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.

Read in Logos

Footnotes

a 4:14 1 Kings 7:43, Greek; Masoretic Text “he made stands, and he made basins.…”
a 5:7 Or “cherubim.”
b 5:9 A few Hebrew manuscripts, 1 Kings 8:8, Greek; other Hebrew manuscripts “The poles extended so long from the ark that their ends could be seen by anyone standing in front of the inner room.”
c 5:12 The first part of verse 11 (in Hebrew) has been placed just before verse 13 to express the complex Hebrew sentence structure more clearly in English.