1 Kings 6
Contemporary English Version
The Outside of the Temple Is Completed
6 Solomon's workers started building the temple during Ziv,[a] the second month of the year. It had been 4 years since Solomon became king of Israel, and 480 years since the people of Israel left Egypt.
2 The inside of the Lord's temple was 27 meters long, 9 meters wide, and 13.5 meters high. 3 A four-and-a-half-meter porch went all the way across the front of the temple. 4 The windows were narrow on the outside but wide on the inside.
5-6 Along the sides and back of the temple, there were three levels of storage rooms. The rooms on the bottom level were just over two meters wide, the rooms on the middle level were over two and a half meters wide, and those on the top level were just over three meters wide. There were ledges on the outside of the temple that supported the beams of the storage rooms, so that nothing was built into the temple walls.
7 Solomon did not want the noise of hammers and axes to be heard at the place where the temple was being built. So he gave orders for the workers to shape the blocks of stone at the quarry.
8 The entrance to the bottom storage rooms was on the south side of the building, and stairs to the other rooms were also there. 9 The roof of the temple was made out of beams and cedar boards.
The workers finished building the outside of the temple. 10 Storage rooms just over two meters high were all around the temple, and they were attached to the temple by cedar beams.
11 The Lord told Solomon:
12-13 If you obey my commands and do what I say, I will keep the promise I made to your father David. I will live among my people Israel in this temple you are building, and I will not desert them.
14 So Solomon's workers finished building the temple.
The Inside of the Temple Is Furnished
(2 Chronicles 3.8-14)
15 The floor of the temple was made out of pine, and the walls were lined with cedar from floor to ceiling.[b]
16 (A) The most holy place was in the back of the temple, and it was nine meters square. Cedar boards standing from floor to ceiling[c] separated it from the rest of the temple. 17 The temple's main room was 18 meters long, and it was in front of the most holy place.
18 The inside walls were lined with cedar to hide the stones, and the cedar was decorated with carvings of gourds and flowers.
19 The sacred chest was kept in the most holy place. 20-22 (B) This room was nine meters long, nine meters wide, and nine meters high, and it was lined with pure gold. There were also gold chains across the front of the most holy place. The inside of the temple, as well as the cedar altar in the most holy place, was covered with gold.
23 (C) Solomon had two statues of winged creatures[d] made from olive wood to put in the most holy place. Each creature was four and a half meters tall 24-26 and four and a half meters across. They had two wings, and the wings were just over two meters long. 27 Solomon put them next to each other in the most holy place. Their wings were spread out and reached across the room. 28 The creatures were also covered with gold.
29 The walls of the two rooms were decorated with carvings of palm trees, flowers, and winged creatures. 30 Even the floor was covered with gold.
31-32 The two doors to the most holy place were made out of olive wood and were decorated with carvings of palm trees, flowers, and winged creatures. The doors and the carvings were covered with gold. The door frame came to a point at the top.
33-34 The two doors to the main room of the temple were made out of pine, and each one had two sections[e] so they could fold open. The door frame was shaped like a rectangle and was made out of olive wood. 35 The doors were covered with gold and were decorated with carvings of palm trees, flowers, and winged creatures.
36 The inner courtyard of the temple had walls made out of three layers of cut stones with one layer of cedar beams.
37 Work began on the temple during Ziv,[f] the second month of the year, four years after Solomon became king of Israel. 38 Seven years later the workers finished building it during Bul,[g] the eighth month of the year. It was built exactly as it had been planned.
Footnotes
- 6.1 Ziv: The second month of the Hebrew calendar, from about mid-April to mid-May.
- 6.15 from floor to ceiling: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
- 6.16 standing … ceiling: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
- 6.23 statues of winged creatures: These were symbols of the Lord's throne on earth (see Exodus 25.18-22).
- 6.33,34 two sections: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
- 6.37 Ziv: See the note at 6.1.
