1 Kings 5:12–6:13

12 The Lord gave Solomon wisdom,m just as he had promised him. There were peaceful relations between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.n

13 King Solomon conscripted laborerso from all Israel—thirty thousand men. 14 He sent them off to Lebanon in shifts of ten thousand a month, so that they spent one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniramp was in charge of the forced labor. 15 Solomon had seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hills, 16 as well as thirty-three hundrede foremenq who supervised the project and directed the workers. 17 At the king’s command they removed from the quarryr large blocks of high-grade stones to provide a foundation of dressed stone for the temple. 18 The craftsmen of Solomon and Hiramt and workers from Byblosu cut and prepared the timber and stone for the building of the temple.

Solomon Builds the Temple

6:1–29pp—2Ch 3:1–14

6 In the four hundred and eightietha year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month,v he began to build the temple of the Lord.w

2 The templex that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty wide and thirty high.b 3 The porticoy at the front of the main hall of the temple extended the width of the temple, that is twenty cubits,c and projected ten cubitsd from the front of the temple. 4 He made narrow windowsz high up in the temple walls. 5 Against the walls of the main hall and inner sanctuary he built a structure around the building, in which there were side rooms.a 6 The lowest floor was five cubitse wide, the middle floor six cubitsf and the third floor seven.g He made offset ledges around the outside of the temple so that nothing would be inserted into the temple walls.

7 In building the temple, only blocks dressedb at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron toolc was heard at the temple site while it was being built.

8 The entrance to the lowesth floor was on the south side of the temple; a stairway led up to the middle level and from there to the third. 9 So he built the temple and completed it, roofing it with beams and cedard planks. 10 And he built the side rooms all along the temple. The height of each was five cubits, and they were attached to the temple by beams of cedar.

11 The word of the Lord camee to Solomon: 12 “As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, observe my laws and keep all my commandsf and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promiseg I gave to David your father. 13 And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandonh my people Israel.”