2 Chronicles 2–18

Solomon Prepares to Build the Temple

2Then Solomon ^adetermined to build a temple for the name of the Lord, and a royal house for himself. ^2bSolomon selected seventy thousand men to bear burdens, eighty thousand to quarry stone in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred to oversee them.

³Then Solomon sent to ¹Hiram king of Tyre, saying:

^cAs you have dealt with David my father, and sent him cedars to build himself a house to dwell in, so deal with me. ⁴Behold, ^dI am building a temple for the name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to Him, ^eto burn before Him ²sweet incense, for ^fthe continual showbread, for ^gthe burnt offerings morning and evening, on the ^hSabbaths, on the New Moons, and on the ³set feasts of the Lord our God. This is an ordinance forever to Israel.

⁵And the temple which I build will be great, for ⁱour God is greater than all gods. ^6jBut who is able to build Him a temple, since heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him? Who am I then, that I should build Him a temple, except to burn sacrifice before Him?

⁷Therefore send me at once a man skillful to work in gold and silver, in bronze and iron, in purple and crimson and blue, who has skill to engrave with the skillful men who are with me in Judah and Jerusalem, ^kwhom David my father provided. ^8lAlso send me cedar and cypress and algum logs from Lebanon, for I know that your servants have skill to cut timber in Lebanon; and indeed my servants will be with your servants, ⁹to prepare timber for me in abundance, for the ⁴temple which I am about to build shall be great and wonderful.

^10mAnd indeed I will give to your servants, the woodsmen who cut timber, twenty thousand kors of ground wheat, twenty thousand kors of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.

¹¹Then Hiram king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon:

ⁿBecause the Lord loves His people, He has made you king over them.

¹²⁵Hiram also said:

^oBlessed be the Lord God of Israel, ^pwho made heaven and earth, for He has given King David a wise son, endowed with prudence and understanding, who will build a temple for the Lord and a royal house for himself!

¹³And now I have sent a skillful man, endowed with understanding, ⁶Huram my ⁷master craftsman ^14q(the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre), skilled to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, stone and wood, purple and blue, fine linen and crimson, and to make any engraving and to accomplish any plan which may be given to him, with your skillful men and with the skillful men of my lord David your father.

¹⁵Now therefore, the wheat, the barley, the oil, and the wine which ^rmy lord has spoken of, let him send to his servants. ^16sAnd we will cut wood from Lebanon, as much as you need; we will bring it to you in rafts by sea to ⁸Joppa, and you will carry it up to Jerusalem.

^17tThen Solomon numbered all the aliens who were in the land of Israel, after the census in which ^uDavid his father had numbered them; and there were found to be one hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred. ¹⁸And he made ^vseventy thousand of them bearers of burdens, eighty thousand stonecutters in the mountain, and three thousand six hundred overseers to make the people work.

Solomon Builds the Temple

3Now ^aSolomon began to build the house of the Lord at ^bJerusalem on Mount Moriah, where ¹the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of ^cOrnan ²the Jebusite. ²And he began to build on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.

³This is the foundation ^dwhich Solomon laid for building the house of God: The length was sixty cubits (by cubits according to the former measure) and the width twenty cubits. ⁴And the ^evestibule that was in front of ³the sanctuary was twenty cubits long across the width of the house, and the height was ⁴one hundred and twenty. He overlaid the inside with pure gold. ^5fThe larger ⁵room he ^gpaneled with cypress which he overlaid with fine gold, and he carved palm trees and chainwork on it. ⁶And he decorated the house with precious stones for beauty, and the gold was gold from Parvaim. ⁷He also overlaid the house—the beams and doorposts, its walls and doors—with gold; and he carved cherubim on the walls.

⁸And he made the ^hMost Holy Place. Its length was according to the width of the house, twenty cubits, and its width twenty cubits. He overlaid it with six hundred talents of fine gold. ⁹The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold; and he overlaid the upper ⁱarea with gold. ^10jIn the Most Holy Place he made two cherubim, fashioned by carving, and overlaid them with gold. ¹¹The wings of the cherubim were twenty cubits in overall length: one wing of the one cherub was five cubits, touching the wall of the room, and the other wing was five cubits, touching the wing of the other cherub; ¹²one wing of the other cherub was five cubits, touching the wall of the room, and the other wing also was five cubits, touching the wing of the other cherub. ¹³The wings of these cherubim spanned twenty cubits overall. They stood on their feet, and they faced inward. ¹⁴And he made the ^kveil of blue, purple, crimson, and fine linen, and wove cherubim into it.