- 6.38 Bul: The eighth month of the Hebrew calendar, from about mid-October to mid-November.
1 Kings 6
English Standard Version
Solomon Builds the Temple
6 (A)In the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, (B)he began to build the house of the Lord. 2 (C)The house that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits[a] long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. 3 The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and ten cubits deep in front of the house. 4 And (D)he made for the house windows with recessed frames.[b] 5 (E)He also built a structure[c] against the wall of the house, running around the walls of the house, both the nave and (F)the inner sanctuary. And he made (G)side chambers all around. 6 The lowest story[d] was five cubits broad, the middle one was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad. For around the outside of the house he made offsets on the wall in order that the supporting beams should not be inserted into the walls of the house.
7 When the house was built, (H)it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built.
8 The entrance for the lowest[e] story was on the south side of the house, and one went up by stairs to the middle story, and from the middle story to the third. 9 (I)So he built the house and finished it, and he made the ceiling of the house of beams and planks of cedar. 10 He built the structure against the whole house, five cubits high, and it was joined to the house with timbers of cedar.
11 Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon, 12 “Concerning this house that you are building, (J)if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, (K)which I spoke to David your father. 13 And (L)I will dwell among the children of Israel (M)and will not forsake my people Israel.”
14 (N)So Solomon built the house and finished it. 15 He lined the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar. From the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood, (O)and he covered the floor of the house with boards of cypress. 16 (P)He built twenty cubits of the rear of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the walls, and he built this within as an inner sanctuary, as (Q)the Most Holy Place. 17 The house, that is, the nave in front of the inner sanctuary, was forty cubits long. 18 The cedar within the house was carved in the form of (R)gourds and open flowers. All was cedar; no stone was seen. 19 The inner sanctuary he prepared in the innermost part of the house, to set there the ark of the covenant of the Lord. 20 The inner sanctuary[f] was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high, and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid[g] an altar of cedar. 21 And Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold, and he drew chains of gold across, in front of the inner sanctuary, and overlaid it with gold. 22 And he overlaid the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. (S)Also the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold.
23 (T)In the inner sanctuary (U)he made two cherubim of olivewood, each ten cubits high. 24 Five cubits was the length of one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the length of the other wing of the cherub; it was ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. 25 The other cherub also measured ten cubits; both cherubim had the same measure and the same form. 26 The height of one cherub was ten cubits, and so was that of the other cherub. 27 He put the cherubim in the innermost part of the house. (V)And the wings of the cherubim were spread out so that a wing of one touched the one wall, and a wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; their other wings touched each other in the middle of the house. 28 And he overlaid the cherubim with gold.
29 Around all the walls of the house he carved engraved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, in the inner and outer rooms. 30 The floor of the house he overlaid with gold in the inner and outer rooms.
31 For the entrance to the inner sanctuary he made doors of olivewood; the lintel and the doorposts were five-sided.[h] 32 He covered the two doors of olivewood with carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. He overlaid them with gold and spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees.
33 So also he made for the entrance to the nave doorposts of olivewood, in the form of a square, 34 and two doors of cypress wood. (W)The two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding. 35 On them he carved cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and he overlaid them with gold evenly applied on the carved work. 36 (X)He built the inner court with three courses of cut stone and one course of cedar beams.
37 (Y)In the fourth year 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 parts, and according to all its specifications. He was seven years in building it.
Footnotes
- 1 Kings 6:2 A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters
- 1 Kings 6:4 Or blocked lattice windows
- 1 Kings 6:5 Or platform; also verse 10
- 1 Kings 6:6 Septuagint; Hebrew structure, or platform
- 1 Kings 6:8 Septuagint, Targum; Hebrew middle
- 1 Kings 6:20 Vulgate; Hebrew And before the inner sanctuary
- 1 Kings 6:20 Septuagint made
- 1 Kings 6:31 The meaning of the Hebrew phrase is uncertain
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