2 Chronicles 3–5

Solomon Builds the Temple

³Solomon 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 designated, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.^{* 2}He began to build on the second day of the second month of the fourth year of his reign. ³These are Solomon’s measurements^f for building the house of God: the length, in cubits of the old standard, was sixty cubits and the width twenty cubits. ⁴The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits long, across the width of the house,^g and its height was one hundred twenty cubits. He overlaid it on the inside with pure gold. ⁵The great hall he lined with cypress, covered it with fine gold, and made palms and chains on it.^{* 6}He adorned the house with settings of precious stones. The gold was gold from Parvaim. ⁷So he lined the house with gold: its beams, its thresholds, its walls, and its doors; and he carved cherubim on the walls.^*

⁸He made the most holy place; its length, corresponding to the width of the house, was twenty cubits, and its width was twenty cubits; he overlaid it with six hundred talents of fine gold.^{* 9}The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. He overlaid the upper chambers with gold.

¹⁰In the most holy place he made two carved cherubim and overlaid^h them with gold.^{* 11}The wings of the cherubim together extended twenty cubits: one wing of the one, five cubits long, touched the wall of the house, and its other wing, five cubits long, touched the wing of the other cherub; ¹²and of this cherub, one wing, five cubits long, touched the wall of the house, and the other wing, also five cubits long, was joined to the wing of the first cherub. ¹³The wings of these cherubim extended twenty cubits; the cherubimⁱ stood on their feet facing the main hall. ¹⁴And Solomon^j made the curtain of blue and purple and crimson fabrics and fine linen and worked cherubim into it.^*

¹⁵In front of the house he made two pillars thirty-five cubits high, each with a capital of five cubits on its top.^{* 16}He made encircling^k chains and put them on the tops of the pillars, and he made one hundred pomegranates and put them on the chains. ¹⁷He set up the pillars in front of the temple, one on the right, the other on the left; the one on the right he called Jachin, and the one on the left, Boaz.^*

Furnishings of the Temple

⁴He made an altar of bronze, twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and ten cubits high.^{* 2}Then he made the molten sea; it was round, ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. A line of thirty cubits would encircle it completely.^{* 3}Under it were figures of bulls all around, each of ten cubits, surrounding the sea; there were two rows of bulls, cast when it was cast.^{* 4}It stood on twelve bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east; the sea was set on them. The hindquarters of each were toward the inside. ⁵Its thickness was a handbreadth; its rim was made like the rim of a cup, like the flower of a lily; it held three thousand baths.^{l* 6}He also made ten basins in which to wash and set five on the right side and five on the left. In these they were to rinse what was used for the burnt offering. The sea was for the priests to wash in.^*

⁷He made ten golden lampstands as prescribed and set them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left.^{* 8}He 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 basins of gold.^{* 9}He made the court of the priests and the great court and doors for the court; he overlaid their doors with bronze.^{* 10}He set the sea at the southeast corner of the house.^*

¹¹And Huram made the pots, the shovels, and the basins. Thus Huram finished the work that he did for King Solomon on the house of God:^{* 12}the two pillars, the bowls, and the two capitals on the top of the pillars; and the two latticeworks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars;^{* 13}the four hundred pomegranates for the two latticeworks, two rows of pomegranates for each latticework, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars.^{* 14}He made the stands, the basins on the stands,^{* 15}the one sea, and the twelve bulls underneath it. ¹⁶The pots, the shovels, the forks, and all the equipment for these Huram-abi made of burnished bronze for King Solomon for the house of the Lord.^{* 17}In the plain of the Jordan the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredah.^{* 18}Solomon made all these things in great quantities, so that the weight of the bronze was not determined.^*

¹⁹So Solomon made all the things that were in the house of God: the golden altar, the tables for the bread of the Presence,^{* 20}the lampstands and their lamps of pure gold to burn before the inner sanctuary, as prescribed;^{* 21}the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs, of purest gold; ²²the snuffers, basins, ladles, and firepans, of pure gold. As for the entrance to the temple: the inner doors to the most holy place and the doors of the main hall of the temple were of gold.

⁵Thus all the work that Solomon did for the house of the Lord was finished. Solomon brought in the things that his father David had dedicated and stored the silver, the gold, and all the vessels in the treasuries of the house of God.^*

The Ark Brought into the Temple

²Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the ancestral houses of the people of Israel, in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion.^{* 3}And all the Israelites assembled before the king at the festival that is in the seventh month. ⁴And all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites carried the ark.^{* 5}So they brought up the ark, the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up. ⁶King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had assembled before him, were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be numbered or counted. ⁷Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, in the inner sanctuary of the house, in the most holy place, underneath the wings of the cherubim. ⁸For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim made a covering above the ark and its poles. ⁹The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place^m in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside; they are there to this day.^{* 10}There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenantⁿ with the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt.^*

¹¹Now when the priests came out of the holy place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, without regard to their divisions),^{* 12}all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, their sons and kindred, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, stood east of the altar with one hundred twenty priests who were trumpeters.^{* 13}It was the duty of the trumpeters and singers together to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord,

“For he is good,

for his steadfast love endures forever,”

the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud,^{* 14}so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.^*