1 Kings 7:1–8:66
1 Now aSolomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.
2 aHe built the house of the forest of Lebanon; its length was 100 1cubits and its width 50 cubits and its height 30 cubits, on four rows of cedar pillars with cedar beams on the pillars.
3 It was paneled with cedar above the side chambers which were on the 45 pillars, 15 in each row.
4 There were artistic window frames in three rows, and window was opposite window in three ranks.
5 All the doorways and doorposts had squared artistic frames, and window was opposite window in three ranks.
6 Then he made athe hall of pillars; its length was 50 cubits and its width 30 cubits, and a porch was in front of them and pillars and a bthreshold in front of them.
7 He made the hall of the athrone where he was to judge, the hall of judgment, and bit was paneled with cedar from floor to floor.
8 His house where he was to live, the other court inward from the hall, was of the same workmanship. aHe also made a house like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, bwhom Solomon had married.
9 All these were of costly stones, of stone cut according to measure, sawed with saws, inside and outside; even from the foundation to the coping, and so on the outside to the great court.
10 The foundation was of costly stones, even large stones, stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits.
11 And above were costly stones, stone cut according to measure, and cedar.
12 So athe great court all around had three rows of cut stone and a row of cedar beams even as the inner court of the house of the Lord, and bthe porch of the house.
13 Now aKing Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tyre.
14 aHe was a widow’s son from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze; and bhe was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill for doing any work in bronze. So he came to King Solomon and cperformed all his work.
15 He fashioned athe two pillars of bronze; beighteen cubits was the height of one pillar, and a line of twelve cubits 1measured the circumference of both.
16 He also made two capitals of molten bronze to set on the tops of the pillars; the height of the one capital was five 1cubits and the height of the other capital was five cubits.
17 There were nets of network and twisted threads of chainwork for the capitals which were on the top of the pillars; seven for the one capital and seven for the other capital.
18 So he made the pillars, and two rows around on the one network to cover the capitals which were on the top of the pomegranates; and so he did for the other capital.
19 The capitals which were on the top of the pillars in the porch were of lily design, four cubits.
20 There were capitals on the two pillars, even above and close to the 1rounded projection which was beside the network; and athe pomegranates numbered two hundred in rows around 2both capitals.
21 aThus he set up the pillars at the bporch of the nave; and he set up the right pillar and named it 1Jachin, and he set up the left pillar and named it 2Boaz.
22 On the top of the pillars was lily design. So the work of the pillars was finished.
23 aNow he made the sea of bcast metal ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and its height was five cubits, and 1thirty cubits in circumference.
24 Under its brim agourds went around encircling it ten to a cubit, bcompletely surrounding the sea; the gourds were in two rows, cast 1with the rest.
25 aIt stood on twelve oxen, three facing 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.
26 It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, as a lily blossom; it could hold two thousand baths.
27 Then ahe made the ten stands of bronze; the length of each stand was four cubits and its width four cubits and its height three cubits.
28 This was the design of the stands: they had borders, even borders between the 1frames,
29 and on the borders which were between the 1frames were lions, oxen and cherubim; and on the 1frames there was a pedestal above, and beneath the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging work.
30 Now each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles, and its four feet had supports; beneath the basin were cast supports with wreaths at each side.
31 Its opening inside the crown at the top was a cubit, and its opening was round like the design of a pedestal, a cubit and a half; and also on its opening there were engravings, and their borders were square, not round.
32 The four wheels were underneath the borders, and the axles of the wheels were on the stand. And the height of a wheel was a cubit and a half.
33 The workmanship of the wheels was like the workmanship of a chariot wheel. Their axles, their rims, their spokes, and their hubs were all cast.
34 Now there were four supports at the four corners of each stand; its supports were part of the stand itself.
35 On the top of the stand there was a circular form half a 1cubit high, and on the top of the stand its 2stays and its borders were part of it.
36 He engraved on the plates of its stays and on its borders, cherubim, lions and palm trees, according to the clear space on each, with wreaths all around.
37 aHe made the ten stands like this: all of them had one casting, one measure and one form.
38 aHe made ten basins of bronze, one basin held forty baths; each basin was four cubits, and on each of the ten stands was one basin.
39 Then he set the stands, five on the right side of the house and five on the left side of the house; and he set the sea of cast metal on the right side of the house eastward toward the south.
40 Now Hiram made the basins and the shovels and the bowls. So Hiram finished doing all the work which he performed for King Solomon in the house of the Lord:
41 the two pillars and the two bowls of the capitals which were on the top of the atwo pillars, and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on the top of the pillars;
42 and the afour 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 tops of the pillars;
43 and the ten stands with the ten basins on the stands;
44 and athe one sea and the twelve oxen under the sea;
45 and athe pails and the shovels and the bowls; even all these utensils which Hiram made for King Solomon in the house of the Lord were of polished bronze.
46 aIn the plain of the Jordan the king cast them, in the clay ground between bSuccoth and cZarethan.
47 Solomon left all the utensils unweighed, because they were too many; athe weight of the bronze could not be ascertained.
48 Solomon made all the furniture which was in the house of the Lord: athe golden altar and the golden table on which was the bbread of the Presence;
49 and the lampstands, five on the right side and five on the left, in front of the inner sanctuary, of pure gold; and athe flowers and the lamps and the tongs, of gold;
50 and the cups and the snuffers and the bowls and the spoons and the afirepans, of pure gold; and the hinges both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, that is, of the nave, of gold.
51 aThus all the work that King Solomon performed in the house of the Lord was finished. And bSolomon brought in the things dedicated by his father David, the silver and the gold and the utensils, and he put them in the treasuries of the house of the Lord.
The Ark Brought into the Temple
1 aThen Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all bthe heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’ households of the sons of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, cto bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from dthe city of David, which is Zion.
2 All the men of Israel assembled themselves to King Solomon at athe feast, in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.
3 Then all the elders of Israel came, and athe priests took up the ark.
4 They brought up the ark of the Lord and athe tent of meeting and all the holy utensils, which were in the tent, and the priests and the Levites brought them up.
5 And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who were assembled to him, awere with him before the ark, sacrificing 1so many sheep and oxen they could not be counted or numbered.
6 Then athe priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord bto its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the most holy place, cunder the wings of the cherubim.
7 For 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.
8 But athe poles were so long that the ends of the poles could be seen from the holy place before the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen outside; they are there to this day.
9 aThere was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, where bthe Lord made a covenant with the sons of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.
10 It happened that when the priests came from the holy place, athe cloud filled the house of the Lord,
11 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.
12 aThen Solomon said,
“The Lord has said that bHe would dwell in the thick cloud.
13 “aI have surely built You a lofty house,
bA place for Your dwelling forever.”
14 Then the king 1faced about and ablessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel was standing.
15 He said, “aBlessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, bwho spoke with His mouth to my father David and has fulfilled it with His hand, saying,
16 ‘aSince the day that I brought My people Israel from Egypt, I did not choose a city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house that bMy name might be there, but cI chose David to be over My people Israel.’