2 Chronicles 2:3–18:1

³He sent also to Hiram king of Tyre, saying: As thou didst with David my father, and didst send him cedars, to build him a house, in which he dwelt:

⁴So do with me that I may build a house to the name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to burn incense before him, and to perfume with aromatical spices, and for the continual setting forth of bread, and for the holocausts, morning and evening, and on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and the solemnities of the Lord our God for ever, which are commanded for Israel.

⁵For the house which I desire to build, is great: for our God is great above all gods.

⁶Who then can be able to build him a worthy house? if heaven, and the heavens of heavens cannot contain him: who am I that I should be able to build him a house? but to this end only, that incense may be burnt before him.

⁷Send me therefore a skilful man, that knoweth how to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, and in iron, in purple, in scarlet and in blue, and that hath skill in engraving, with the artificers, which I have with me in Judea and Jerusalem, whom David my father provided.

⁸Send me also cedars, and fir trees, and pine trees from Libanus: for I know that thy servants are skilful in cutting timber in Libanus, and my servants shall be with thy servants,

⁹To provide me timber in abundance. For the house which I desire to build, is to be exceeding great, and glorious.

¹⁰And I will give thy servants the workmen that are to cut down the trees, for their food twenty thousand cores of wheat, and as many cores of barley, and twenty thousand measures of wine, and twenty thousand measures of oil.

¹¹And Hiram king of Tyre sent a letter to Solomon, saying: Because the Lord hath loved his people, therefore he hath made thee king over them.

¹²And he added, saying: Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who hath given to king David a wise and knowing son, endued with understanding and prudence, to build a house to the Lord, and a palace for himself.

¹³I therefore have sent thee my father Hiram, a wise and most skilful man,

¹⁴The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, whose father was a Tyrian, who knoweth how to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, and in iron, and in marble, and in timber, in purple also, and violet, and silk and scarlet: and who knoweth to grave all sort of graving, and to devise ingeniously all that there may be need of in the work with thy artificers, and with the artificers of my lord David thy father.

¹⁵The wheat therefore, and the barley and the oil, and the wine, which thou, my lord, hast promised, send to thy servants.

¹⁶And we will cut down as many trees out of Libanus, as thou shalt want, and will convey them in floats by sea to Joppe: and it will be thy part to bring them thence to Jerusalem.

¹⁷And Solomon numbered all the proselytes in the land of Israel, after the numbering which David his father had made, and they were found a hundred and fifty-three thousand and six hundred.

¹⁸And he set seventy thousand of them to carry burdens on their shoulders, and eighty thousand to hew stones in the mountains: and three thousand and six hundred to be overseers of the work of the people.

Chapter 3

And Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, in mount Moria, which had been shewn to David his father, in the place which David had prepared in the thrashingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

²And he began to build in the second month, in the fourth year of his reign.

³Now these are the foundations, which Solomon laid, to build the house of God, the length by the first measure sixty cubits, the breadth twenty cubits.

⁴And the porch in the front, which was extended in length according to the measure of the breadth of the house, twenty cubits: and the height was a hundred and twenty cubits: and he overlaid it within with pure gold.

⁵And the greater house he ceiled with deal boards, and overlaid them with plates of fine gold throughout: and he graved in them palm trees, and like little chains interlaced with one another.

⁶He paved also the floor of the temple with most precious marble, of great beauty.

⁷And the gold of the plates with which he overlaid the house, and the beams thereof, and the posts, and the walls, and the doors was of the finest: and he graved cherubims on the walls.

⁸He made also the house of the holy of holies: the length of it according to the breadth of the temple, twenty cubits, and the breadth of it in like manner twenty cubits: and he overlaid it with plates of gold, amounting to about six hundred talents.

⁹He made also nails of gold, and the weight of every nail was fifty sicles: the upper chambers also he overlaid with gold.

¹⁰He made also in the house of the holy of holies two cherubims of image work: and he overlaid them with gold.

¹¹The wings of the cherubims were extended twenty cubits, so that one wing was five cubits long, and reached to the wall of the house: and the other was also five cubits long, and reached to the wing of the other cherub.

