^4:1He made a bronze altar, 30 feet¹ long, 30 feet² wide, and 15 feet³ high. ^4:2He also made the big bronze basin called “The Sea.”⁴ It measured 15 feet⁵ from rim to rim, was circular in shape, and stood seven and one-half feet⁶ high. Its circumference was 45 feet.⁷^4:3Images of bulls were under it all the way around, ten every eighteen inches⁸ all the way around. The bulls were in two rows and had been cast with “The Sea.” ^4:4“The Sea” stood on top of twelve bulls. Three faced northward, three westward, three southward, and three eastward. “The Sea” was placed on top of them, and they all faced outward.⁹^4:5It was four fingers thick and its rim was like that of a cup shaped like a lily blossom. It could hold 18,000 gallons.¹⁰^4:6He made ten washing basins; he put five on the south side and five on the north side. In them they rinsed the items used for burnt sacrifices; the priests washed in “The Sea.”

^4:7He made ten gold lampstands according to specifications and put them in the temple, five on the right and five on the left. ^4:8He made ten tables and set them in the temple, five on the right and five on the left. He also made one hundred gold bowls. ^4:9He made the courtyard of the priests and the large enclosure and its doors;¹¹ he plated their doors with bronze. ^4:10He put “The Sea” on the south side, in the southeast corner.

^4:11Huram Abi¹² made the pots, shovels, and bowls. He finished all the work on God’s temple he had been assigned by King Solomon.¹³^4:12He made¹⁴ the two pillars, the two bowl-shaped tops of the pillars, the latticework for the bowl-shaped tops of the two pillars, ^4:13the four hundred pomegranate-shaped ornaments for the latticework of the two pillars (each latticework had two rows of these ornaments at the bowl-shaped top of the pillar), ^4:14the ten¹⁵ movable stands with their ten¹⁶ basins, ^4:15the big bronze basin called “The Sea” with its twelve bulls underneath, ^4:16and the pots, shovels, and meat forks.¹⁷ All the items King Solomon assigned Huram Abi to make for the Lord’s temple¹⁸ were made from polished bronze. ^4:17The king had them cast in earthen foundries¹⁹ in the region of the Jordan between Succoth and Zarethan. ^4:18Solomon made so many of these items they did not weigh the bronze.²⁰

^4:19Solomon also made these items for God’s temple: the gold altar, the tables on which the Bread of the Presence²¹ was kept, ^4:20the pure gold lampstands and their lamps which burned as specified at the entrance to the inner sanctuary, ^4:21the pure gold flower-shaped ornaments, lamps, and tongs, ^4:22the pure gold trimming shears, basins, pans, and censers, and the gold door sockets for the inner sanctuary (the most holy place) and for the doors of the main hall of the temple. ^5:1When Solomon had finished constructing the Lord’s temple, he put the holy items that belonged to his father David (the silver, gold, and all the other articles) in the treasuries of God’s temple.

Solomon Moves the Ark into the Temple

^5:2Then Solomon convened Israel’s elders—all the leaders of the Israelite tribes and families—in Jerusalem,¹ so they could witness the transferal of the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the City of David² (that is, Zion).³^5:3All the men of Israel assembled before the king during the festival⁴ in the seventh month.⁵^5:4When all Israel’s elders had arrived, the Levites lifted the ark. ^5:5The priests and Levites carried the ark, the tent where God appeared to his people,⁶ and all the holy items in the tent.⁷^5:6Now King Solomon and all the Israelites who had assembled with him went on ahead of the ark and sacrificed more sheep and cattle than could be counted or numbered.⁸

^5:7The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its assigned⁹ place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, in the most holy place under the wings of the cherubs. ^5:8The cherubs’ wings extended over the place where the ark sat; the cherubs overshadowed the ark and its poles.¹⁰^5:9The poles were so long their ends extending out from the ark were visible from in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from beyond that point.¹¹ They have remained there to this very day. ^5:10There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets Moses had placed there in Horeb.¹² (It was there that¹³ the Lord made an agreement with the Israelites after he brought them out of the land of Egypt.)

