2 Chronicles 3–5

3RD CHAPTER

The Temple Built and Furnished—1 Kings 6:1–38; 7:13–51

¹Solomon began to build the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared to his father David. There David had prepared the site on the threshing floor^aof Ornan the Jebusite. ²He began to build on the second day in the second month of the fourth year of his reign. 

³This is how Solomon laid the foundation to build God’s temple. It was 90 feet long and 30 feet wide. (They used the old standard measurement.) ⁴The entrance hall in front of ⸤the main room⸥ was 30 feet wide (the same as the width of the temple) and 30 feet high. He covered its inside walls with pure gold. ⁵He paneled the larger building with cypress, overlaid it with fine gold, and decorated it with ⸤designs in the form of⸥ palm trees and chains. ⁶He covered the building with gems to beautify it and used gold from Parvaim. ⁷He also overlaid the building, the rafters, the threshold, the walls, and the doors with gold, and he carved angels^binto the walls. 

⁸He made the most holy place. It was as long as the temple was wide, 30 feet long. It was also 30 feet wide. He overlaid it with 45,000 pounds of fine gold. ⁹The gold nails weighed 20 ounces. He also overlaid the upper rooms with gold. 

¹⁰In the most holy place he made two sculptured angels and covered them with gold. ¹¹The combined length of the angels’ wings was 30 feet. A wing of one of the angels was 7½ feet long and touched the wall of the building. Its other wing was 7½ feet long and touched one wing of the other. ¹²The wing of the other one of the angels was 7½ feet long and touched the other wall of the building. Its other wing was 7½ feet long and touched the wing of the first. So the angels’ combined wingspan was 30 feet. ¹³They stood on their feet and faced the main hall. ¹⁴Solomon made the canopy of violet, purple, and dark red cloth and of linen and decorated it with angels. 

¹⁵He made two pillars for the front of the temple. They were 53 feet long, and the capital on each pillar was 7½ feet ⸤high⸥. ¹⁶He made chains for the inner room and ⸤also⸥ put them on the capitals. He made 100 pomegranates and put them on the chains. ¹⁷He set up the pillars in front of the temple, one on the right and the other on the left. He named the one on the right Jachin ^[He Establishes^[ and the one on the left Boaz ^[In Him Is Strength^[. 

4TH CHAPTER

¹He made a bronze altar 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 15 feet high. 

²Huram made a pool from cast metal. It was 15 feet in diameter. It was round, 7½ feet high, and had a circumference of 45 feet. ³Under the rim were two rows of figurines shaped like bulls all around the 45-foot circumference of the pool. They were cast in metal when the pool was cast. ⁴The pool was set on 12 metal bulls. Three bulls faced north, three faced west, three faced south, and three faced east. The pool was set on them, and their hindquarters were toward the center ⸤of the pool⸥. ⁵The pool was three inches thick. Its rim was like the rim of a cup, shaped like a lily’s bud. It held 18,000 gallons. 

⁶Huram also made ten basins for washing and put five on the south side and five on the north side. The priests rinsed the meat prepared for the burnt offerings in them. They used the pool to wash themselves. 

⁷Huram made ten gold lamp stands according to their specifications and put them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north side. ⁸He made ten tables and put them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north side. And he made 100 gold bowls. 

⁹He also made the priests’ courtyard and the large courtyard and its doors. He covered the doors with bronze. ¹⁰He set the pool on the south side in the southeast ⸤corner⸥. ¹¹Huram also made the pots, shovels, and bowls. 

So Huram finished the work for King Solomon in God’s temple: ¹²2 pillars, bowl-shaped capitals on top of the 2 pillars, and 2 sets of filigree to cover the 2 bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars, ¹³400 pomegranates for the 2 sets of filigree (2 rows of pomegranates for each filigree to cover the 2 bowl-shaped capitals on the pillars), ¹⁴10 stands and 10^abasins on the stands, ¹⁵1 pool and the 12 bulls under it, ¹⁶pots, shovels, and three-pronged forks. Huram made all of them out of polished bronze for the Lord’s temple at King Solomon’s request. ¹⁷The king cast them in foundries in the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Zeredah. ¹⁸Solomon made so many of these products that no one tried to determine how much the bronze weighed. 

¹⁹Solomon made all the furnishings for God’s temple: the gold altar, the gold tables on which the bread of the presence was placed, ²⁰lamp stands and lamps of pure gold (to burn as directed in front of the inner room), ²¹flowers, lamps, pure gold tongs, ²²snuffers, basins, dishes, incense burners of pure gold, the gold entrance to the temple, the gold doors of the inner ⸤room⸥ (the most holy place), and the gold doors of the temple. 

5TH CHAPTER

¹All the work Solomon did on the Lord’s temple was finished. He brought the holy things that had belonged to his father David—the silver, gold, and all the utensils—and put them in the storerooms of God’s temple. 

The Lord Comes to His Temple—1 Kings 8:1–11

²Then Solomon assembled the respected leaders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes, and the leaders of the Israelite families. They came to Jerusalem to take the ark of the Lord’s promise from the City of David (that is, Zion). ³All the men of Israel gathered around the king at the Festival ⸤of Booths⸥ in the seventh month. 

⁴When all the leaders of Israel had arrived, the Levites picked up the ark. ⁵They brought the ark, the tent of meeting, and all the holy utensils in it ⸤to the temple⸥. The priests and the Levites carried them ⁶while King Solomon and the whole assembly from Israel were offering countless sheep and cattle sacrifices in front of the ark. ⁷The priests brought the ark of the Lord’s promise to its place in the inner room of the temple (the most holy place) under the wings of the angels.^a

⁸The angels’ outstretched wings were over the place where the ark ⸤rested⸥ so that the angels became a covering above the ark and its poles. ⁹The poles were so long that their ends could be seen in the holy place by anyone standing in front of the inner room,^bbut they couldn’t be seen outside. (They are still there today.) ¹⁰There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets Moses placed there at Horeb, where the Lord made a promise to the Israelites after they left Egypt. 

¹¹All the priests who were present had performed the ceremonies to make themselves holy to God without regard to staying in their divisions. ¹²All the Levites who were musicians—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, their sons, and their relatives—were dressed in fine linen and stood east of the altar with cymbals, harps, and lyres. With the musicians were 120 priests blowing trumpets. When the priests left the holy place,^c13the trumpeters and singers praised and thanked the Lord in unison. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and other musical instruments, they sang in praise to the Lord: “He is good; his mercy endures forever.” Then the Lord’s temple was filled with a cloud. ¹⁴The priests couldn’t serve because of the cloud. The Lord’s glory filled God’s temple.