Solomon builds the temple and his palace
6
📚And it came about in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year 📖 of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD. 2 📚The length of the house which King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits, and its width was twenty cubits, and its height was thirty cubits.6:2 The temple building followed the pattern of the tabernacle, but most dimensions were doubled. It was about 27 meters long and 9 meters wide. A cubit is about 18 inches.⚜
3 📚And the length of the portico before the main room of the house was twenty cubits, in accordance with the breadth of the house, and its width before the house was ten cubits. 4 📚And he made windows of beveled frames for the house.
5 📚Against the wall of the house he built chambers all around the surrounding walls of the house, both of the main room and the sanctuary. And he made chambers all around. 6 The lowest chamber was five cubits wide, and the middle chamber was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide. For he made narrow ledges around the outside so that the beams would not be fastened into the walls of the house. 7 📚And the house, while it was being built, was made of stone prepared before it was brought there, so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any other iron tool heard in the house, while it was being built. 8 📚The door for the middle chamber was on the right side of the house, and they went up by winding stairs to the middle chamber, and from the middle to the third.
9 📚So he built the house and finished it, and covered the house with beams and cedar boards. 10 And then he built chambers against the entire house, five cubits high, and they rested on the house with cedar timber.
11 And the word of the LORD came 📖 to Solomon, saying, 12 📚“Concerning this house which you are building: If you will walk in my statutes, and administer my judgments, and keep all my commandments to walk in them, then I will perform my word 📖 with you, which I spoke to your father David.
6:12 The message revealed that God was more concerned with what Solomon was than with what Solomon built. The character of His people and their attitude toward His Word are of more importance to God than any work they may undertake to do.⚜
13 📚And I will dwell 📖 among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel”.
14 📚So Solomon built the house and finished it. 15 📚And he made the inside walls of the house with cedar boards, from the floor of the house to the ceiling, and he paneled them on the inside with wood, and covered the floor of the house with fir planks. 16 📚And at the rear of the house he built a twenty-cubit room, from floor to ceiling, with cedar boards. He built it inside as the sanctuary, as the Most Holy Place. 📖 17 And before it the house 📖, that is, the temple, was forty cubits long. 18 📚And the cedar of the house was carved inside with buds and open flowers. Everything was of cedar. No stone was seen. 19 📚And he prepared the sanctuary 📖 on the inside of the house, to place there the ark 📖 of the covenant of the LORD. 20 📚And the inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide and twenty cubits 📖 high. And he overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold, and likewise overlaid the altar made of cedar. 21 📚So Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold. And he made a partition with gold chains in front of the sanctuary, and he overlaid the sanctuary with gold 📖.
22 📚And he overlaid the whole house with gold until he finished the entire house. He also overlaid with gold the entire altar which was by the sanctuary.
23 📚And he made two cherubim 📖 of olive wood for the inside of the sanctuary, ten cubits high. 24 And one wing of a cherub was five cubits, and the other wing of a cherub was five cubits. There were ten cubits from one end of the one wing to the end of the other. 25 The other cherub was also ten cubits. Both cherubim were of one measure and one size. 26 The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was the height of the other cherub.
27 📚And he placed the cherubim inside the inner house. And the wings of the cherubim were stretched out, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall, and their wings touched one another in the middle of the house. 28 And he overlaid the cherubim with gold. 29 📚And he carved all the surrounding walls of the house with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, both inside the sanctuary and outside. 30 📚And he overlaid the floor of the house with gold, both inside the sanctuary and outside.
31 📚And for the entrance of the sanctuary he made doors of olive wood. The lintel and the side posts were one-fifth of the wall. 32 📚The two doors were of olive wood, and he carved on them carvings of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold and spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees. 33 So for the door of the temple he also made posts of olive wood, one-fourth of the wall. 34 📚And the two doors were of fir wood. The two leaves of one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding. 35 And he carved on them cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold, fitted on the carved work. 36 📚And he built the inner courtyard with three rows of cut stone, and a row of cedar beams.
6:36 There was both an inner and an outer courtyard (1 Kings 7:12). The inner one was for the priests only (2 Chron 4:9).⚜
37 📚The foundation of the house of the LORD was laid in the fourth year 📖, in the month Zif, 38 📚and the house throughout all its parts and according to all its plans was finished in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month. So he was seven years in building it.