^5:11The priests left the holy place.¹⁴ All the priests who participated had consecrated themselves, no matter which division they represented.¹⁵^5:12All the Levites who were musicians, including Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and relatives, wore linen. They played cymbals and stringed instruments as they stood east of the altar. They were accompanied by 120 priests who blew trumpets. ^5:13The trumpeters and musicians played together, praising and giving thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and other instruments, they loudly praised the Lord, singing:¹⁶ “Certainly he is good; certainly his loyal love endures!” Then a cloud filled the Lord’s temple.¹⁷^5:14The priests could not carry out their duties¹⁸ because of the cloud; the Lord’s splendor filled God’s temple.

^6:1Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he lives in thick darkness. ^6:2O Lord,¹ I have built a lofty temple for you, a place where you can live permanently.” ^6:3Then the king turned around² and pronounced a blessing over the whole Israelite assembly as they stood there.³^6:4He said, “The Lord God of Israel is worthy of praise because he has fulfilled⁴ what he promised⁵ my father David. ^6:5He told David,⁶ ‘Since the day I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from all the tribes of Israel to build a temple in which to live.⁷ Nor did I choose a man as leader of my people Israel. ^6:6But now I have chosen Jerusalem as a place to live,⁸ and I have chosen David to lead my people Israel.’ ^6:7Now my father David had a strong desire to build a temple to honor the Lord God of Israel.⁹^6:8The Lord told my father David, ‘It is right for you to have a strong desire to build a temple to honor me.¹⁰^6:9But you will not build the temple; your very own son will build the temple for my honor.’¹¹^6:10The Lord has kept the promise he made. I have taken my father David’s place and have occupied the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised. I have built this temple for the honor of the Lord God of Israel ^6:11and set up in it a place for the ark containing the covenant the Lord made with the Israelites.”

^6:12He stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the entire assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. ^6:13Solomon had made a bronze platform and had placed it in the middle of the enclosure. It was seven and one-half feet¹² long, seven and one-half feet¹³ wide, and four and one-half feet¹⁴ high. He stood on it and then got down on his knees in front of the entire assembly of Israel. He spread out his hands toward the sky, ^6:14and prayed:¹⁵ “O Lord God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven or on earth! You maintain covenantal loyalty¹⁶ to your servants who obey you with sincerity.¹⁷^6:15You have kept your word to your servant, my father David;¹⁸ this very day you have fulfilled what you promised.¹⁹^6:16Now, O Lord God of Israel, keep the promise you made to your servant, my father David, when you said, ‘You will never fail to have a successor ruling before me on the throne of Israel,²⁰ provided that your descendants watch their step and obey my law as you have done.’²¹^6:17Now, O Lord God of Israel, may the promise you made to your servant David be realized.²²

^6:18“God does not really live with humankind on the earth!²³ Look, if the sky and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this temple I have built! ^6:19But respond favorably to²⁴ your servant’s prayer and his request for help, O Lord my God. Answer²⁵ the desperate prayer²⁶ your servant is presenting to you.²⁷^6:20Night and day may you watch over this temple, the place where you promised you would live.²⁸ May you answer your servant’s prayer for this place.²⁹^6:21Respond to the requests of your servant and your people Israel for this place.³⁰ Hear from your heavenly dwelling place and respond favorably and forgive.³¹

^6:22“When someone is accused of sinning against his neighbor and the latter pronounces a curse on the alleged offender before your altar in this temple,³²^6:23listen from heaven and make a just decision about your servants’ claims. Condemn the guilty party, declare the other innocent, and give both of them what they deserve.³³

^6:24“If your people Israel are defeated by an enemy³⁴ because they sinned against you, then if they come back to you, renew their allegiance to you,³⁵ and pray for your help³⁶ before you in this temple, ^6:25then listen from heaven, forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land you gave to them and their ancestors.³⁷

^6:26“The time will come when³⁸ the skies³⁹ are shut up tightly and no rain falls because your people⁴⁰ sinned against you. When they direct their prayers toward this place, renew their allegiance to you,⁴¹ and turn away from their sin because you punish⁴² them, ^6:27then listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Certainly⁴³ you will then teach them the right way to live⁴⁴ and send rain on your land that you have given your people to possess.⁴⁵

^6:28“The time will come when the land suffers from a famine, a plague, blight, and disease, or a locust⁴⁶ invasion, or when their enemy lays siege to the cities of the land,⁴⁷ or when some other type of plague or epidemic occurs. ^6:29When all your people Israel pray and ask for help,⁴⁸ as they acknowledge their intense pain⁴⁹ and spread out their hands toward this temple, ^6:30then listen from your heavenly dwelling place, forgive their sin,⁵⁰ and act favorably toward each one based on your evaluation of their motives.⁵¹ (Indeed you are the only one who can…

