Bible in 90 Days

23 These are the last words of David:

⁸ These are the names of the Top Three—the most heroic men in David’s army: the first was Josheb-basshebeth from Tahchemon, known also as Adino, the Eznite. He once killed eight hundred men in one battle.

⁹ Next in rank was Eleazar, the son of Dodo and grandson of Ahohi. He was one of the three men who, with David, held back the Philistines that time when the rest of the Israeli army fled. ¹⁰ He killed the Philistines until his hand was too tired to hold his sword; and the Lord gave him a great victory. (The rest of the army did not return until it was time to collect the loot!)

^11-12 After him was Shammah, the son of Agee from Harar. Once during a Philistine attack, when all his men deserted him and fled, he stood alone at the center of a field of lentils and beat back the Philistines; and God gave him a great victory.

¹³ One time when David was living in the cave of Adullam and the invading Philistines were at the valley of Rephaim, three of the Thirty—the top-ranking officers of the Israeli army—went down at harvest time to visit him. ¹⁴ David was in the stronghold at the time, for Philistine marauders had occupied the nearby city of Bethlehem.

¹⁵ David remarked, “How thirsty I am for some of that good water in the city well!” (The well was near the city gate.)

¹⁶ So the three men broke through the Philistine ranks and drew water from the well and brought it to David. But he refused to drink it! Instead, he poured it out before the Lord.

¹⁷ “No, my God,” he exclaimed, “I cannot do it! This is the blood of these men who have risked their lives.”

^18-19 Of those three men, Abishai, the brother of Joab (son of Zeruiah), was the greatest. Once he took on three hundred of the enemy single-handed and killed them all. It was by such feats that he earned a reputation equal to the Three, though he was not actually one of them. But he was the greatest of the Thirty—the top-ranking officers of the army—and was their leader.

²⁰ There was also Benaiah (son of Jehoiada), a heroic soldier from Kabzeel. Benaiah killed two giants,^[c] sons of Ariel of Moab. Another time he went down into a pit and, despite the slippery snow on the ground, took on a lion that was caught there and killed it. ²¹ Another time, armed only with a staff, he killed an Egyptian warrior who was armed with a spear; he wrenched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with it. ²² These were some of the deeds that gave Benaiah almost as much renown as the Top Three. ²³ He was one of the greatest of the Thirty, but was not actually one of the Top Three. And David made him chief of his bodyguard.

^24-39 Asahel, the brother of Joab, was also one of the Thirty. Others were:

24 Once again the anger of the Lord flared against Israel, and he caused David to harm them by taking a national census. “Go and count the people of Israel and Judah,” the Lord told him.

² So the king said to Joab, commander-in-chief of his army, “Take a census of all the people from one end of the nation to the other, so that I will know how many of them there are.”

³ But Joab replied, “God grant that you will live to see the day when there will be a hundred times as many people in your kingdom as there are now! But you have no right to rejoice in their strength.”^[e]

⁴ But the king’s command overcame Joab’s remonstrance; so Joab and the other army officers went out to count the people of Israel. ⁵ First they crossed the Jordan and camped at Aroer, south of the city that lies in the middle of the valley of Gad, near Jazer; ⁶ then they went to Gilead in the land of Tahtim-hodshi and to Dan-jaan and around to Sidon; ⁷ and then to the stronghold of Tyre, and all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites, and south to Judah as far as Beersheba. ⁸ Having gone through the entire land, they completed their task in nine months and twenty days. ⁹ And Joab reported the number of the people to the king—800,000 men of conscription age in Israel and 500,000 in Judah.

¹⁰ But after he had taken the census, David’s conscience began to bother him, and he said to the Lord, “What I did was very wrong. Please forgive this foolish wickedness of mine.”

¹¹ The next morning the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, who was David’s contact with God.

The Lord said to Gad, ¹² “Tell David that I will give him three choices.”

¹³ So Gad came to David and asked him, “Will you choose seven years of famine across the land, or to flee for three months before your enemies, or to submit to three days of plague? Think this over and let me know what answer to give to God.”

