2 Chronicles 3

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