^4:1He made a bronze altar, 30 feet¹ long, 30 feet² wide, and 15 feet³ high. ^4:2He also made the big bronze basin called “The Sea.”⁴ It measured 15 feet⁵ from rim to rim, was circular in shape, and stood seven and one-half feet⁶ high. Its circumference was 45 feet.⁷^4:3Images of bulls were under it all the way around, ten every eighteen inches⁸ all the way around. The bulls were in two rows and had been cast with “The Sea.” ^4:4“The Sea” stood on top of twelve bulls. Three faced northward, three westward, three southward, and three eastward. “The Sea” was placed on top of them, and they all faced outward.⁹^4:5It was four fingers thick and its rim was like that of a cup shaped like a lily blossom. It could hold 18,000 gallons.¹⁰^4:6He made ten washing basins; he put five on the south side and five on the north side. In them they rinsed the items used for burnt sacrifices; the priests washed in “The Sea.”

^4:7He made ten gold lampstands according to specifications and put them in the temple, five on the right and five on the left. ^4:8He made ten tables and set them in the temple, five on the right and five on the left. He also made one hundred gold bowls. ^4:9He made the courtyard of the priests and the large enclosure and its doors;¹¹ he plated their doors with bronze. ^4:10He put “The Sea” on the south side, in the southeast corner.

^4:11Huram Abi¹² made the pots, shovels, and bowls. He finished all the work on God’s temple he had been assigned by King Solomon.¹³^4:12He made¹⁴ the two pillars, the two bowl-shaped tops of the pillars, the latticework for the bowl-shaped tops of the two pillars, ^4:13the four hundred pomegranate-shaped ornaments for the latticework of the two pillars (each latticework had two rows of these ornaments at the bowl-shaped top of the pillar), ^4:14the ten¹⁵ movable stands with their ten¹⁶ basins, ^4:15the big bronze basin called “The Sea” with its twelve bulls underneath, ^4:16and the pots, shovels, and meat forks.¹⁷ All the items King Solomon assigned Huram Abi to make for the Lord’s temple¹⁸ were made from polished bronze. ^4:17The king had them cast in earthen foundries¹⁹ in the region of the Jordan between Succoth and Zarethan. ^4:18Solomon made so many of these items they did not weigh the bronze.²⁰

^4:19Solomon also made these items for God’s temple: the gold altar, the tables on which the Bread of the Presence²¹ was kept, ^4:20the pure gold lampstands and their lamps which burned as specified at the entrance to the inner sanctuary, ^4:21the pure gold flower-shaped ornaments, lamps, and tongs, ^4:22the pure gold trimming shears, basins, pans, and censers, and the gold door sockets for the inner sanctuary (the most holy place) and for the doors of the main hall of the temple. ^5:1When Solomon had finished constructing the Lord’s temple, he put the holy items that belonged to his father David (the silver, gold, and all the other articles) in the treasuries of God’s temple.

Solomon Moves the Ark into the Temple

^5:2Then Solomon convened Israel’s elders—all the leaders of the Israelite tribes and families—in Jerusalem,¹ so they could witness the transferal of the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the City of David² (that is, Zion).³^5:3All the men of Israel assembled before the king during the festival⁴ in the seventh month.⁵^5:4When all Israel’s elders had arrived, the Levites lifted the ark. ^5:5The priests and Levites carried the ark, the tent where God appeared to his people,⁶ and all the holy items in the tent.⁷^5:6Now King Solomon and all the Israelites who had assembled with him went on ahead of the ark and sacrificed more sheep and cattle than could be counted or numbered.⁸

^5:7The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its assigned⁹ place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, in the most holy place under the wings of the cherubs. ^5:8The cherubs’ wings extended over the place where the ark sat; the cherubs overshadowed the ark and its poles.¹⁰^5:9The poles were so long their ends extending out from the ark were visible from in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from beyond that point.¹¹ They have remained there to this very day. ^5:10There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets Moses had placed there in Horeb.¹² (It was there that¹³ the Lord made an agreement with the Israelites after he brought them out of the land of Egypt.)

