1Solomon began to build the temple of the LORD. It was 480 years after the Israelites came out of Egypt. It was in the fourth year of Solomon’s rule over Israel. He started in the second month. That was the month of Ziv.2The temple King Solomon built for the LORD was 30 metres long. It was 10 metres wide. And it was 15 metres high.3The temple had a porch in front of the main hall. The porch was as wide as the temple itself. It was 10 metres wide. It came out 5 metres from the front of the temple.4Solomon made narrow windows high up in the temple walls.5He built side rooms around the temple. They were built against the walls of the main hall and the Most Holy Room.6On the first floor the side rooms were 2.5 metres wide. On the second floor they were 3 metres wide. And on the third floor they were 3.5 metres wide. Solomon made the walls of the temple thinner as they went up floor by floor. The result was ledges along the walls. So the floor beams of the side rooms rested on the ledges. The beams didn’t go into the temple walls.7All the stones used for building the temple were shaped where they were cut. So hammers, chisels and other iron tools couldn’t be heard where the temple was being built.8The entrance to the first floor was on the south side of the temple. A stairway led up to the second floor. From there it went on up to the third floor.9So Solomon built the temple and finished it. He made its roof out of beams and cedar boards.10He built side rooms all along the temple. Each room was 2.5 metres high. They were joined to the temple by cedar beams.11A message came to Solomon from the LORD. The LORD said,12‘You are now building this temple. Follow my orders. Keep my rules. Obey all my commands. Then I will make the promise I gave your father David come true. I will do it through you.13I will live among my people Israel. I will not desert them.’14So Solomon built the temple and finished it.15He put cedar boards on its inside walls. He covered them from floor to ceiling. He covered the temple floor with juniper boards.16He put up a wall 10 metres from the back of the temple. He made it with cedar boards from floor to ceiling. That formed a room inside the temple. It was the Most Holy Room.17The main hall in front of the room was 20 metres long.18The inside of the temple was covered with cedar wood. Gourds and open flowers were carved on the wood. Everything was cedar. There wasn’t any stone showing anywhere.19Solomon prepared the Most Holy Room inside the temple. That’s where the ark of the covenant of the LORD would be placed.20The Most Holy Room was 10 metres long. It was 10 metres wide. And it was 10 metres high. Solomon covered the inside of it with pure gold. He prepared the cedar altar for burning incense. He covered it with gold.21Solomon covered the inside of the main hall with pure gold. He placed gold chains across the front of the Most Holy Room. That room was covered with gold.22So Solomon covered the inside of the whole temple with gold. He also covered the altar for burning incense with gold. It was right in front of the Most Holy Room.23For the Most Holy Room Solomon made a pair of cherubim. He made them out of olive wood. Each cherub was 5 metres high.24One wing of the first cherub was 2.5 metres long. The other wing was also 2.5 metres long. So the wings measured 5 metres from tip to tip.25The second cherub’s wings also measured 5 metres from tip to tip. The two cherubim had the same size and shape.26Each cherub was 5 metres high.27Solomon placed the cherubim inside the Most Holy Room in the temple. Their wings were spread out. The wing tip of one cherub touched one wall. The wing tip of the other touched the other wall. The tips of their wings touched each other in the middle of the room.28Solomon covered the cherubim with gold.29On the walls all around the temple he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers. He carved them on the walls of the Most Holy Room and the main hall.30He also covered the floors of those two rooms with gold.31For the entrance to the Most Holy Room he made two doors out of olive wood. Each door was one-fifth of the width of the Most Holy Room.32On the two olive wood doors he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers. He covered the cherubim and palm trees with hammered gold.33In the same way he made olive wood doorposts for the entrance to the main hall. Each doorpost was one quarter of the width of the hall.34He also made two doors out of juniper wood. Each door had two parts. They turned in bases shaped like cups.35He carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers on the doors. He covered the doors with gold. He hammered the gold evenly over the carvings.36He used blocks of stone to build a wall around the inside courtyard. The first three layers of the wall were made out of stone. The top layer was made out of beautiful cedar wood.37The foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid in Solomon’s fourth year. It was in the month of Ziv.38The temple was finished in his 11th year. It was in the month of Bul. That was the eighth month. Everything was finished just as the plans required. Solomon had spent seven years building the temple.