¹⁴ “This is a hard decision,” David replied, “but it is better to fall into the hand of the Lord (for his mercy is great) than into the hands of men.”

¹⁵ So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel that morning, and it lasted for three days; and seventy thousand men died throughout the nation. ¹⁶ But as the death angel was preparing to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord was sorry for what was happening and told him to stop. He was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite at the time.

¹⁷ When David saw the angel, he said to the Lord, “Look, I am the one who has sinned! What have these sheep done? Let your anger be only against me and my family.”

¹⁸ That day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” ¹⁹ So David went to do what the Lord had commanded him. ²⁰ When Araunah saw the king and his men coming toward him, he came forward and fell flat on the ground with his face in the dust.

²¹ “Why have you come?” Araunah asked.

And David replied, “To buy your threshing floor, so that I can build an altar to the Lord, and he will stop the plague.”

²² “Use anything you like,” Araunah told the king. “Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and you can use the threshing instruments and ox yokes for wood to build a fire on the altar. ²³ I will give it all to you, and may the Lord God accept your sacrifice.”

²⁴ But the king said to Araunah, “No, I will not have it as a gift. I will buy it, for I don’t want to offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that have cost me nothing.”

So David paid him^[f] for the threshing floor and the oxen. ²⁵ And David built an altar there to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And the Lord answered his prayer, and the plague was stopped.

1 In his old age King David was confined to his bed; but no matter how many blankets were heaped upon him, he was always cold.

² “The cure for this,” his aides told him, “is to find a young virgin to be your concubine and nurse. She will lie in your arms and keep you warm.”

^3-4 So they searched the country from one end to the other to find the most beautiful girl in all the land. Abishag, from Shunam, was finally selected. They brought her to the king, and she lay in his arms to warm him (but he had no sexual relations with her).

⁵ At about that time, David’s son^[g] Adonijah (his mother was Haggith) decided to crown himself king in place of his aged father. So he hired chariots and drivers and recruited fifty men to run down the streets before him as royal footmen. ⁶ Now his father, King David, had never disciplined him at any time—not so much as by a single scolding! He was a very handsome man and was Absalom’s younger brother. ⁷ He took General Joab and Abiathar the priest into his confidence, and they agreed to help him become king. ⁸ But among those who remained loyal to King David and refused to endorse Adonijah were the priests Zadok and Benaiah, the prophet Nathan, Shimei, Rei, and David’s army chiefs.

⁹ Adonijah went to En-rogel where he sacrificed sheep, oxen, and fat young goats at the Serpent’s Stone. Then he summoned all of his brothers—the other sons of King David—and all the royal officials of Judah, requesting that they come to his coronation. ¹⁰ But he didn’t invite Nathan the prophet, Benaiah, the loyal army officers, or his brother Solomon.

¹¹ Then Nathan the prophet went to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, and asked her, “Do you realize that Haggith’s son, Adonijah, is now the king and that our lord David doesn’t even know about it? ¹² If you want to save your own life and the life of your son Solomon—do exactly as I say! ¹³ Go at once to King David and ask him, ‘My lord, didn’t you promise me that my son Solomon would be the next king and would sit upon your throne? Then why is Adonijah reigning?’ ¹⁴ And while you are still talking with him, I’ll come and confirm everything you’ve said.”

¹⁵ So Bathsheba went into the king’s bedroom. He was an old, old man now, and Abishag was caring for him. ¹⁶ Bathsheba bowed low before him.

“What do you want?” he asked her.

¹⁷ She replied, “My lord, you vowed to me by the Lord your God that my son Solomon would be the next king and would sit upon your throne. ¹⁸ But instead, Adonijah is the new king, and you don’t even know about it. ¹⁹ He has celebrated his coronation by sacrificing oxen, fat goats, and many sheep and has invited all your sons and Abiathar the priest and General Joab. But he didn’t invite Solomon. ²⁰ And now, my lord the king, all Israel is waiting for your decision as to whether Adonijah is the one you have chosen to succeed you. ²¹ If you don’t act, my son Solomon and I will be arrested and executed as criminals as soon as you are dead.”

