1 Kings 7–8

Chapter 7

¹And Solomon was thirteen years building his own house; and he finished all his house. ²And he built the house of the forest of Lebanon; its length was a hundred cubits, and its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar-pillars, with cedar-beams upon the pillars; ³and it was covered with cedar above upon the side-chambers, which were on forty-five pillars, fifteen in a row. ⁴And there were cross-beams in three rows, and window was against window in three ranks. ⁵And all the doors and posts were square, with an architrave; and window was against window in three ranks. ⁶And he made the porch of pillars; its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth thirty cubits; and there was a porch in front of them; and there were pillars, and steps in front of them. ⁷And he made the porch for the throne where he judged, the porch of judgment; and it was covered with cedar from floor to floor. ⁸And his house where he dwelt had another court within the porch, which was of the like work. And he made, like to this porch, a house for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom Solomon had taken. ⁹All these buildings were of costly stones, hewn stones, according to the measures, sawed with saws, within and without, even from the foundation to the coping, and on the outside as far as the great court. ¹⁰And the foundations were of costly stones, great stones, stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits. ¹¹And above were costly stones, hewn stones, according to the measures, and cedar. ¹²And the great court round about had three rows of hewn stones, and a row of cedar-beams; and so it was for the inner court of the house of Jehovah, and the porch of the house.

¹³And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. ¹⁴He was a widow’s son of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass; and he was full of wisdom and understanding and knowledge, to do all kinds of works in brass. And he came to king Solomon, and made all his work. ¹⁵And he formed the two pillars of brass; the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a line of twelve cubits encompassed the second pillar. ¹⁶And he made two capitals of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars; the height of the one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other capital was five cubits; ¹⁷and nets of checker-work, wreaths of chain-work, for the capitals which were upon the top of the pillars; seven for the one capital and seven for the other capital. ¹⁸And he made pomegranates, namely two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the capitals that were upon the top of the pillars; and so he did for the other capital. ¹⁹And the capitals that were upon the top of the pillars were of lily-work as in the porch, four cubits. ²⁰And the capitals upon the two pillars, above also, close to the enlargement which was behind the network, had two hundred pomegranates in rows round about, also on the other capital. ²¹And he set up the pillars for the porch of the temple; and he set up the right pillar, and called its name Jachin; and he set up the left pillar, and called its name Boaz. ²²And upon the top of the pillars was lily-work; and the work of the pillars was finished. ²³And he made the sea, molten, ten cubits from brim to brim, round all about; and its height was five cubits; and a line of thirty cubits encompassed it round about. ²⁴And under the brim of it round about there were colocynths, encompassing it, ten in a cubit enclosing the sea round about; two rows of colocynths, cast when it was cast. ²⁵It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east; and the sea was above upon them, and all their hinder parts were inward. ²⁶And its thickness was a hand-breadth, and its brim was like the work of the brim of a cup, with lily-blossoms; it held two thousand baths. ²⁷And he made ten bases of brass: four cubits was the length of one base, and the breadth four cubits, and the height three cubits. ²⁸And the work of the bases was this: they had panels, and the panels were between the fillets. ²⁹And on the panels that were between the fillets were lions, oxen and cherubim; and over the fillets there was a base above; and beneath the lions and oxen were garlands of festoon-work. ³⁰And every base had four wheels of brass, and axles of brass; and on its four corners were shoulder-pieces: under the laver were shoulder-pieces molten, behind every garland. ³¹And the mouth of it within the crown and above was a cubit; and its mouth was rounded, as the work of the base, a cubit and a half; and also upon its mouth was sculpture; but their panels were square, not round. ³²And the four wheels were under the panels; and the supports of the wheels were in the base; and the height of a wheel was a cubit and half a cubit. ³³And the work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel: their supports, and their rims, and their spokes and their naves were all molten. ³⁴And there were four shoulder-pieces to the four corners of one base; of the base itself were its shoulder-pieces. ³⁵And in the top of the base there was a circular elevation of half a cubit round about; and on the top of the base its stays and its panels were of the same. ³⁶And he engraved on the plates of its stays and on its panels cherubim, lions and palm-trees, according to the space upon each; and garlands were round about. ³⁷After this manner he made the ten bases: all of them had one casting, one measure, one form. ³⁸And he made ten lavers of brass: one laver contained forty baths; every laver was four cubits; upon every one of the ten bases one laver. ³⁹And he put the bases, five on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house; and he set the sea on the right side of the house eastward, over against the south. ⁴⁰And Hiram made the lavers, and the shovels, and the bowls. So Hiram ended doing all the work that he made for king Solomon for the house of Jehovah: ⁴¹two pillars, and the globes of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars, two; and the two networks, to cover the two globes of the capitals which were on the top of the pillars; ⁴²and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for one network, to cover the two globes of the capitals which were upon the pillars; ⁴³and the ten bases, and the ten lavers on the bases; ⁴⁴and one sea, and the twelve oxen under the sea; ⁴⁵and the pots, and the shovels, and the bowls. And all these things, which Hiram made king Solomon for the house of Jehovah, were of bright brass. ⁴⁶In the plain of the Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay-ground between Succoth and Zaretan. ⁴⁷And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed from their exceeding number; the weight of the brass was not ascertained.

⁴⁸And Solomon made all the vessels that were in the house of Jehovah: the golden altar; and the table of gold, whereon was the shewbread; ⁴⁹and the candlesticks of pure gold, five on the right, and five on the left, before the oracle; and the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs of gold, ⁵⁰and the basons, and the knives, and the bowls, and the cups, and the censers of pure gold; and the hinges of gold, for the folding-doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, of the temple. ⁵¹And all the work was finished that king Solomon made for the house of Jehovah. And Solomon brought in the things that David his father had dedicated; the silver and the gold and the vessels he put among the treasures of the house of Jehovah.

Chapter 8

¹Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the princes of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto king Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of Jehovah out of the city of David, which is Zion. ²And all the men of Israel assembled themselves to king Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, that is, the seventh month. ³And all the elders of Israel came; and the priests took up the ark. ⁴And they brought up the ark of Jehovah, and the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent: the priests and the Levites brought them up. ⁵And king Solomon, and all the assembly of Israel that were assembled to him, who were with him before the ark, sacrificed sheep and oxen, which could not be counted nor numbered for multitude. ⁶And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of Jehovah to its place, into the oracle of the house, into the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim; ⁷for the cherubim stretched forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its staves above. ⁸And the staves were long, so that the ends of the staves were seen from the holy place before the oracle, but they were not seen without. And there they are to this day. ⁹There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone which Moses placed there at Horeb, when Jehovah made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt. ¹⁰And it came to pass when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of Jehovah, ¹¹and the priests could not stand to do their service because of the cloud; for the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of Jehovah.

¹²Then said Solomon: Jehovah said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. ¹³I have indeed built a house of habitation for thee, a settled place for thee to abide in for ever. ¹⁴And the king turned his face, and blessed the whole congregation of Israel; and the whole congregation of Israel stood. ¹⁵And he said: Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth unto David my father, and hath with his hand fulfilled it, saying, ¹⁶Since the day that I brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a…