1 Kings 6
English Standard Version
Solomon Builds the Temple
1In the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the Lord. (2Ch 3:1; Ac 7:47)2The house that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits[1] long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. (2Ch 3:3)3The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and ten cubits deep in front of the house.4And he made for the house windows with recessed frames.[2] (Eze 40:16; Eze 41:16; Eze 41:26)5He also built a structure[3] against the wall of the house, running around the walls of the house, both the nave and the inner sanctuary. And he made side chambers all around. (1Ki 6:16; 1Ki 6:19; 1Ki 6:23; 1Ki 6:31; 1Ki 7:49; 1Ki 8:6; 1Ki 8:8; 2Ch 4:20; 2Ch 5:7; 2Ch 5:9; Ps 28:2; Eze 41:5; Eze 41:6)6The lowest story[4] was five cubits broad, the middle one was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad. For around the outside of the house he made offsets on the wall in order that the supporting beams should not be inserted into the walls of the house.7When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built. (De 27:5; 1Ki 5:18)8The entrance for the lowest[5] story was on the south side of the house, and one went up by stairs to the middle story, and from the middle story to the third.9So he built the house and finished it, and he made the ceiling of the house of beams and planks of cedar. (1Ki 6:14; 1Ki 6:38)10He built the structure against the whole house, five cubits high, and it was joined to the house with timbers of cedar.11Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon,12“Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father. (2Sa 7:13; 1Ki 2:4; 1Ki 9:4; 1Ch 22:10)13And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel.” (Ex 25:8; De 31:6; De 31:8; Jos 1:5)14So Solomon built the house and finished it. (1Ki 6:9; 1Ki 6:38)15He lined the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar. From the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood, and he covered the floor of the house with boards of cypress. (1Ki 7:7)16He built twenty cubits of the rear of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the walls, and he built this within as an inner sanctuary, as the Most Holy Place. (Ex 26:33; 1Ki 7:50; 1Ki 8:6; 2Ch 3:8; Eze 45:3; Heb 9:3)17The house, that is, the nave in front of the inner sanctuary, was forty cubits long.18The cedar within the house was carved in the form of gourds and open flowers. All was cedar; no stone was seen. (1Ki 7:24)19The inner sanctuary he prepared in the innermost part of the house, to set there the ark of the covenant of the Lord.20The inner sanctuary[6] was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high, and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid[7] an altar of cedar.21And Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold, and he drew chains of gold across, in front of the inner sanctuary, and overlaid it with gold.22And he overlaid the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. Also the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold. (Ex 30:1; Ex 30:3; Ex 30:6)23In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim of olivewood, each ten cubits high. (Ex 37:7; 2Ch 3:10)24Five cubits was the length of one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the length of the other wing of the cherub; it was ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other.25The other cherub also measured ten cubits; both cherubim had the same measure and the same form.26The height of one cherub was ten cubits, and so was that of the other cherub.27He put the cherubim in the innermost part of the house. And the wings of the cherubim were spread out so that a wing of one touched the one wall, and a wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; their other wings touched each other in the middle of the house. (Ex 25:20; Ex 37:9; 1Ki 8:7; 2Ch 5:8)28And he overlaid the cherubim with gold.29Around all the walls of the house he carved engraved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, in the inner and outer rooms.30The floor of the house he overlaid with gold in the inner and outer rooms.31For the entrance to the inner sanctuary he made doors of olivewood; the lintel and the doorposts were five-sided.[8]32He covered the two doors of olivewood with carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. He overlaid them with gold and spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees.33So also he made for the entrance to the nave doorposts of olivewood, in the form of a square,34and two doors of cypress wood. The two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding. (Eze 41:24)35On them he carved cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and he overlaid them with gold evenly applied on the carved work.36He built the inner court with three courses of cut stone and one course of cedar beams. (1Ki 7:12)37In the fourth year the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, in the month of Ziv. (1Ki 6:1)38And in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its parts, and according to all its specifications. He was seven years in building it.