7
📚But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished his whole house.7:1 Solomon’s palace was larger than the temple (1 Kings 6:2) and so took longer to build (1 Kings 6:38). See v 7.⚜
2 📚He also built the house of the Forest of Lebanon. Its length was a hundred cubits and its width fifty cubits and its height thirty cubits. It rested on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams on the pillars. 3 📚And it was paneled with cedar above the beams, which rested on forty-five pillars, fifteen in a row. 4 📚And there were window frames in three rows, and window was opposite window in three ranks. 5 And all the doors and doorposts were square, with the window frames; and window was opposite window in three ranks.
6 📚And he made a hall of pillars. Its length was fifty cubits and its width thirty cubits. And a porch was in front of them, and pillars and a threshold were in front of them.
7 📚Then he made a hall for the throne where he would judge 📖, the Hall of Judgment; and it was paneled with cedar from one side of the floor to the other. 8 📚And his house where he lived had another court inward from the hall, which was of the same workmanship. Solomon also made a house like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had taken as his wife.
9 📚All these were of choice stones, according to the measure of cut stones, sawed with saws, inside and outside, from the foundation to the coping, and so on the outside toward the great courtyard. 10 📚And the foundation was of choice stones, great stones, stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits. 11 📚And above were choice stones, according to the measure of cut stones, and cedars. 12 📚And the great court all around was with three rows of cut stones, and a row of cedar beams, both for the inner court of the house of the LORD, and for the hall of the house.
Solomon Employs Hiram of Tyre
13 📚And King Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tyre.
7:13 This takes the narrative back into chapter 6 before Solomon built his own palace.⚜
14 📚He was a widow’s son of the tribe of Naphtali and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze. And he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill for work in all kinds of bronze workmanship. And he came to King Solomon and did all his work.
15 📚For he cast two pillars of bronze, each eighteen cubits high; and it took a measuring line of twelve cubits to go around either of them. 16 📚And he made two capitals of molten bronze, to set on the tops of the pillars. The height of the one capital was five cubits and the height of the other capital was five cubits; 17 📚and he made a filigree of checkered work, and wreaths of chain work, for the capitals which were on the top of the pillars, seven for one capital and seven for the other capital. 18 📚So he made the pillars, and two rows of pomegranates all around on the one filigree, to cover the capitals that were on the top, and did the same for the other capital. 19 📚And the capitals that were on the top of the pillars were of lily work in the hall, four cubits. 20 📚And the capitals on the two pillars also had pomegranates above, near the rounded part which was by the filigree. And there were two hundred pomegranates in rows around on the other capital. 21 📚And he set up the pillars in the hall of the temple; and he set up the right pillar, and called its name Jachin 📖, and he set up the left pillar, and called its name Boaz 📖. 22 And on the top of the pillars was lily work. So the work of the pillars was finished.
The Furnishings for the Temple
23 📚And he made a molten sea 📖, ten cubits from one brim to the other. It was completely circular, and its height was five cubits; and it took a measuring line of thirty cubits to go around it. 24 📚And all around under its brim there were gourds surrounding it, ten to a cubit, surrounding the sea. The gourds were cast in two rows, when it was cast.
25 📚It stood on twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east. And the sea was set over them, and all their back parts were toward the inside. 26 📚And it was a hand breadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held two thousand baths 📖.
27 📚And he made ten stands of bronze. Four cubits was the length of each stand, and its width four cubits, and its height three cubits.
7:27 On these stands were placed the basins of v 38. These basins contained water for washing parts of the animal sacrifices (Lev 1:9, 13; 2 Chron 4:6).⚜
28 And the work of the stands was like this: they had borders, and the borders were between the ledges; 29 📚and on the borders that were between the ledges were lions, oxen, and cherubim, and on the ledges there was an upper support. And below the lions and oxen were certain additions made of thin work. 30 📚And every stand had four bronze wheels and axles of bronze, and its four corners had supports. Under the laver were molten supports, at the side of every addition. 31 And its opening inside the crown and above was a cubit, but its opening was round like the work of the stand, a cubit and a half; and also on its opening were engravings with their borders. They were square, not round. 32 And under the borders were four wheels, and the axle of the wheels were joined to the stand, and the height of a wheel was a cubit and half a cubit. 33 📚And the design of the wheels was like the design of a chariot wheel. Their axles and their rims and their hubs and their spokes were all cast metal.
34 And there were four supports at the four corners of one stand, and the supports were one with the stand itself. 35 And on the top of the stand there was a circular shape half a cubit high, and on the top of the stand its ledges and its borders were one with it. 36 📚And on the plates of its ledges, and on its borders, he engraved cherubim, lions and palm trees, in proportion to each one, and additions all around. 37 In this way he made the ten stands. All of them had one casting, one measure, and one size.
38 📚Then he made ten lavers of bronze. One laver held forty baths 📖, and each laver was four cubits; and one laver rested on each of the ten stands. 39 📚And he put five stands on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house, and he set the sea on the right side of the house eastward toward the south. 40 📚And Hiram made the lavers and the shovels and the basins. So Hiram finished doing all the work that he made for King Solomon for the house of the LORD: 41 📚The two pillars and the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the two pillars, and the two filigrees to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on the top of the pillars, 42 📚and four hundred pomegranates for the two filigrees, two rows of pomegranates for each filigree, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars, 43 and the ten stands and ten lavers on the stands, 44 📚and one sea and twelve oxen under the sea, 45 📚and the pots and the shovels and the basins. And all these vessels, which Hiram made for King Solomon for the house of the LORD, were of burnished bronze.
7:45 For work around the altar. See Ex 27:1-3.⚜
46 📚The king cast them in the plain of Jordan, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarthan. 47 📚And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because they were so very many, and the weight of the bronze was not found out.
48 📚And Solomon made all the vessels that belonged to the house of the LORD: the altar of gold 📖 and the table 📖 of gold, on which was the Showbread, 49 📚and the lampstands 📖 of pure gold, five on the right side, and five on the left, before the inner sanctuary, with the flowers and the lamps and the tongs of gold, 50 📚and the bowls and the snuffers and the basins and the spoons and the censers 📖 of pure gold, and the hinges of gold, both for the doors of the inner house, the Most Holy Place, and for the doors of the house, that is, of the temple.
51 📚So all the work that King Solomon made for the house of the LORD was finished. And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated 📖. He put the silver and the gold, and the articles among the treasures 📖 of the house of the LORD.