¹²In like manner the wing of the other cherub, was five cubits long, and reached to the wall: and his other wing was five cubits long, and touched the wing of the other cherub.

¹³So the wings of the two cherubims were spread forth, and were extended twenty cubits: and they stood upright on their feet, and their faces were turned toward the house without.

¹⁴He made also a veil of violet, purple, scarlet, and silk: and wrought in it cherubims.

¹⁵He made also before the doors of the temple two pillars, which were five and thirty cubits high: and their chapiters were five cubits.

¹⁶He made also as it were little chains in the oracle, and he put them on the heads of the pillars: and a hundred pomegranates, which he put between the little chains.

¹⁷These pillars he put at the entrance of the temple, one on the right hand, and the other on the left: that which was on the right hand, he called Jachin: and that on the left hand, Booz.

Chapter 4

He made also an altar of brass twenty cubits long, and twenty cubits broad, and ten cubits high.

²Also a molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass: it was five cubits high, and a line of thirty cubits compassed it round about.

³And under it there was the likeness of oxen, and certain engravings on the outside of ten cubits compassed the belly of the sea, as it were with two rows.

⁴And the oxen were cast: and the sea itself was set upon the twelve oxen, three of which looked toward the north, and other three toward the west: and other three toward the south, and the other three that remained toward the east, and the sea stood upon them: and the hinder parts of the oxen were inward under the sea.

⁵Now the thickness of it was a handbreadth, and the brim of it was like the brim of a cup, or of a crisped lily: and it held three thousand measures.

⁶He made also ten lavers: and he set five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them all such things as they were to offer for holocausts: but the sea was for the priests to wash in.

⁷And he made ten golden candlesticks, according to the form which they were commanded to be made by: and he set them in the temple, five on the right hand, and five on the left.

⁸Moreover also ten tables: and he set them in the temple, five on the right side, and five on the left. Also a hundred bowls of gold.

⁹He made also the court of the priests, and a great hall, and doors in the hall, which he covered with brass.

¹⁰And he set the sea on the right side over against the east toward the south.

¹¹And Hiram made caldrons, and fleshhooks, and bowls: and finished all the king’s work the house of God:

¹²That is to say, the two pillars, and the pommels, and the chapiters, and the network, to cover the chapiters over the pommels.

¹³And four hundred pomegranates, and two wreaths of network, so that two rows of pomegranates were joined to each wreath, to cover the pommels, and the chapiters of the pillars.

¹⁴He made also bases, and lavers, which he set upon the bases:

¹⁵One sea, and twelve oxen under the sea;

¹⁶And the caldrons, and fleshhooks, and bowls. All the vessels did Hiram his father make for Solomon in the house of the Lord of the finest brass.

¹⁷In the country near the Jordan did the king cast them, in a clay ground between Sochot and Saredatha.

¹⁸And the multitude of vessels was innumerable, so that the weight of the brass was not known.

¹⁹And Solomon made all the vessels for the house of God, and the golden altar, and the tables, upon which were the loaves of proposition,

²⁰The candlesticks also of most pure gold with their lamps to give light before the oracle, according to the manner.

²¹And certain flowers, and lamps, and golden tongs: all were made of the finest gold.

²²The vessels also for the perfumes, and the censers, and the bowls, and the mortars, of pure gold. And he graved the doors of the inner temple, that is, for the holy of holies: and the doors of the temple without were of gold. And thus all the work was finished which Solomon made in the house of the Lord.

Chapter 5

Then Solomon brought in all those things that David his father had vowed, the silver, and the gold, and all the vessels he put among the treasures of the house of God.

²And after this he gathered together the ancients of Israel and all the princes of the tribes, and the heads of the families, of the children of Israel to Jerusalem, to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Sion.

³And all the men of Israel came to the king in the solemn day of the seventh month.

⁴And when all the ancients of Israel were come, the Levites took up the ark,

⁵And brought it in, together with all the furniture of the tabernacle. And the priests with the Levites carried the vessels of the sanctuary, which were in the tabernacle.

⁶And king Solomon and all the assembly of Israel and all that were gathered together before the ark, sacrificed rams, and oxen…