^22-23 While she was speaking, the king’s aides told him, “Nathan the prophet is here to see you.”

Nathan came in and bowed low before the king, ²⁴ and asked, “My lord, have you appointed Adonijah to be the next king? Is he the one you have selected to sit upon your throne? ²⁵ Today he celebrated his coronation by sacrificing oxen, fat goats, and many sheep, and has invited your sons to attend the festivities. He also invited General Joab and Abiathar the priest; and they are feasting and drinking with him and shouting, ‘Long live King Adonijah!’ ²⁶ But Zadok the priest and Benaiah and Solomon and I weren’t invited. ²⁷ Has this been done with your knowledge? For you haven’t said a word as to which of your sons you have chosen to be the next king.”

²⁸ “Call Bathsheba,” David said. So she came back in and stood before the king.

²⁹ And the king vowed, “As the Lord lives who has rescued me from every danger, ³⁰ I decree that your son Solomon shall be the next king and shall sit upon my throne, just as I swore to you before by the Lord God of Israel.”

³¹ Then Bathsheba bowed low before him^[h] again and exclaimed, “Oh, thank you, sir. May my lord the king live forever!”

³² “Call Zadok the priest,” the king ordered, “and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah.”

When they arrived, ³³ he said to them, “Take Solomon and my officers to Gihon. Solomon is to ride on my personal mule, ³⁴ and Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet are to anoint him there as king of Israel. Then blow the trumpets and shout, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ ³⁵ When you bring him back here, place him upon my throne as the new king; for I have appointed him king of Israel and Judah.”

³⁶ “Amen! Praise God!” replied Benaiah, and added, ³⁷ “May the Lord be with Solomon as he has been with you, and may God make Solomon’s reign even greater than yours!”

³⁸ So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah, and David’s bodyguard took Solomon to Gihon, riding on King David’s own mule. ³⁹ At Gihon, Zadok took a flask of sacred oil from the Tabernacle and poured it over Solomon; and the trumpets were blown and all the people shouted, “Long live King Solomon!”

⁴⁰ Then they all returned with him to Jerusalem, making a joyous and noisy celebration all along the way.

⁴¹ Adonijah and his guests heard the commotion and shouting just as they were finishing their banquet.

“What’s going on?” Joab demanded. “Why is the city in such an uproar?”

⁴² And while he was still speaking, Jonathan, the son of Abiathar the priest, rushed in.

“Come in,” Adonijah said to him, “for you are a good man; you must have good news.”

⁴³ “Our lord King David has declared Solomon as king!” Jonathan shouted. ^44-45 “The king sent him to Gihon with Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet and Benaiah, protected by the king’s own bodyguard; and he rode on the king’s own mule. And Zadok and Nathan have anointed him as the new king! They have just returned, and the whole city is celebrating and rejoicing. That’s what all the noise is. ^46-47 Solomon is sitting on the throne, and all the people are congratulating King David, saying, ‘May God bless you even more through Solomon than he has blessed you personally! May God make Solomon’s reign even greater than yours!’ And the king is lying in bed, acknowledging their blessings. ⁴⁸ He is saying, ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who has selected one of my sons to sit upon my throne while I am still alive to see it.’”

^49-50 Then Adonijah and his guests jumped up from the banquet table and fled in panic; for they were fearful for their lives. Adonijah rushed into the Tabernacle and caught hold of the horns of the sacred altar. ⁵¹ When word reached Solomon that Adonijah was claiming sanctuary in the Tabernacle, and pleading for clemency, ⁵² Solomon replied, “If he behaves himself, he will not be harmed; but if he does not, he shall die.” ⁵³ So King Solomon summoned him, and they brought him down from the altar. He came to bow low before the king; and then Solomon curtly dismissed him.

