2 Chronicles 3–5

3^*King David, Solomon’s father, had already prepared a place for the Temple. It was in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared to David, the place which Araunah the Jebusite had used as a threshing place. King Solomon began the construction ²in the second month of the fourth year that he was king. ³The Temple which King Solomon built was 27 metres long and 9 metres wide. ⁴The entrance room was the full width of the Temple, 9 metres, and was 54 metres high. The inside of the room was overlaid with pure gold. ⁵The main room was panelled with cedar and overlaid with fine gold, in which were worked designs of palm trees and chain patterns. ⁶The king decorated the Temple with beautiful precious stones and with gold imported from the land of Parvaim. ⁷He used the gold to overlay the temple walls, the rafters, the thresholds, and the doors. On the walls the workers carved designs of winged creatures.^{e 8*}The inner room, called the Most Holy Place, was 9 metres long and 9 metres wide, which was the full width of the Temple. Over 20 tonnes of gold were used to cover the walls of the Most Holy Place; ⁹570 grammes of gold were used for making nails, and the walls of the upper rooms were also covered with gold.

^10*The king also ordered his workers to make two winged creatures out of metal, cover them with gold, and place them in the Most Holy Place, ^11–13*where they stood side by side facing the entrance. Each had two wings, each wing 2.2 metres long, which were spread out so that they touched each other in the centre of the room and reached the wall on either side of the room, stretching across the full width of about 9 metres. ^14*A curtain for the Most Holy Place was made of linen and of other material, which was dyed blue, purple, and red, with designs of the winged creatures worked into it.

The Two Bronze Columns

¹⁵The king made two columns, each one 15.5 metres tall, and placed them in front of the Temple. Each one had a capital 2.2 metres tall. ¹⁶The tops of the columns were decorated with a design of interwoven chains and one hundred bronze pomegranates.^{f 17}The columns were set at the sides of the temple entrance: the one on the south side was named Jachin,^g and the one on the north side was named Boaz.^h

Equipment for the Temple

4^*King Solomon had a bronze altar made, which was 9 metres square and 4.5 metres high. ²He also made a round tank of bronze, 2.2 metres deep, 4.4 metres in diameter, and 13.2 metres in circumference. ³All round the outer edge of the rim of the tankⁱ were two rows of decorations, one above the other. The decorations were in the shape of bulls, which had been cast all in one piece with the rest of the tank. ⁴The tank rested on the backs of twelve bronze bulls that faced outwards, three facing in each direction. ⁵The sides of the tank were 75 millimetres thick. Its rim was like the rim of a cup, curving outwards like the petals of a flower. The tank held about 60,000 litres. ^6*They also made ten basins, five to be placed on the south side of the Temple and five on the north side. They were to be used to rinse the parts of the animals that were burnt as sacrifices. The water in the large tank was for the priests to use for washing.

^7–8*They made ten gold lamp-stands according to the usual pattern, and ten tables, and placed them in the main room of the Temple, five lamp-stands and five tables on each side. They also made a hundred gold bowls.

⁹They made an inner courtyard for the priests, and also an outer courtyard. The doors in the gates between the courtyards were covered with bronze. ¹⁰The tank was placed near the south-east corner of the Temple.

¹¹Huram also made pots, shovels, and bowls. He completed all the objects that he had promised King Solomon he would make for the Temple:

¹²The two columns;

The two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the columns;

The design of interwoven chains on each capital;

¹³The 400 bronze pomegranates arranged in two rows round the design of each capital;

¹⁴The ten^j carts;

The ten basins;

The tank;

¹⁵The twelve bulls supporting the tank;

¹⁶The pots, shovels, and forks.

Huram the master craftsman made all these objects^k out of polished bronze, as King Solomon had commanded, for use in the Temple of the Lord.

¹⁷The king had them all made in the foundry between Sukkoth and Zeredah^l in the Jordan Valley. ¹⁸So many objects were made that no one determined the total weight of the bronze used.

¹⁹King Solomon also had gold furnishings made for the Temple: the altar and the tables for the bread offered to God; ²⁰the lamp-stands and the lamps of fine gold that were to burn in front of the Most Holy Place, according to plan; ²¹the flower decorations, the lamps, and the tongs; ²²the lamp snuffers, the bowls, the dishes for incense, and the pans used for carrying live coals. All these objects were made of pure gold. The outer doors of the Temple and the doors to the Most Holy Place were overlaid with gold.

5^*When King Solomon finished all the work on the Temple, he placed in the temple storerooms all the things that his father David had dedicated to the Lord—the silver, gold, and other articles.

The Covenant Box Is Brought to the Temple

^2*Then King Solomon summoned all the leaders of the tribes and clans of Israel to assemble in Jerusalem, in order to take the Lord’s Covenant Box from Zion, David’s City,^m to the Temple. ³They all assembled at the time of the Festival of Shelters. ⁴When all the leaders had gathered, then the Levites lifted the Covenant Box ⁵and carried it to the Temple. The priests and the Levites also moved the Tent of the Lord’s presence and all its equipment to the Temple. ⁶King Solomon and all the people of Israel assembled in front of the Covenant Box and sacrificed a large number of sheep and cattle—too many to count. ⁷Then the priests carried the Covenant Box of the Lord into the Temple and put it in the Most Holy Place, beneath the winged creatures. ⁸Their outstretched wings covered the Box and the carrying poles. ⁹The ends of the poles could be seen by anyone standing directly in front of the Most Holy Place, but from nowhere else. (The poles are still there today.) ^10*There was nothing inside the Covenant Box except the two stone tablets which Moses had placed there at Mount Sinai, when the Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel as they were coming from Egypt.

The Glory of the Lord

¹¹All the priests present, regardless of the group to which they belonged, had consecrated themselves. ¹²And all the Levite musicians—Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, and the members of their clans—were wearing linen clothing. The Levites stood near the east side of the altar with cymbals and harps, and with them were 120 priests playing trumpets. ^13*The singers were accompanied in perfect harmony by trumpets, cymbals, and other instruments, as they praised the Lord, singing:

“Praise the Lord, because he is good,

And his love is eternal.”

As the priests were leaving the Temple, it was suddenly filled with a cloud shining with the dazzling light of the Lord’s presence, ^14*and they could not continue the service of worship.