^5:11The priests left the holy place.¹⁴ All the priests who participated had consecrated themselves, no matter which division they represented.¹⁵^5:12All the Levites who were musicians, including Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and relatives, wore linen. They played cymbals and stringed instruments as they stood east of the altar. They were accompanied by 120 priests who blew trumpets. ^5:13The trumpeters and musicians played together, praising and giving thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and other instruments, they loudly praised the Lord, singing:¹⁶ “Certainly he is good; certainly his loyal love endures!” Then a cloud filled the Lord’s temple.¹⁷^5:14The priests could not carry out their duties¹⁸ because of the cloud; the Lord’s splendor filled God’s temple.

Read in Logos

Footnotes

1 Heb “twenty cubits.” Assuming a cubit of 18 inches (45 cm), the length would have been 30 feet (9 m).
2 Heb “twenty cubits.”
3 Heb “ten cubits.” Assuming a cubit of 18 inches (45 cm), the height would have been 15 feet (4.5 m).
4 Heb “He made the sea, cast.” The large bronze basin known as “The Sea” was mounted on twelve bronze bulls and contained water for the priests to bathe themselves (see v. 6; cf. Exod 30:17–21).
5 Heb “ten cubits.” Assuming a cubit of 18 inches (45 cm), the diameter would have been 15 feet (4.5 m).
6 Heb “five cubits.” Assuming a cubit of 18 inches (45 cm), the height would have been 7.5 feet (2.25 m).
7 Heb “and a measuring line went around it thirty cubits all around.”
8 Heb “ten every cubit.”
9 Heb “all their hindquarters were toward the inside.”
10 Heb “3,000 baths” (note that the capacity is given in 1 Kings 7:26 as “2,000 baths”). A bath was a liquid measure roughly equivalent to six gallons (about 22 liters), so 3,000 baths was a quantity of about 18,000 gallons (66,000 liters).
11 Heb “and the doors for the enclosure.”
12 Heb “Huram,” but here this refers to Huram Abi (2 Chr 2:13). The complete name has been used in the translation to avoid possible confusion with King Huram of Tyre.
13 Heb “Huram finished doing all the work which he did for King Solomon [on] the house of God.”
14 The words “he made” are added for stylistic reasons.
15 The Hebrew text has עָשָׂה (’asah, “he made”), which is probably a corruption of עֶשֶׂר (’eser, “ten”; see 1 Kgs 7:43).
16 The Hebrew text has עָשָׂה (’asah, “he made”), which is probably a corruption of עֲשָׂרָה (’asarah, “ten”; see 1 Kgs 7:43).
17 Some prefer to read here “bowls,” see v. 11 and 1 Kgs 7:45.
18 Heb “Huram Abi made for King Solomon [for] the house of the Lord.”
19 Or perhaps, “molds.”
20 Heb “Solomon made all these items in great abundance; the weight of the bronze was not sought.”
21 Heb “the bread of the face/presence.” This bread offered to God was viewed as a perpetual offering to God. See Lev 24:5–9.
1 For location see ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; .
2 The phrase the City of David refers here to the fortress of Zion in Jerusalem, not to Bethlehem. See 2 Sam 5:7.
3 Heb “Then Solomon convened the elders of Israel, the heads of the tribes, the chiefs of the fathers belonging to the sons of Israel to Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the City of David (it is Zion).”
4 This festival in the seventh month was the Feast of Tabernacles, see Lev 23:34.
5 The seventh month would be September–October in modern reckoning.
6 Heb “the tent of assembly.” See Exod 33:7–11.
7 Heb “and they carried the ark of the Lord.… The priests and the Levites carried them.”
8 Heb “And King Solomon and all the assembly of Israel, those who had been gathered to him, [were] before the ark, sacrificing sheep and cattle which could not be counted or numbered because of the abundance.”
9 The word “assigned” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
10 These poles were used to carry the ark. The Levites were to carry it with the poles on their shoulders. See Exod 25:13–15; 1 Chr 15:15.
11 Heb “they could not be seen outside.”
12 Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai (cf. Exod 3:1).
13 Heb “in Horeb where.”
14 Heb “and when the priests went from the holy place.” The syntactical relationship of this temporal clause to the following context is unclear. Perhaps the thought is completed in v. 14 after a lengthy digression.
15 Heb “Indeed [or “for”] all the priests who were found consecrated themselves without guarding divisions.”
16 Heb “like one were the trumpeters and the musicians, causing one voice to be heard, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, and while raising a voice with trumpets and with cymbals and with instruments of music, and while praising the Lord.”
17 Heb “and the house was filled with a cloud, the house of the Lord.”
18 Heb “were not able to stand to serve.”