2 Chronicles 2:3–18:1

^3aThen Solomon sent word to ¹Huram the king of Tyre, saying, “^bAs you dealt with David my father and sent him cedars to build him a house to live in, so do for me.

⁴“Behold, I am about to build a house for the name of Yahweh my God, setting it apart to Him as holy, ^ato burn fragrant incense before Him and to set out ^bthe showbread continually, and to offer ^cburnt offerings morning and evening, ^don sabbaths and on new moons and on the appointed feasts of Yahweh our God, this being required forever in Israel.

⁵“Now the house which I am about to build will be great, for ^agreater is our God than all the gods.

⁶“But ^awho is able to build a house for Him, for the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain Him? So who am I, that I should build a house for Him, except to ¹burn incense before Him?

⁷“So now, ^asend me a wise man to work in gold, silver, brass, and iron, and in purple, crimson, and blue fabrics, and who knows how to make engravings, to work with the wise men ^1bwhom I have in Judah and Jerusalem, whom David my father prepared.

⁸“^aSend me also cedar, cypress and algum timber from Lebanon, for I know that your servants know how to cut timber of Lebanon; and behold, ^bmy servants will work with your servants,

⁹to prepare timber in abundance for me, for the house which I am about to build will be great and wonderful.

¹⁰“And behold, ^aI will give to your servants, the woodsmen who cut the timber, ¹20,000 kors of crushed wheat and 20,000 kors of barley, and ²20,000 baths of wine and 20,000 baths of oil.”

Covenant with Huram King of Tyre

¹¹Then Huram king of Tyre said in a letter ¹sent to Solomon: “^aBecause Yahweh loves His people, He has given you to be king over them.”

¹²Then Huram said, “Blessed be ^aYahweh, the God of Israel, who has made heaven and earth, who has given King David a wise son, knowledgeable in insight and understanding, ^bwho will build a house for Yahweh and a ¹royal palace for himself.

¹³“So now, I am sending Huram-abi, a wise man, who is knowledgeable in understanding,

^14athe son of a ¹Danite woman and ²a Tyrian father, who knows how to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and in purple, blue, linen, and crimson fabrics, and who knows how to make all kinds of engravings and to devise any design which may be given to him, to work with your wise men and with the wise men of my lord David your father.

¹⁵“So now, let my lord send to his servants wheat and barley, oil and wine, of ^awhich he has spoken.

¹⁶“^aAnd we will cut whatever timber you need from Lebanon and bring it to you on rafts by sea to Joppa, so that you may carry it up to Jerusalem.”

¹⁷Then Solomon numbered all the sojourners who were in the land of Israel, ^afollowing the ¹census which his father David had ²taken; and 153,600 were found.

^18aAnd he made 70,000 of them to carry loads and 80,000 as hewers of stone in the mountains and 3,600 directors to make the people work.

CHAPTER 3

Solomon Builds Yahweh’s House

^1aThen Solomon began to build the house of Yahweh in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where Yahweh had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared ^bon the threshing floor of ¹Ornan the Jebusite.

²Then he began to build on the second day in the second month ¹of the fourth year of his reign.

³Now these are the ¹foundations which ^aSolomon laid for building the house of God. The length in cubits, according to the old standard was ²sixty cubits, and the width twenty cubits.

⁴And the porch which was in front of the house ^awas as long as the width of the house, ¹20 cubits, and the height 120; and inside he overlaid it with pure gold.

⁵Now he overlaid ^athe ¹main room with cypress wood and overlaid it with fine gold, and ²ornamented it with palm trees and chains.

⁶Further, he overlaid the house with precious stones for beauty; and the gold was gold from ¹Parvaim.

^7aHe also covered the house with gold—the beams, the thresholds and its walls and its doors; and he ^bcarved cherubim on the walls.

⁸And he made ^athe ¹room of the Holy of Holies: its length across the width of the house was twenty cubits, and its width was twenty cubits; and he covered it with fine gold, amounting to ²600 talents.

⁹Now the weight of the nails was ¹fifty shekels of gold. He also covered ^athe upper rooms with gold.

^10aThen in the room of the Holy of Holies he made two cherubim of fashioned work and overlaid them with gold.