“Go on home,” he said.

2 As the time of King David’s death approached, he gave this charge to his son Solomon:

² “I am going where every man on earth must some day go. I am counting on you to be a strong and worthy successor. ³ Obey the laws of God and follow all his ways; keep each of his commands written in the law of Moses so that you will prosper in everything you do, wherever you turn. ⁴ If you do this, then the Lord will fulfill the promise he gave me, that if my children and their descendants watch their step and are faithful to God, one of them shall always be the king of Israel—my dynasty will never end.

⁵ “Now listen to my instructions. You know that Joab murdered my two generals, Abner and Amasa. He pretended that it was an act of war, but it was done in a time of peace. ⁶ You are a wise man and will know what to do—don’t let him die in peace. ⁷ But be kind to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite. Make them permanent guests of the king, for they took care of me when I fled from your brother Absalom. ⁸ And do you remember Shimei, the son of Gera the Benjaminite from Bahurim? He cursed me with a terrible curse as I was going to Mahanaim; but when he came down to meet me at the Jordan River, I promised I wouldn’t kill him. ⁹ But that promise doesn’t bind you! You are a wise man, and you will know how to arrange a bloody death for him.”

¹⁰ Then David died and was buried in Jerusalem. ¹¹ He had reigned over Israel for forty years, seven of them in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem. ¹² And Solomon became the new king, replacing his father David; and his kingdom prospered.

¹³ One day Adonijah, the son of Haggith, came to see Solomon’s mother, Bathsheba.

“Have you come to make trouble?” she asked him.

“No,” he replied, “I come in peace. ¹⁴ As a matter of fact, I have a favor to ask of you.”

“What is it?” she asked.

¹⁵ “Everything was going well for me,” he said, “and the kingdom was mine: everyone expected me to be the next king. But the tables are turned, and everything went to my brother instead; for that is the way the Lord wanted it. ¹⁶ But now I have just a small favor to ask of you; please don’t turn me down.”

“What is it?” she asked.

¹⁷ He replied, “Speak to King Solomon on my behalf (for I know he will do anything you request) and ask him to give me Abishag, the Shunammite, as my wife.”

¹⁸ “All right,” Bathsheba replied, “I’ll ask him.”

¹⁹ So she went to ask the favor of King Solomon. The king stood up from his throne as she entered and bowed low to her. He ordered that a throne for his mother be placed beside his; so she sat at his right hand.

²⁰ “I have one small request to make of you,” she said. “I hope you won’t turn me down.”

“What is it, my mother?” he asked. “You know I won’t refuse you.”

²¹ “Then let your brother Adonijah marry Abishag,” she replied.

²² “Are you crazy?” he demanded. “If I were to give him Abishag, I would be giving him the kingdom too! For he is my older brother! He and Abiathar the priest and General Joab would take over!” ^23-24 Then King Solomon swore with a great oath, “May God strike me dead if Adonijah does not die this very day for this plot against me! I swear it by the living God who has given me the throne of my father David and this kingdom he promised me.”

²⁵ So King Solomon sent Benaiah to execute him, and he killed him with a sword.

²⁶ Then the king said to Abiathar the priest, “Go back to your home in Anathoth. You should be killed, too, but I won’t do it now. For you carried the Ark of the Lord during my father’s reign, and you suffered right along with him in all of his troubles.”

²⁷ So Solomon forced Abiathar to give up his position as the priest of the Lord, thereby fulfilling the decree of Jehovah at Shiloh concerning the descendants of Eli.^[i]

²⁸ When Joab heard about Adonijah’s death (Joab had joined Adonijah’s revolt, though not Absalom’s) he ran to the Tabernacle for sanctuary and caught hold of the horns of the altar. ²⁹ When news of this reached King Solomon, he sent Benaiah to execute him.

³⁰ Benaiah went into the Tabernacle and said to Joab, “The king says to come out!”

“No,” he said, “I’ll die here.”

So Benaiah returned to the king for further instructions.

