt.

31 For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: and his fame was in all the nations round about.

32 He spoke three thousand proverbs; and his songs were one thousand five.

33 He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of animals, and of birds, and of creeping things, and of fish.

34 There came of all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.

1 Kings 6

1 It happened in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of Yahweh.

2 The house which king Solomon built for Yahweh, the length of it was sixty cubits, and the breadth of it twenty [cubits], and the height of it thirty cubits.

3 The porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length of it, according to the breadth of the house; [and] ten cubits was the breadth of it before the house.

4 For the house he made windows of fixed lattice-work.

5 Against the wall of the house he built stories round about, against the walls of the house round about, both of the temple and of the oracle; and he made side-chambers round about.

6 The nethermost story was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad; for on the outside he made offsets [in the wall] of the house round about, that [the beams] should not have hold in the walls of the house.

7 The house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready at the quarry; and there was neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.

8 The door for the middle side- chambers was in the right side of the house: and they went up by winding stairs into the middle [story], and out of the middle into the third.

9 So he built the house, and finished it; and he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar.

10 He built the stories against all the house, each five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.

11 The word of Yahweh came to Solomon, saying,

12 Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in my statutes, and execute my ordinances, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then will I establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father.

13 I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.

14 So Solomon built the house, and finished it.

15 He built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar: from the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood; and he covered the floor of the house with boards of fir.

16 He built twenty cubits on the hinder part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the walls [of the ceiling]: he built [them] for it within, for an oracle, even for the most holy place.

17 The house, that is, the temple before [the oracle], was forty cubits [long].

18 There was cedar on the house within, carved with buds and open flowers: all was cedar; there was no stone seen.

19 He prepared an oracle in the midst of the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of Yahweh.

20 Within the oracle was [a space of] twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height of it; and he overlaid it with pure gold: and he covered the altar with cedar.

21 So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold: and he drew chains of gold across before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold.

22 The whole house he overlaid with gold, until all the house was finished: also the whole altar that belonged to the oracle he overlaid with gold.

23 In the oracle he made two cherubim of olive-wood, each ten cubits high.

24 Five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub: from the uttermost part of the one wing to the uttermost part of the other were ten cubits.

25 The other cherub was ten cubits: both the cherubim were of one measure and one form.

26 The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was it of the other cherub.

27 He set the cherubim within the inner house; and the wings of the cherubim were stretched forth, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house.

28 He overlaid the cherubim with gold.

29 He carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, inside and outside.

30 The floor of the house he overlaid with gold, inside and outside.

31 For the entrance of the oracle he made doors of olive-wood: the lintel [and] door-posts were a fifth part [of the wall].

32 So [he made] two doors of olive-wood; and he carved on them carvings of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold; and he spread the gold on the cherubim, and on the palm trees.

33 So also made he for the entrance of the temple door-posts of olive-wood, out of a fourth part [of the wall];

34 and two doors of fir-wood: the two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding.

35 He carved [thereon] cherubim and palm trees and open flowers; and he overlaid them with gold fitted on the engraved work.

36 He built the inner court with three courses of hewn stone, and a course of cedar beams.

37 In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of Yahweh laid, in the month Ziv.

38 In the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts of it, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it.