1 Kings 7:13-28

EasyEnglish Bible

More work on the temple

¹³ King Solomon sent men to Tyre to fetch a man called Hiram. ¹⁴ Hiram was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali.^[a] His father was a worker who knew how to use bronze to make things. He lived in Tyre. Hiram also had special skills. He knew how to use bronze to make many kinds of things. So he came to work for King Solomon. He did all the work that Solomon asked him to do.

¹⁵ Hiram made two bronze pillars. Each pillar was 8.2 metres high and 5.5 metres around the outside. The metal itself was about 7 centimetres thick. ¹⁶ He also used bronze to make a top for each pillar. Each piece was 2.3 metres high. ¹⁷ Each piece had pictures like rows of chains that joined together. There were seven pictures like this on the top of each pillar. ¹⁸ Hiram also made pictures of two rows of pomegranates around the chains. They covered the tops of the pillars. ¹⁹ The tops of the two pillars were in the shape of flowers called lilies. Each one was 1.8 metres high. ²⁰ There were pictures of 200 pomegranates in two rows all around the top of each pillar. They were next to the chains above the round shape at the top of the pillar.

²¹ Hiram put these two pillars at the entrance room of the temple, in front of the big hall, the hall of pillars in the temple. He called the pillar on the south side ‘Jakin’. He called the pillar on the north side ‘Boaz’. ²² The tops of the pillars were in the shape of flowers called lilies. Hiram finished the work on the two bronze pillars.

²³ Hiram also used bronze to make a big bath which they called ‘the Sea’.^[b] It was in the shape of a circle 4.5 metres across. It was 2.3 metres deep. It was 14 metres around the outside. ²⁴ All around its edge, below the top, there were two rows of round shapes. They were pictures of fruits called gourds. They were all part of the same piece of bronze as ‘the Sea’. There were 20 gourds for every metre around the edge. ²⁵ Hiram fixed ‘the Sea’ on top of 12 bronze bulls. Three pointed north, three pointed west, three pointed south and three pointed east. Their backs were towards the middle of ‘the Sea’. ²⁶ The walls of ‘the Sea’ were 7½ centimetres thick. Its top edge was like a cup in the shape of a lily flower. ‘The Sea’ contained about 40,000 litres of water.

²⁷ Hiram also made ten bronze carts to carry water.^[c] Each one was 1.8 metres long, 1.8 metres wide and 1.3 metres deep. ²⁸ This is how he made the water carts: He made them with bronze sides, which he fixed to bronze bars at the edges.