1 Kings 6

Solomon Builds the Temple

6And ^ait came to pass in the four hundred and ¹eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of ²Ziv, which is the second month, ^bthat he began to build the house of the Lord. ²Now ^cthe house which King Solomon built for the Lord, its length was sixty cubits, its width twenty, and its height thirty cubits. ³The vestibule in front of the ³sanctuary of the house was ⁴twenty cubits long across the width of the house, and the width of ⁵the vestibule extended ⁶ten cubits from the front of the house. ⁴And he made for the house ^dwindows with beveled frames.

⁵Against the wall of the ⁷temple he built ^echambers all around, against the walls of the temple, all around the sanctuary ^fand the ⁸inner sanctuary. Thus he made side chambers all around it. ⁶The lowest chamber was five cubits wide, the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide; for he made narrow ledges around the outside of the temple, so that the support beams would not be fastened into the walls of the ⁹temple. ⁷And ^gthe temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built. ⁸The doorway for the ¹middle story was on the right side of the temple. They went up by stairs to the middle story, and from the middle to the third.

^9hSo he built the ²temple and finished it, and he paneled the temple with beams and boards of cedar. ¹⁰And he built side chambers against the entire temple, each five cubits high; they were attached to the temple with cedar beams.

¹¹Then the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying: ¹²“Concerning this ³temple which you are building, ⁱif you walk in My statutes, execute My judgments, keep all My commandments, and walk in them, then I will perform My ⁴word with you, ^jwhich I spoke to your father David. ¹³And ^kI will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not ^lforsake My people Israel.”

¹⁴So Solomon built the temple and finished it. ¹⁵And he built the inside walls of the temple with cedar boards; from the floor of the temple to the ceiling he paneled the inside with wood; and he covered the floor of the temple with planks of cypress. ¹⁶Then he built the twenty-cubit room at the rear of the temple, from floor to ceiling, with cedar boards; he built it inside as the inner sanctuary, as the ^mMost Holy Place. ¹⁷And in front of it the temple sanctuary was forty cubits long. ¹⁸The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with ornamental buds and open flowers. All was cedar; there was no stone to be seen.

¹⁹And he prepared the ⁵inner sanctuary inside the temple, to set the ark of the covenant of the Lord there. ²⁰The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. He overlaid it with pure gold, and overlaid the altar of cedar. ²¹So Solomon overlaid the inside of the temple with pure gold. He stretched gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, and overlaid it with gold. ²²The whole temple he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the temple; also he overlaid with gold ⁿthe entire altar that was by the inner sanctuary.

²³Inside the inner sanctuary ^ohe made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high. ²⁴One wing of the cherub was five cubits, and the other wing of the cherub five cubits: ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. ²⁵And the other cherub was ten cubits; both cherubim were of the same size and shape. ²⁶The height of one cherub was ten cubits, and so was the other cherub. ²⁷Then he set the cherubim inside the inner ⁶room; and ^pthey stretched out the wings of the cherubim so that the wing of the one touched one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall. And their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. ²⁸Also he overlaid the cherubim with gold.

²⁹Then he carved all the walls of the temple all around, both the inner and outer sanctuaries, with carved ^qfigures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. ³⁰And the floor of the temple he overlaid with gold, both the inner and outer sanctuaries.

³¹For the entrance of the inner sanctuary he made doors of olive wood; the lintel and doorposts were ⁷one-fifth of the wall. ³²The two doors were of olive wood; and he carved on them figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold; and he spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees. ³³So for the door of the ⁸sanctuary he also made doorposts of olive wood, ⁹one-fourth of the wall. ³⁴And the two doors were of cypress wood; ^rtwo panels comprised one folding door, and two panels comprised the other folding door. ³⁵Then he carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers on them, and overlaid them with gold applied evenly on the carved work.

³⁶And he built the ^sinner court with three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams.

^37tIn the fourth year the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, in the month of ¹Ziv. ³⁸And in the eleventh year, in the month of ²Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its details and according to all its plans. So he was ^useven years in building it.