1 Kings

Construction of the Temple

In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites left the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord.

The house, which King Solomon built for the Lord, was sixty cubits long, twenty wide, and thirty high.

The vestibule fronting the Sanctuary was twenty cubits long from side to side, the width of the temple, and ten cubits deep in front of the house.

He made windows with recessed frames for the house.

Solomon had a structure built adjoining the walls around the house and enclosing the Sanctuary and the inner Sanctuary. He also made lateral rooms all around.

The lowest story was five cubits wide, the middle six cubits wide, and the third seven cubits wide. Around the temple’s exterior, he made offsets on the wall so that the supporting beams would not be inserted into the temple walls.

The house was built with stones prepared at the quarry so that no hammer, ax, or iron implement was heard in the temple during construction.

The entrance to the lowest story was on the right side of the house. A staircase led up to the middle story and from the middle to the third.

So, Solomon built the house and finished it, making the ceiling of the house from cedar beams and planks.

Each story of the structure he built surrounding the house was five cubits high, joined to the house with cedar timber.

The word of the Lord was directed to Solomon:

“If you observe my statutes, obey my ordinances, keep all my commands and follow them, I will fulfill everything I said to David your father regarding this house.

There I will be amid the Israelites and not forsake my people, Israel.”

So, Solomon built the house and finished it.

He covered the temple’s interior walls with cedar boards so that only wood could be seen in the interior, from the house floor to the ceiling rafters. The floor was also covered with cypress boards.

Solomon covered twenty cubits of the rear of the house with cedar boards from floor to rafter to serve as an inner Sanctuary—the Most Holy Place.

The front of the house, that is, the Sanctuary, was forty cubits long.

In all the interior of the house, the cedar was carved in the form of gourds and open flowers; all was of cedar, and no stone was to be seen.

The inner Sanctuary in the innermost part of the building had been destined to house the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord.

It was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high, overlaid with pure gold. He also made an altar of cedar.

Solomon overlaid the interior of the house with pure gold. He closed the inner Sanctuary with golden chains and overlaid it with gold.

Solomon overlaid the entire house with gold. He also overlaid the whole altar in the inner sanctuary with gold.

In the inner Sanctuary, Solomon made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high.

The length of the wings of each cherub was five cubits each, hence, ten cubits from tip to tip.

Both cherubim had the exact measurement and the same form,

both being ten cubits high.

When the cherubim were put in the innermost part of the house, their wings were so spread out that one wing touched one wall, while a wing of the other touched the other. Their other wings touched each other at the center of the house.

The cherubim were also overlaid with gold.

Solomon had all the surrounding walls of the house carved with figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers both in the interior and exterior rooms.

He also had the house floor, in both the interior and exterior rooms, overlaid with gold.

Solomon had olive wood doors for the inner Sanctuary entrance, and the lintel and doorposts formed the fifth part.

He covered the two olive wood doors with carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. He then overlaid them with gold and spread gold on the cherubim and the palm trees.

He did the same for the olive wood doorposts at the entrance to the Sanctuary, which formed the fourth part of the door.

Both the right and left sides of the door had two folding panels of cypress wood.

He had cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers carved on them, and the carvings were overlaid with gold, which was evenly applied.

Solomon had the interior court built with three courses of hewn stone and one course of cedar beams.

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

In the month of Bul, the eighth month of the eleventh year, the House was complete and according to all specifications. It took Solomon seven years to build it.