Chapter 3

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.