¹⁵Also he made in front of the ⁶temple ^ltwo pillars ⁷thirty-five cubits ⁸high, and the capital that was on the top of each of them was five cubits. ¹⁶He made wreaths of chainwork, as in the inner sanctuary, and put them on top of the pillars; and he made ^mone hundred pomegranates, and put them on the wreaths of chainwork. ¹⁷Then he ⁿset up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand and the other on the left; he called the name of the one on the right hand ⁹Jachin, and the name of the one on the left ¹Boaz.

Furnishings of the Temple

4Moreover he made ^aa bronze altar: twenty cubits was its length, twenty cubits its width, and ten cubits its height.

^2bThen he made the ¹Sea of cast bronze, ten cubits from one brim to the other; it was completely round. Its height was five cubits, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference. ^3cAnd under it was the likeness of oxen encircling it all around, ten to a cubit, all the way around the Sea. The oxen were cast in two rows, when it was cast. ⁴It stood on twelve ^doxen: three looking toward the north, three looking toward the west, three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east; the Sea was set upon them, and all their back parts pointed inward. ⁵It was a handbreadth thick; and its brim was shaped like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It contained ²three thousand baths.

⁶He also made ^eten lavers, and put five on the right side and five on the left, to wash in them; such things as they offered for the burnt offering they would wash in them, but the ³Sea was for the ^fpriests to wash in. ^7gAnd he made ten lampstands of gold ^haccording to their design, and set them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. ⁸ⁱHe also made ten tables, and placed them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. And he made one hundred ^jbowls of gold.

⁹Furthermore ^khe made the court of the priests, and the ^lgreat court and doors for the court; and he overlaid these doors with bronze. ^10mHe set the Sea on the right side, toward the southeast.

¹¹Then ⁿHuram made the pots and the shovels and the bowls. So Huram finished doing the work that he was to do for King Solomon for the house of God: ¹²the two pillars and ^othe bowl-shaped capitals that were on top of the two pillars; the two networks covering the two bowl-shaped capitals which were on top of the pillars; ^13pfour hundred pomegranates for the two networks (two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowl-shaped capitals that were on the pillars); ¹⁴he also made ^qcarts and the lavers on the carts; ¹⁵one Sea and twelve oxen under it; ¹⁶also the pots, the shovels, the forks—and all their articles ^rHuram his ⁴master craftsman made of burnished bronze for King Solomon for the house of the Lord.

¹⁷In the plain of Jordan the king had them cast in clay molds, between Succoth and ⁵Zeredah. ^18sAnd Solomon had all these articles made in such great abundance that the weight of the bronze was not determined.

¹⁹Thus ^tSolomon had all the furnishings made for the house of God: the altar of gold and the tables on which was ^uthe showbread; ²⁰the lampstands with their lamps of pure gold, to burn ^vin the prescribed manner in front of the inner sanctuary, ²¹with ^wthe flowers and the lamps and the wick-trimmers of gold, of purest gold; ²²the trimmers, the bowls, the ladles, and the censers of pure gold. As for the entry of the ⁶sanctuary, its inner doors to the Most Holy Place, and the doors of the main hall of the temple, were gold.

5So ^aall the work that Solomon had done for the house of the Lord was finished; and Solomon brought in the things which his father David had dedicated: the silver and the gold and all the furnishings. And he put them in the treasuries of the house of God.

The Ark Brought into the Temple

^2bNow Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel, in Jerusalem, that they might bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord up ^cfrom the City of David, which is Zion. ^3dTherefore all the men of Israel assembled with the king ^eat the feast, which was in the seventh month. ⁴So all the elders of Israel came, and the ^fLevites took up the ark. ⁵Then they brought up the ark, the tabernacle of meeting, and all the holy furnishings that were in the tabernacle. The priests and the Levites brought them up. ⁶Also King Solomon, and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled with him before the ark, were sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted or numbered for multitude. ⁷Then the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the ^ginner sanctuary of the ¹temple,…