The First Book of the Kings

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- Chapter 6 -

(2 Chronicles 3:1–2)

480 years after the Israelite people left Egypt, during the fourth year that Solomon ruled Israel, in the second month, that of Ziv, Solomon’s workers began to build the temple.

Inside, the main part of the temple was twenty-seven meters long, nine meters wide, and thirteen and one-half meters high.

The front portico was four and one-half meters deep and nine meters wide, just as wide as the main part of the temple.

There were openings like windows in the temple walls. The openings were narrower on the outside than on the inside.

The Chambers

Against the two sides and the back of the temple walls, they built a structure that had rooms in it. This structure had three levels; each level was two and one-third meters high.

Each room in the lowest level was two and one-third meters wide. Each room in the middle level was two and four-fifths meters wide. The rooms in the top level were three and one-tenth meters wide. The wall of the temple at the top level was thinner than the wall at the middle level, and the wall of the middle level was thinner than the wall at the bottom level. In this way, the rooms could rest on the wall underneath them; the rooms did not need wooden beams underneath to support them.

The huge stones for the foundation of the temple were cut and shaped at the quarry to become very smooth. The result was that while the workers were building the temple there was no noise, because they did not use hammers or chisels or any other iron tools there.

The entrance to the bottom level of this attached structure was on the south side of the temple. There were stairs from the bottom level to the middle and top levels.

So Solomon’s workers finished building the framework of the temple. They made the ceiling from cedar beams and boards.

They built the rooms alongside the main chambers with three levels, each two and one-third meters high, and joined them to the temple with cedar beams.

God’s Promise to Solomon

Then Yahweh said this to Solomon,

“I want to tell you about this temple that you are building. If you continually obey all my statutes and decrees and commands, I will do for you what I promised to your father David.

I will live among the Israelite people, in this temple, and I will never abandon them.”

The Temple’s Interior

(2 Chronicles 3:5–9)

Solomon’s workers worked to finish building the temple.

On the inside, they lined the rooms from the floor to the ceiling. They made the floor from cypress boards.

Inside the back part of the temple they built an inner room, called the very holy place. It was nine meters long. All the walls of this room were lined with cedar boards.

In front of the very holy place was a room that was eighteen meters long.

The cedar boards on the walls inside the temple were decorated with carvings of gourds and flowers. The walls were completely covered with cedar boards, with the result that the stones of the walls behind them could not be seen.

At the back of the temple they made the very holy place, in order to put the sacred chest there.

That room was nine meters long, nine meters wide, and nine meters high. They covered the walls with very thin sheets of pure gold. For burning incense they also made an altar of cedar boards.

Solomon told them to cover the other walls inside the temple with very thin sheets of pure gold and to fasten gold chains across the entrance to the very holy place.

They covered all the walls of the temple and the altar that was outside the very holy place with very thin sheets of gold.

The Cherubim

(2 Chronicles 3:10–13)

Inside the very holy place they made from olive tree wood large statues of two creatures with wings. Each one was four and one-half meters tall.

They each were the same size and had the same shape. They each had two wings which were spread out.

Each wing was two and one-third meters long, with the result that the distance between the outer ends of the two wings was four and one-half meters across.

The height of each cherub was four and one-half meters.

They put these statues next to each other in the very holy place so that the wing of the one touched the one wing of the other in the center of the room, and the outer wings touched the walls.

They covered the statues with very thin sheets of gold.

Solomon told them to decorate the walls of the main room and the very holy place by carving representations of winged creatures and palm trees and flowers.

They also covered the floor of both rooms with very thin sheets of gold.

The Doors

They made a set of doors from olive tree wood, and placed them at the entrance to the very holy place. The lintel and doorposts had five indented sections.

The doors were decorated by carving on them representations of winged creatures, palm trees, and flowers. All of these things were covered with very thin sheets of gold.

They made a rectangular doorframe from olive tree wood, with four indented sections, and put it between the entrance room and the main room.

They made two folding doors from cypress wood and fastened them to the doorframe.

