1 Kings
Chapter 6
1 In the year 480 after the Israelites left Egypt, during the fourth year of Solomon’s rule over Israel in the month of Zif, which is the second month, he started to build God’s house.
2 The temple that King Solomon built for God was 60 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high.
3 The entrance hall in front of the temple was 20 cubits long, the same width as the building, and it was 10 cubits wide in front of the building.
4 He made windows with thin openings for the house.
5 He built rooms along the wall of the house, surrounding the temple and the inner sanctuary, and he added rooms around the outside.
6 The lowest room was five cubits wide, the middle one was six cubits wide, and the top one was seven cubits wide. On the outside of the house wall, he made ledges all around so that the beams would not need to be set into the walls of the house.
7 The house, during construction, was made from stone prepared beforehand, so no sound of hammer, axe, or any iron tool was heard at the building site.
8 The entrance to the middle room was on the right side of the house. They went up through spiral stairs to the middle room, and from there to the third room.
9 He built the house, finished it, and covered it with cedar beams and planks.
10 He then built rooms all around the house, five cubits tall, and they were supported by cedar wood beams on the house.
11 God’s message came to Solomon, saying,
12 About this house you are building, if you follow my rules, carry out my decisions, and obey all my commands, then I will keep the promise I made to your father David.
13 I will live among the people of Israel and will not abandon them.
14 Solomon built the house and completed it.
15 He built the inside walls of the house with cedar boards, from the floor to the ceiling. He lined the interior with wood and used fir planks for the house’s floor.
16 He made a twenty-cubit section at the end of the temple, with cedar boards from floor to walls. He built this inner space for the Sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.
17 The temple, the main part in front, was forty cubits long.
18 The inside of the house was decorated with carved bumps and open flowers; it was all made of cedar wood, and no stone was visible.
19 He made a special place inside the house for the ark of God’s covenant.
20 The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. It was covered with pure gold, and the cedar altar was also covered with gold.
21 Solomon covered the inside of the temple with pure gold. He put a gold chain barrier in front of the most holy place and covered that with gold too.
22 He covered the whole house and the altar near the sacred room with gold until everything was finished.
23 Inside the holy place, he made two angels out of olive wood, each fifteen feet tall.
24 One wing of the angel was five units long, and the other wing was also five units long; the total span from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other was ten units.
25 The other angel was ten units long; both angels were the same size and shape.
26 One cherub was ten cubits tall, and the other cherub was also this tall.
27 He placed the cherubim inside the inner room, and they spread out their wings. One cherub’s wing touched one wall and the other cherub’s wing touched the other wall, while their wings touched each other in the middle of the room.
28 He covered the cherubim with gold.
29 He decorated all the walls of the house with carved images of angels, palm trees, and open flowers, on the inside and outside.
30 He covered the floors of the house with gold, inside and outside.
31 For the entrance of the holy place, he made doors of olive wood: the top beam and pillars took up one-fifth of the wall.
32 The two doors were made of olive wood, and he carved images of angels, palm trees, and open flowers on them. Then he covered them with gold, and put gold on the angels and the palm trees.
33 He also made olive wood posts for the temple entrance, one-fourth as thick as the wall.
34 The two doors were made of fir wood; each door had two panels that could fold.
35 He carved angels, palm trees, and open flowers there, and covered them with gold that was shaped to fit the carvings.
36 He made the inner courtyard with three layers of cut stone and one layer of cedar wood.
37 In the fourth year, they started building God’s house, in the month of Zif.
38 In the eleventh year, during Bul, the eighth month, the house was completed in every part and detail. It took seven years to build it.