1Foi na primavera do quarto ano do reinado de Salomão que ele começou a construção do templo; 480 anos depois do povo de Israel ter deixado a escravidão do Egito.2O templo, que o rei Salomão construiu para o SENHOR, tinha 30 metros de comprimento, 10 metros de largura e 15 metros de altura.3A fachada principal tinha um pórtico com 10 metros de largura e 5 metros de fundo.4Tinha janelas com grades.5Fez também edificar compartimentos em todo o comprimento de ambos os lados do templo, contra as paredes exteriores.6Estas salas tinham a altura de três andares, tendo o primeiro piso de 2,5 metros de largura, o segundo piso 3 metros e o de cima 3,5 metros. Os compartimentos estavam ligados à parede do templo por vigas presas em blocos no exterior da parede; as vigas não estavam mesmo inseridas na parede.7As pedras usadas na construção do templo foram assentadas sem o ruído de martelo nem de qualquer instrumento semelhante.8Para o andar inferior dos compartimentos laterais entrava-se pelo lado direito do templo e havia umas escadas em caracol até ao segundo andar; um outro lanço de escadas levava até ao último piso, o terceiro.9Acabada a edificação, Salomão mandou revesti-la completamente de cedro, incluindo as traves e os pilares.10Como se disse, havia de cada lado da construção, encostado às paredes laterais, um anexo ligado ao edifício por vigas de cedro. Cada andar desse anexo media 2,5 metros de altura.11Então o SENHOR deu a Salomão a seguinte mensagem12respeitante ao templo que estava a construir: “Se andares de acordo com a minha palavra e seguires os meus mandamentos e instruções, farei o que disse ao teu pai David:13Viverei no meio do povo de Israel e nunca o desampararei.”
O interior do templo
14Por fim, o templo ficou acabado.15Todo o seu interior foi revestido de cedro, do chão ao teto.16O sobrado foi feito com pranchas de cipreste. Igual revestimento recebeu a câmara interior ao fundo do templo, o lugar santíssimo, também do chão ao teto, com tábuas de cedro; estas tiveram de ser cortadas à medida do compartimento, tábuas com 10 metros.17Para o resto do templo empregaram-se tábuas com 20 metros.18Por todo o edifício, o revestimento de cedro que cobria a pedra das paredes tinha incrustados botões de flores e flores abertas.19O compartimento interior era onde estava a arca da aliança do SENHOR.20Este santuário interior tinha 10 metros de comprimento, 10 metros de largura e 10 metros de altura. As paredes e o teto estavam cobertas de ouro puro. Salomão fez um altar de cedro para esta sala.21-22Depois mandou revestir o resto do interior do templo com ouro puro, incluindo o altar de cedro. Fez também cadeias de ouro para proteger a entrada do lugar santíssimo.23Para o interior deste, fez dois querubins de madeira de oliveira, cada um com 5 metros de altura.24-28Foram postos lado a lado, de forma a que as asas abertas, do lado exterior, tocassem as paredes laterais e as do interior se tocassem no centro da peça. Cada asa media 2,5 metros e cada querubim, com as asas abertas, atingia o dobro dessa medida. Os dois querubins tinham a mesma medida e estavam revestidos de ouro.29Havia figuras de querubins, palmeiras e flores abertas gravadas nas paredes do templo e do santuário interior.30O chão de ambos os lugares também estava revestido de ouro.31-32A entrada para o lugar santíssimo era uma porta com cinco lados feita de madeira de oliveira; também tinha querubins entalhados, palmeiras e flores abertas, e tudo era revestido a ouro.33Mandou fazer igualmente ombreiras de madeira de oliveira para a entrada do templo.34Colocaram-se duas portas duplas feitas de madeira de cipreste e cada porta dobrava-se sobre si mesma.35Estas portas também tinham os mesmos entalhes: querubins, palmeiras e flores abertas, e eram todas revestidas a ouro.36As paredes do átrio interior tinham três fiadas de pedras lavradas intercaladas com uma viga de cedro.37Os alicerces do templo foram colocados no mês de Ziv[1] do quarto ano do reinado de Salomão.38O edifício ficou inteiramente pronto, com todos os seus acabamentos, no mês de Bul[2] do décimo primeiro ano do seu reinado. Levou 7 anos a ser construído.
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. (2 Cr 3:1; At 7:47)2The house that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits[1] long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. (2 Cr 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] (Ez 40:16; Ez 41:16; Ez 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. (1 Rs 6:16; 1 Rs 6:19; 1 Rs 6:23; 1 Rs 6:31; 1 Rs 7:49; 1 Rs 8:6; 1 Rs 8:8; 2 Cr 4:20; 2 Cr 5:7; 2 Cr 5:9; Sl 28:2; Ez 41:5; Ez 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. (Dt 27:5; 1 Rs 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. (1 Rs 6:14; 1 Rs 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. (2 Sm 7:13; 1 Rs 2:4; 1 Rs 9:4; 1 Cr 22:10)13And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel.” (Ex 25:8; Dt 31:6; Dt 31:8; Js 1:5)14So Solomon built the house and finished it. (1 Rs 6:9; 1 Rs 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. (1 Rs 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; 1 Rs 7:50; 1 Rs 8:6; 2 Cr 3:8; Ez 45:3; Hb 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. (1 Rs 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; 2 Cr 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; 1 Rs 8:7; 2 Cr 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. (Ez 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. (1 Rs 7:12)37In the fourth year the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, in the month of Ziv. (1 Rs 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.