The doors were also decorated with wood carvings of winged creatures, palm trees, and flowers, and they were also covered evenly with very thin sheets of gold.

The Courtyard

They built a courtyard in front of the temple. The walls around the courtyard were made of cedar and stone. To make the walls, between each layer of cedar beams they put down two layers of stone.

They laid the foundation of the temple of Yahweh in the month of Ziv, in the fourth year that Solomon ruled.

In the eleventh year that he ruled, in the month of Bul, they finished building the temple and all of its parts, doing exactly what Solomon told them to do. It required seven years to build it.

(2 Chronicles 3:1–2)

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 Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the LORD’s house.

The house which King Solomon built for the LORD had a length of sixty cubits,(a) and its width twenty, and its height thirty cubits.

The porch in front of the temple of the house had a length of twenty cubits, which was along the width of the house. Ten cubits was its width in front of the house.

He made windows of fixed lattice work for the house.

The Chambers

Against the wall of the house, he built floors all around, against the walls of the house all around, both of the temple and of the inner sanctuary; and he made side rooms all around.

The lowest floor was five cubits wide, and the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide; for on the outside he made offsets in the wall of the house all around, that the beams should not be inserted into the walls of the house.

The house, when it was under construction, was built of stone prepared at the quarry; and no hammer or ax or any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was under construction.

The door for the middle side rooms was in the right side of the house. They went up by winding stairs into the middle floor, and out of the middle into the third.

So he built the house and finished it; and he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar.

He built the floors all along the house, each five cubits high; and they rested on the house with timbers of cedar.

God’s Promise to Solomon

The LORD’s word came to Solomon, saying,

“Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in my statutes, and execute my ordinances, and keep all my commandments to walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father.

I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.”

The Temple’s Interior

(2 Chronicles 3:5–9)

So Solomon built the house and finished it.

He built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar; from the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood. He covered the floor of the house with cypress boards.

He built twenty cubits of the back part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the ceiling. He built this within, for an inner sanctuary, even for the most holy place.

In front of the temple sanctuary was forty cubits long.

There was cedar on the house within, carved with buds and open flowers. All was cedar. No stone was visible.

He prepared an inner sanctuary in the middle of the house within, to set the ark of the LORD’s covenant there.

Within the inner sanctuary was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in width, and twenty cubits in its height. He overlaid it with pure gold. He covered the altar with cedar.

So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold. He drew chains of gold across before the inner sanctuary, and he overlaid it with gold.

He overlaid the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. He also overlaid the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary with gold.

The Cherubim

(2 Chronicles 3:10–13)

In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim

(b)

of olive wood, each ten cubits high.

Five cubits was the length of one wing of the cherub, and five cubits was the length of the other wing of the cherub. From the tip of one wing to the tip of the other was ten cubits.

The other cherub was ten cubits. Both the cherubim were of one measure and one form.

One cherub was ten cubits high, and so was the other cherub.

He set the cherubim within the inner house. 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.

He overlaid the cherubim with gold.

He carved all the walls of the house around with carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, inside and outside.

He overlaid the floor of the house with gold, inside and outside.

The Doors

For the entrance of the inner sanctuary, he made doors of olive wood. The lintel and door posts were a fifth part of the wall.

So he made two doors of olive wood; and he carved on them carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold. He spread the gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees.

He also made the entrance of the temple door posts of olive wood, out of a fourth part of the wall,

and two doors of cypress wood. The two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding.

He carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers; and he overlaid them with gold fitted on the engraved work.

The Courtyard

He built the inner court with three courses of cut stone and a course of cedar beams.

The foundation of the LORD’s house was laid in the fourth year, in the month Ziv.

In the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished throughout all its parts and according to all its specifications. So he spent seven years building it.

Footnotes

(a)6:2 A cubit is the length from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow on a man’s arm, or about 18 inches or 46 centimeters.

(b)6:23 “Cherubim” is plural of “cherub”, an angelic being.