¹¹Now the wingspan of the cherubim was twenty cubits; the wing of one, of five cubits, touched the wall of the house, and its other wing, of five cubits, touched the wing of the other cherub.

¹²And the wing of the other cherub, of five cubits, touched the wall of the house; and its other wing of five cubits was attached to the wing of the ¹first cherub.

¹³The wings of these cherubim extended twenty cubits, and they stood on their feet ¹facing the main room.

^14aAnd he made the veil of blue, purple, crimson, and fine linen, and he ornamented cherubim on it.

^15aHe also made two pillars for the front of the house, ¹thirty-five cubits ²high, and the capital on the top of each was five cubits.

¹⁶And he made chains in the inner sanctuary and put them on the top of the pillars; and he made one hundred pomegranates and put them on the chains.

^17aThus he set up the pillars in front of the temple, one on the right and one on the left, and named the one on the right Jachin and the one on the left Boaz.

CHAPTER 4

The Furnishings of the House of Yahweh

¹Then ^ahe made a bronze altar, ¹twenty cubits in length and twenty cubits in width and ten cubits in height.

^2aAnd he made the sea of cast metal ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and its height was five cubits, and ¹thirty cubits in ²its circumference.

³Now figures like oxen were under it and encircling it, ten cubits, entirely encircling the sea. The oxen were in two rows, cast ¹in one piece.

⁴It stood on twelve oxen, three facing the north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east; and the sea was set on top of them, and all their rear parts turned inward.

⁵And it was a ¹handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, as a lily blossom; it ^acould hold 3,000 baths.

^6aHe also made ten lavers and set five on the right side and five on the left, in which to wash things, that is, in which they would rinse things for the burnt offering; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.

⁷Then ^ahe made the ten golden lampstands ¹in the way prescribed for them and he put them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left.

⁸He also made ^aten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. And he made one hundred golden bowls.

⁹Then he made ^athe court of the priests and ^bthe great court and doors for the court, and overlaid their doors with bronze.

^10aAnd he put the sea on the right ¹side of the house toward the southeast.

^11aAnd Huram made the pots and the shovels and the bowls. So Huram completed doing the work which he did for King Solomon in the house of God:

¹²the two pillars and the two bowls and the two capitals on top of the pillars, and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on top of the pillars,

¹³and ^athe four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on the pillars.

^14aHe also made the stands and he made the lavers on the stands,

¹⁵and the one sea with the twelve oxen under it.

¹⁶And the pots and the shovels and the flesh hooks and all its utensils, ^aHuram-abi made of polished bronze for King Solomon for the house of Yahweh.

¹⁷On the plain of the Jordan the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredah.

^18aThus Solomon made all these utensils in great quantities, for the weight of the bronze could not be found out.

¹⁹Solomon also made all the furniture which was in the house of God: even the golden altar and ^athe tables with the bread of the Presence on them,

²⁰and the lampstands with their lamps of pure gold, ^ato burn in front of the inner sanctuary ¹in the way prescribed;

²¹and the flowers and the lamps and the tongs of gold, of purest gold;

²²and the snuffers and the bowls and the spoons and the firepans, of pure gold; and the entrance of the house, its inner doors for the Holy of Holies and the doors of the house, that is, of the nave, of gold.

CHAPTER 5

The Ark Brought into the House of Yahweh

^1aThus all the work that Solomon did for the house of Yahweh was finished. And Solomon brought in the ^1bthings set apart as holy by his father David, even the silver and the gold and all the utensils, and he put them in the treasuries of the house of God.

^2aThen Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’ households of the sons of Israel to Jerusalem, ^bto bring up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh from the city of David, which is Zion.

^3aAnd all the men of Israel assembled themselves to the king at ^bthe feast, that is in the seventh month.

⁴Then all the elders of Israel came, and ^athe Levites carried the ark.

⁵And they brought up the ark and the tent of meeting and all the holy utensils which were in the tent; the Levitical priests brought them up.

⁶And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who congregated with him before the ark, were sacrificing ¹so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered.

⁷Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the cherubim.

⁸And the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim made a covering over the ark and its poles from above.

⁹But the poles were so long that ^athe ends of the poles of the ark could be seen before the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen outside; and ¹they are there to this day.

^10aThere was nothing in the ark except the two tablets which Moses put there at Horeb, where Yahweh cut a…