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Footnotes

1 Heb “twenty cubits.” Assuming a cubit of 18 inches (45 cm), the length would have been 30 feet (9 m).
2 Heb “twenty cubits.”
3 Heb “ten cubits.” Assuming a cubit of 18 inches (45 cm), the height would have been 15 feet (4.5 m).
4 Heb “He made the sea, cast.” The large bronze basin known as “The Sea” was mounted on twelve bronze bulls and contained water for the priests to bathe themselves (see v. 6; cf. Exod 30:17–21).
5 Heb “ten cubits.” Assuming a cubit of 18 inches (45 cm), the diameter would have been 15 feet (4.5 m).
6 Heb “five cubits.” Assuming a cubit of 18 inches (45 cm), the height would have been 7.5 feet (2.25 m).
7 Heb “and a measuring line went around it thirty cubits all around.”
8 Heb “ten every cubit.”
9 Heb “all their hindquarters were toward the inside.”
10 Heb “3,000 baths” (note that the capacity is given in 1 Kings 7:26 as “2,000 baths”). A bath was a liquid measure roughly equivalent to six gallons (about 22 liters), so 3,000 baths was a quantity of about 18,000 gallons (66,000 liters).
11 Heb “and the doors for the enclosure.”
12 Heb “Huram,” but here this refers to Huram Abi (2 Chr 2:13). The complete name has been used in the translation to avoid possible confusion with King Huram of Tyre.
13 Heb “Huram finished doing all the work which he did for King Solomon [on] the house of God.”
14 The words “he made” are added for stylistic reasons.
15 The Hebrew text has עָשָׂה (’asah, “he made”), which is probably a corruption of עֶשֶׂר (’eser, “ten”; see 1 Kgs 7:43).
16 The Hebrew text has עָשָׂה (’asah, “he made”), which is probably a corruption of עֲשָׂרָה (’asarah, “ten”; see 1 Kgs 7:43).
17 Some prefer to read here “bowls,” see v. 11 and 1 Kgs 7:45.
18 Heb “Huram Abi made for King Solomon [for] the house of the Lord.”
19 Or perhaps, “molds.”
20 Heb “Solomon made all these items in great abundance; the weight of the bronze was not sought.”
21 Heb “the bread of the face/presence.” This bread offered to God was viewed as a perpetual offering to God. See Lev 24:5–9.
1 For location see ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; .
2 The phrase the City of David refers here to the fortress of Zion in Jerusalem, not to Bethlehem. See 2 Sam 5:7.
3 Heb “Then Solomon convened the elders of Israel, the heads of the tribes, the chiefs of the fathers belonging to the sons of Israel to Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the City of David (it is Zion).”
4 This festival in the seventh month was the Feast of Tabernacles, see Lev 23:34.
5 The seventh month would be September–October in modern reckoning.
6 Heb “the tent of assembly.” See Exod 33:7–11.
7 Heb “and they carried the ark of the Lord.… The priests and the Levites carried them.”
8 Heb “And King Solomon and all the assembly of Israel, those who had been gathered to him, [were] before the ark, sacrificing sheep and cattle which could not be counted or numbered because of the abundance.”
9 The word “assigned” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
10 These poles were used to carry the ark. The Levites were to carry it with the poles on their shoulders. See Exod 25:13–15; 1 Chr 15:15.
11 Heb “they could not be seen outside.”
12 Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai (cf. Exod 3:1).
13 Heb “in Horeb where.”
14 Heb “and when the priests went from the holy place.” The syntactical relationship of this temporal clause to the following context is unclear. Perhaps the thought is completed in v. 14 after a lengthy digression.
15 Heb “Indeed [or “for”] all the priests who were found consecrated themselves without guarding divisions.”
16 Heb “like one were the trumpeters and the musicians, causing one voice to be heard, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, and while raising a voice with trumpets and with cymbals and with instruments of music, and while praising the Lord.”
17 Heb “and the house was filled with a cloud, the house of the Lord.”
18 Heb “were not able to stand to serve.”
1 The words “O Lord” do not appear in the Hebrew text, but they are supplied in the translation for clarification; Solomon addresses the Lord in prayer at this point.
2 Heb “turned his face.”
3 Heb “and he blessed all the assembly of Israel, and all the assembly of Israel was standing.”
4 The Hebrew text reads, “fulfilled by his hand,” but the phrase “by his hand” is somewhat redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.
5 The Hebrew text reads, “promised by his mouth,” but the phrase “by his mouth” is somewhat redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.
