2 Chronicles 3–5

Chapter 3

The Temple Construction in Jerusalem

^1aThen 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.

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

Dimensions and Materials of the Temple

³Now 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.

⁴The 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.

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

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

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

⁸Now 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.

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

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

¹¹The 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.

¹²The 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.

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

^15aHe 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.

¹⁶He 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.

^17aHe 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

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

^2aAlso 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.

³Now 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.

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 hindquarters turned inwards.

⁵It 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.

^6aHe 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.

⁷Then ^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.

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.

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

^11aHuram 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:

¹²the 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,

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 basins on the stands,

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

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

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 things that were in the house of God: even the golden altar, ^athe tables with the bread of the Presence on them,

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

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

²²and 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

^1aThus 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.

^2aThen 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.

^3aAll 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 took up the ark.

⁵They 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 were assembled 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 the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the holy of holies, under the wings of the cherubim.

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

⁹The 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.

^10aThere 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

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

¹²and 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

¹³in 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,

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