2 Chronicles 3:1–8:16

The Temple Construction in Jerusalem

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

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

Dimensions and Materials of the Temple

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

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

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

6 Further, he 1adorned the house with precious stones; and the gold was gold from 2Parvaim.

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

8 Now 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 overlaid it with fine gold, amounting to 600 talents.

9 The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. He also overlaid athe upper rooms with gold.

10 aThen he made two 1sculptured cherubim in the room of the holy of holies and overlaid them with gold.

11 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.

12 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.

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

14 aHe made the veil of violet, purple, crimson and fine linen, and he worked cherubim on it.

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

16 He made chains in the inner sanctuary and placed them on the tops of the pillars; and he made one hundred pomegranates and placed them on the chains.

17 aHe erected the pillars in front of the temple, one on the right and the other on the left, and named the one on the right Jachin and the one on the left Boaz.

Chapter 4

Furnishings of the Temple

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

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

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

4 It 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 hindquarters turned inwards.

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

6 aHe also made ten basins in which to wash, and he set five on the right side and five on the left 1to rinse things for the burnt offering; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.

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

8 He 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.

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

10 aHe set the sea on the right 1side of the house toward the southeast.

11 aHuram also made the pails, the shovels and the bowls. So Huram finished doing the work which he performed for King Solomon in the house of God:

12 the two pillars, the 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,

13 and 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.

14 aHe also made the stands and he made the basins on the stands,

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

16 The pails, the shovels, the forks and all its utensils, aHuram-abi made of polished bronze for King Solomon for the house of the Lord.

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

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

19 Solomon also made all the things that were in the house of God: even the golden altar, athe tables with the bread of the Presence on them,

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

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

22 and the snuffers, the bowls, 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 Is Brought into the Temple

1 aThus all the work that Solomon performed for the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought in the 1bthings that David his father had dedicated, even the silver and the gold and all the utensils, and put them in the treasuries of the house of God.

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

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

4 Then all the elders of Israel came, and athe Levites took up the ark.

5 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.

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

7 Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the holy of holies, under the wings of the cherubim.

8 For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim made a covering over the ark and its 1poles.

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

10 aThere was nothing in the ark except the two tablets which Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the sons of Israel, when they came out of Egypt.

The Glory of God Fills the Temple

11 When the priests came forth from the holy place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, without regard ato divisions),

12 and all the Levitical singers, aAsaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and kinsmen, clothed in fine linen, bwith cymbals, harps and lyres, standing east of the altar, and with them one hundred and twenty priests cblowing trumpets

13 in unison when the trumpeters and the singers were to make themselves heard with one voice to praise and to glorify the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice aaccompanied by trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and when they praised the Lord saying, “bHe indeed is good for His lovingkindness is everlasting,” then the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud,

14 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for athe glory of the Lord filled the house of God.

Chapter 6

Solomon’s Dedication

1 aThen Solomon said,

“The Lord has said that He would dwell in the thick cloud.

2 “I have built You a lofty house,

And a place for Your dwelling forever.”

3 Then the king 1faced about and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel was standing.

4 He said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who spoke with His mouth to my father David and has fulfilled it with His hands, saying,

5 ‘Since the day that I brought My people from the land of Egypt, I did not choose a city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house that My name might be there, nor did I choose any man for a leader over My people Israel;

6 but aI have chosen Jerusalem that My name might be there, and I bhave chosen David to be over My people Israel.’

7 “aNow it was 1in the heart of my father David to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

8 “But the Lord said to my father David, ‘Because it was 1in your heart to build a house for My name, you did well that it was 1in your heart.

9 ‘Nevertheless you shall not build the house, but your son who 1will be born to you, he shall build the house for My name.’

10 “Now the Lord has fulfilled His word which He spoke; for I have risen in the place of my father David and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord 1promised, and have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

11 “There I have set the ark ain which is the covenant of the Lord, which He made with the sons of Israel.”

Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication

12 Then he stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands.

13 aNow Solomon had made a bronze platform, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and he stood on it, bknelt on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven.

14 He said, “O Lord, the God of Israel, athere is no god like You in heaven or on earth, bkeeping covenant and …