Solomon Constructs the Temple
3 Kingdoms 6, verse 1. In the four hundred fortieth year after the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the second month, 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 2. the king issued a command, and they put great costly stones into the foundation of the house. These stones were not touched by an axe. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 3. The sons of Solomon cut them, and the sons of Hiram placed them. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 4. In the fourth year, he laid the foundation of the Lord's house in the month Nisan, the second month. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 5. In the eleventh year, in the month Bul, that is, the eighth month, the house was completed according to his every word and his every mandate. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 6. Now the house King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits in length, twenty cubits wide, and twenty-five cubits high. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 7. The vestibule in front of the sanctuary of the house was twenty cubits long across the width of the house, and the width of the vestibule extended ten cubits from the front of the house. He built the house and completed it. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 8. He made hidden windows from which to look from the house. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 9. Against the wall of the temple, he placed beams all around—against the walls of the temple, and all around the sanctuary and inner sanctuary. He also made side chambers all around it. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 10. The lowest side chamber was five cubits wide, the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide; for he made a space around the outside of the temple, so the support beams would not be fastened into the walls of the temple. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 11. When the temple was being built, it was built with stones finished at the quarry, so no hammer or axe or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 12. The doorway for the lower side chamber was on the right side of the temple. They went up by spiraled stairs to the middle story, and from the middle to the third. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 13. So he built the temple and finished it, and he gave the temple a ceiling with beams and boards of cedar. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 14. He built the bonding of the superstructure to the foundation throughout the entire temple, each five cubits high; they were attached to the temple with cedar beams.
The Holy of Holies
3 Kingdoms 6, verse 15. Then he framed the inside walls of the temple with cedar boards. From the floor of the temple to the ceiling, he paneled the inside with wood, holding it together with wood from within; and he covered the floor of the temple with planks of pine. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 16. Then he built the twenty-cubit room at the rear of the temple, from floor to ceiling beams, with cedar boards; he built it inside as the inner sanctuary, as the holy of holies. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 17. The temple sanctuary was forty cubits long in front. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 18. He prepared the inner sanctuary inside the temple to set the ark of the covenant of the Lord there. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 19. The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. He overlaid it with pure gold, and made an altar at the front of the shrine; 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 20. and he overlaid it with pure gold. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 21. He overlaid the whole temple with gold until he finished gilding the whole temple.
Holy Images
3 Kingdoms 6, verse 22. Inside the inner sanctuary, he made two cherubim standing majestically, each ten cubits high. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 23. One wing of the cherub was five cubits, and the other wing of the cherub, five cubits. It was ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 24. The other cherub was ten cubits; both cherubim were of the same size and shape. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 25. The height of one cherub was ten cubits, and so was the other cherub. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 26. Then he set both cherubim inside the inner room; and they stretched out the wings of the cherubim, so the wing of one touched one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall. Their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 27. He also overlaid the cherubim with gold. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 28. Then he carved all the walls of the temple all around, both the inner and outer sanctuaries, with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 29. He overlaid the floor of the temple with gold, both the inner and outer sanctuaries. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 30. For the entrance of the inner sanctuary, he made doors of juniper wood; the lintel and doorposts were one-fifth of the wall. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 31. The two doors were of pine wood; and he carved on them figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold. The gold went down over the cherubim and the palm trees. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 32. For the door of the sanctuary, he also made doorposts of juniper wood, one-fourth of the wall. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 33. And the two doors were of pine; two panels comprised one folding door, and two panels comprised the other folding door. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 34. Then he carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers on them, and overlaid the figures in relief with gold. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 35. He built the inner court with three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams. 3 Kingdoms 6, verse 36. He built the curtain of the courtyard of the porch of the house at the front of the temple.