³¹ “Do as he says,” the king replied. “Kill him there beside the altar and bury him. This will remove the guilt of his senseless murders from me and from my father’s family. ³² Then Jehovah will hold him personally responsible for the murders of two men who were better than he. For my father was no party to the deaths of General Abner, commander-in-chief of the army of Israel, and General Amasa, commander-in-chief of the army of Judah. ³³ May Joab and his descendants be forever guilty of these murders, and may the Lord declare David and his descendants guiltless concerning their deaths.”

³⁴ So Benaiah returned to the Tabernacle and killed Joab; and he was buried beside his house in the desert.

³⁵ Then the king appointed Benaiah as commander-in-chief, and Zadok as priest instead of Abiathar.

^36-37 The king now sent for Shimei and told him, “Build a house here in Jerusalem, and don’t step outside the city on pain of death. The moment you go beyond Kidron Brook, you die; and it will be your own fault.”

³⁸ “All right,” Shimei replied, “whatever you say.” So he lived in Jerusalem for a long time.

³⁹ But three years later two of Shimei’s slaves escaped to King Achish of Gath. When Shimei learned where they were, ⁴⁰ he saddled a donkey and went to Gath to visit the king. And when he had found his slaves, he took them back to Jerusalem.

⁴¹ When Solomon heard that Shimei had left Jerusalem and had gone to Gath and returned, ⁴² he sent for him and demanded, “Didn’t I command you in the name of God to stay in Jerusalem or die? You replied, ‘Very well, I will do as you say.’ ⁴³ Then why have you not kept your agreement and obeyed my commandment? ⁴⁴ And what about all the wicked things you did to my father, King David? May the Lord take revenge on you, ⁴⁵ but may I receive God’s rich blessings, and may one of David’s descendants always sit upon this throne.”

⁴⁶ Then, at the king’s command, Benaiah took Shimei outside and killed him.

So Solomon’s grip upon the kingdom became secure.

3 Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and married one of his daughters. He brought her to Jerusalem to live in the City of David until he could finish building his palace and the Temple and the wall around the city.

² At that time the people of Israel sacrificed their offerings on altars in the hills, for the Temple of the Lord hadn’t yet been built.

³ (Solomon loved the Lord and followed all of his father David’s instructions except that he continued to sacrifice in the hills and to offer incense there.) ⁴ The most famous of the hilltop altars was at Gibeon, and now the king went there and sacrificed one thousand burnt offerings! ⁵ The Lord appeared to him in a dream that night and told him to ask for anything he wanted, and it would be given to him!

⁶ Solomon replied, “You were wonderfully kind to my father David because he was honest and true and faithful to you, and obeyed your commands. And you have continued your kindness to him by giving him a son to succeed him. ⁷ O Lord my God, now you have made me the king instead of my father David, but I am as a little child who doesn’t know his way around. ⁸ And here I am among your own chosen people, a nation so great that there are almost too many people to count! ⁹ Give me an understanding mind so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between what is right and what is wrong. For who by himself is able to carry such a heavy responsibility?”

¹⁰ The Lord was pleased with his reply and was glad that Solomon had asked for wisdom. ¹¹ So he replied, “Because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people and haven’t asked for a long life, or riches for yourself, or the defeat of your enemies— ¹² yes, I’ll give you what you asked for! I will give you a wiser mind than anyone else has ever had or ever will have! ¹³ And I will also give you what you didn’t ask for—riches and honor! And no one in all the world will be as rich and famous as you for the rest of your life! ¹⁴ And I will give you a long life if you follow me and obey my laws as your father David did.”

¹⁵ Then Solomon woke up and realized it had been a dream. He returned to Jerusalem and went into the Tabernacle. And as he stood before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, he sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then he invited all of his officials to a great banquet.

¹⁶ Soon afterwards two young prostitutes came to the king to have an argument settled.

