1    ^{note note}It was in the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites had come out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the second month of that year, the month of Ziv, that he began to build the house of the Lord.

2   The house which King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long by twenty cubits broad, and its height was thirty ^note cubits. 3   The vestibule in front of the sanctuary was twenty cubits long, spanning the whole breadth of the house, while it projected ten cubits in front of the house; and he furnished the house with embrasures. 4    5   Then he built a terrace against its wall ^note round both the sanctuary and the inner shrine. 6   He made arcades all round: the lowest arcade ^note was five cubits in depth, the middle six, and the highest seven; for he made rebates all

The reign of Solomon round the outside of the main wall so that the bearer beams ^note might not be set into the walls. 7   In the building of the house, only blocks of undressed stone direct from the quarry were used; no hammer or axe or any iron tool whatever was heard in the house while it was being built.

8   The entrance to the lowest ^note arcade was in the right-hand corner of the house; there was access by a spiral stairway from that to the middle arcade, and from the middle arcade to the highest. 9    10   So he built the house and finished it, having constructed the terrace five cubits high against the whole building, braced the house with struts of cedar and roofed it with beams and coffering of cedar.

11    12   Then the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying, ‘As for this house which you are building, if you are obedient to my ordinances and conform to my precepts and loyally observe all my commands, then I will fulfil my promise to you, the promise I gave to your father David, 13   and I will dwell among the Israelites and never forsake my people Israel.’

14    15   So Solomon built the Lord's house and finished it. He lined the inner walls of the house with cedar boards, covering the interior from floor to rafters ^note with wood; the floor he laid with boards of pine. 16   In the innermost part of the house he partitioned off a space of twenty cubits with cedar boards from floor to rafters ^note and made of it an inner shrine, to be the Most Holy Place. 17   The sanctuary in front of this ^note was forty cubits long. 18   The cedar inside the house was carved with open flowers and gourds; all was cedar, no stone was left visible.

19   He prepared an inner shrine in the furthest recesses of the house to receive the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. ^note 20   This inner shrine was twenty cubits square and it stood twenty cubits high; he overlaid it with red gold and made ^note an altar of cedar. 21   And Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with red gold and drew a Veil ^note with golden chains across in front of the inner shrine. ^note 22   The whole house he overlaid with gold until it was all covered; and the whole of the altar by the inner shrine he overlaid with gold.

23    ^noteIn the inner shrine he made two cherubim of wild olive, each ten cubits high. 24   Each wing of the cherubim was five cubits long, and from wing-tip to wing-tip was ten cubits. 25   Similarly the second cherub measured ten cubits; 26   the two cherubim were alike in size and shape, and each ten cubits high. 27   He put the cherubim within the shrine at the furthest recesses and their wings were outspread, so that a wing of the one cherub touched the wall on one side and a wing of the other

The reign of Solomon touched the wall on the other side, and their other wings met in the middle; 28   and he overlaid the cherubim with gold.

29   Round all the walls of the house he carved figures of cherubim, palm-trees, and open flowers, both in the inner chamber ^note and in the outer. 30   The floor of the house he overlaid with gold, both in the inner chamber ^note and in the outer. 31   At the entrance to the inner shrine he made a double door of wild olive; the pilasters and the ^note door-posts were pentagonal. ^note 32   The doors were of wild olive, and he carved cherubim, palms, and open flowers on them, overlaying them with gold and hammering the gold upon the cherubim and the palms. 33   Similarly for the 34   doorway of the sanctuary he made a square ^note frame of wild olive and a double door of pine, each leaf having two swivel-pins. 35   On them he carved cherubim, palms, and open flowers, overlaying them evenly with gold over the carving.

36   He built the inner court with three courses of dressed stone and one course of lengths of cedar.

37   In the fourth year of Solomon's reign the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, in the month of Ziv; 38   and in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its details according to the specification. It had taken seven years to build.

Previous section

Next section