6 Heb “saying.”
7 Heb “to build a house for my name to be there.” Here “name” is used by metonymy for the Lord himself, and thus the expression “to be there” refers to his taking up residence there (hence the translation, “a temple in which to live”). In this case the temple is referred to as a “house” where the Lord himself can reside.
8 Heb for my name to be there.” See also the note on the word “live” in v. .
9 Heb “and it was with the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel.” On the significance of the Lord’s “name,” see the note on the word “live” in v. .
10 Heb “Because it was with your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was with your heart.”
11 Heb “your son, the one who came out of your body, he will build the temple for my name.”
12 Heb “five cubits.” Assuming a cubit of 18 inches (45 cm), the length would have been 7.5 feet (2.25 m).
13 Heb “five cubits.”
14 Heb “three cubits.” Assuming a cubit of 18 inches (45 cm), the height would have been 4.5 feet (1.35 m).
15 Heb “said.”
16 Heb “one who keeps the covenant and the loyal love.”
17 Heb “who walk before you with all their heart.”
18 Heb “[you] who kept to your servant David my father that which you spoke to him.”
19 Heb “you spoke by your mouth and by your hand you fulfilled, as this day.”
20 Heb “there will not be cut off from you a man from before me sitting on the throne of Israel.”
21 Heb “guard their way by walking in my law as you have walked before me.”
22 Or “prove to be reliable.”
23 Heb “Indeed, can God really live with mankind on the earth?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course not,” the force of which is reflected in the translation “God does not really live with mankind on the earth.”
24 Heb “turn to.”
25 Heb “by listening to.”
26 Heb “the loud cry and the prayer.”
27 Heb “praying before you.”
28 Heb “so your eyes might be open toward this house night and day, toward the place about which you said, ‘My name will be there.’ ”
29 Heb “by listening to the prayer which your servant is praying concerning this place.”
30 Heb “listen to the requests of your servant and your people Israel which they are praying concerning this place.”
31 Heb “hear and forgive.”
32 Heb “and if the man who sins against his neighbor when one takes up against him a curse to curse him and the curse comes before your altar in this house.”
33 Heb “and you, hear [from] heaven and act and judge your servants by repaying the guilty, to give his way on his head, and to declare the innocent to be innocent, to give to him according to his innocence.”
34 Or “are struck down before an enemy.”
35 Heb “confess [or perhaps, “praise”] your name.”
36 Heb “and they pray and ask for help.”
37 Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 31, 38).
38 Heb “when.” In the Hebrew text vv. 26–27a actually contain one lengthy conditional sentence, which the translation has divided into two sentences for stylistic reasons.
39 Or “heavens” (also in v. 12). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.
40 Heb “they.”
41 Heb “confess [or perhaps, “praise”] your name.”
42 The Hebrew text reads “because you answer them,” as if the verb is from עָנָה (’anah, “answer”). However, this reference to a divine answer is premature, since the next verse asks for God to intervene in mercy. It is better to revocalize the consonantal text as תְעַנֵּם (té’annem, “you afflict them”), a Piel verb form from the homonym עָנָה (“afflict”).
43 The present translation understands כִּי (ki) in an emphatic or asseverative sense (“Certainly”). Other translation have “indeed” (), “when” (), “so” (), or leave the word untranslated ().
44 Heb “the good way in which they should walk.”
45 Or “for an inheritance.”
46 Actually two Hebrew words appear here, both of which are usually (but not always) taken as referring to locusts. Perhaps different stages of growth or different varieties are in view, but this is uncertain. has “locusts new-sloughed or fully grown”; has “locust or grasshopper”; has “locusts or grasshoppers”; has “locust, or caterpillar.”
47 Heb “in the land, his gates.”
48 Heb “every prayer, every request for help which will be to all the people, to all your people Israel.”
49 Heb “which they know, each his pain and his affliction.”
50 The words “their sin” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied for clarification.
51 Heb “and act and give to each one according to all his ways because you know his heart.” In the Hebrew text vv. 28–30a actually contain one lengthy conditional sentence, which the translation has divided up for stylistic reasons.