^17-18 “Sir,” one of them began, “we live in the same house, just the two of us, and recently I had a baby. When it was three days old, this woman’s baby was born too. ¹⁹ But her baby died during the night when she rolled over on it in her sleep and smothered it. ²⁰ Then she got up in the night and took my son from beside me while I was asleep, and laid her dead child in my arms and took mine to sleep beside her. ²¹ And in the morning when I tried to feed my baby it was dead! But when it became light outside, I saw that it wasn’t my son at all.”

²² Then the other woman interrupted, “It certainly was her son, and the living child is mine.”

“No,” the first woman said, “the dead one is yours and the living one is mine.” And so they argued back and forth before the king.

²³ Then the king said, “Let’s get the facts straight: both of you claim the living child, and each says that the dead child belongs to the other. ²⁴ All right, bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought to the king. ²⁵ Then he said, “Divide the living child in two and give half to each of these women!”

²⁶ Then the woman who really was the mother of the child, and who loved him very much, cried out, “Oh no, sir! Give her the child—don’t kill him!”

But the other woman said, “All right, it will be neither yours nor mine; divide it between us!”

²⁷ Then the king said, “Give the baby to the woman who wants him to live, for she is the mother!”

²⁸ Word of the king’s decision spread quickly throughout the entire nation, and all the people were awed as they realized the great wisdom God had given him.

4 ^1-6 Here is a list of King Solomon’s cabinet members:

⁷ There were also twelve officials of Solomon’s court—one man from each tribe—responsible for requisitioning food from the people for the king’s household. Each of them arranged provisions for one month of the year.

^8-19 The names of these twelve officers were:

A general manager supervised these officials and their work.

²⁰ Israel and Judah were a wealthy, populous, contented nation at this time. ²¹ King Solomon ruled the whole area from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines and down to the borders of Egypt. The conquered peoples of those lands sent taxes to Solomon and continued to serve him throughout his lifetime.

²² The daily food requirements for the palace were 195 bushels of fine flour, 390 bushels of meal, ²³ 10 oxen from the fattening pens, 20 pasture-fed cattle, 100 sheep, and, from time to time, deer, gazelles, roebucks, and plump fowl.

²⁴ His dominion extended over all the kingdoms west of the Euphrates River, from Tiphsah to Gaza. And there was peace throughout the land.

²⁵ Throughout the lifetime of Solomon, all of Judah and Israel lived in peace and safety; and each family had its own home and garden.

²⁶ Solomon owned forty thousand chariot horses and employed twelve thousand charioteers. ²⁷ Each month the tax officials provided food for King Solomon and his court, ²⁸ also the barley and straw for the royal horses in the stables.

²⁹ God gave Solomon great wisdom and understanding, and a mind with broad interests. ³⁰ In fact, his wisdom excelled that of any of the wise men of the East, including those in Egypt. ³¹ He was wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and he was famous among all the surrounding nations. ³² He was the author of 3,000 proverbs and wrote 1,005 songs. ³³ He was a great naturalist, with interest in animals, birds, snakes, fish, and trees—from the great cedars of Lebanon down to the tiny hyssop which grows in cracks in the wall. ³⁴ And kings from many lands sent their ambassadors to him for his advice.

5 King Hiram of Tyre had always been a great admirer of David, so when he learned that David’s son Solomon was the new king of Israel, he sent ambassadors to extend congratulations and good wishes. ^2-3 Solomon replied with a proposal about the Temple of the Lord he wanted to build. His father David, Solomon pointed out to Hiram, had not been able to build it because of the numerous wars going on, and he had been waiting for the Lord to give him peace.

⁴ “But now,” Solomon said to Hiram, “the Lord my God has given Israel peace on every side; I have no foreign enemies or internal rebellions. ⁵ So I am planning to build a Temple for the Lord my God, just as he instructed my father that I should do. For the Lord told him, ‘Your son, whom I will place upon your throne, shall build me a Temple.’ ⁶ Now please assist me with this project. Send your woodsmen to the mountains of Lebanon to cut cedar timber for me, and I will send my men to work beside them, and I will pay your men whatever wages you ask; for as you know, no one in Israel can cut timber like you Sidonians!”

⁷ Hiram was very pleased with the message from Solomon. “Praise God for giving David a wise son to be king of the great nation of Israel,” he said. ⁸ Then he sent this reply to Solomon: “I have received your message and I will do as you have asked concerning the timber. I can supply both cedar and cypress. ⁹ My men will bring the logs from the Lebanon mountains to the Mediterranean Sea and build them into rafts. We will float them along the coast to wherever you need them; then we will break the rafts apart and deliver the timber to you. You can pay me with food for my household.”

¹⁰ So Hiram produced for Solomon as much cedar and cypress timber as he desired, ¹¹ and in return Solomon sent him an annual payment of 125,000 bushels of wheat for his household and 96 gallons of pure olive oil. ¹² So the Lord gave great wisdom to Solomon just as he had promised. And Hiram and Solomon made a formal alliance of peace.

¹³ Then Solomon drafted thirty thousand laborers from all over Israel, ¹⁴ and rotated them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month, so that each man was a month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was the general superintendent of this labor camp. ¹⁵ Solomon also had seventy thousand additional laborers, eighty thousand stonecutters in the hill country, ¹⁶ and thirty-three hundred foremen. ¹⁷ The stonecutters quarried and shaped huge blocks of stone—a very expensive job—for the foundation of the Temple. ¹⁸ Men from Gebal helped Solomon’s and Hiram’s builders in cutting the timber and making the boards, and in preparing the stone for the Temple.

6 It was in the spring of the fourth year of Solomon’s reign that he began the actual construction of the Temple. (This was 480 years after the people of Israel left their slavery in Egypt.) ² The Temple was ninety feet long, thirty feet wide, and forty-five feet high. ³ All along the front of the Temple was a porch thirty feet long and fifteen feet deep. ⁴ Narrow windows were used throughout.

⁵ An annex of rooms was built along the full length of both sides of the Temple against the outer walls. ⁶ These rooms were three stories high, the lower floor being 7-1/2 feet wide, the second floor 9 feet wide, and the upper floor 10-1/2 feet wide. The rooms were connected to the walls of the Temple by beams resting on blocks built out from the wall—so the beams were not inserted into the walls themselves.

⁷ The stones used in the construction of the Temple were prefinished at the quarry, so the entire structure was built without the sound of hammer, ax, or any other tool at the building site.

⁸ The bottom floor of the side rooms was entered from the right side of the Temple, and there were winding stairs going up to the second floor; another flight of stairs led from the second to the third. ⁹ After completing the Temple, Solomon paneled it all, including the beams and pillars, with cedar. ¹⁰ As already stated, there was an annex on each side of the building, attached to the Temple walls by cedar timbers. Each story of the annex was 7-1/2 feet high.

^11-12 Then the Lord sent this message to Solomon concerning the Temple he was building: “If you do as I tell you to and follow all of my commandments and instructions, I will do what I told your father David I would do: ¹³ I will live among the people of Israel and never forsake them.”

¹⁴ At last the Temple was finished. ¹⁵ The entire inside, from floor to ceiling, was paneled with cedar, and the floors were made of cypress boards. ¹⁶ The thirty-foot inner room at the far end of the Temple—the Most Holy Place—was also paneled from the floor to the ceiling with cedar boards. ¹⁷ The remainder of the Temple—other than the Most Holy Place—was sixty feet long. ¹⁸ Throughout the Temple the cedar paneling laid over the stone walls was carved with designs of rosebuds and open flowers.

¹⁹ The inner room was where the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord was placed. ²⁰ This inner sanctuary was thirty feet long, thirty feet wide, and thirty feet high. Its walls and ceiling were overlaid with pure gold, and Solomon made a cedar-wood altar for this room. ^21-22 Then he overlaid the interior of the remainder of the Temple—including the cedar altar—with pure gold; and he made gold chains to protect the entrance to the Most Holy Place.

^23-28 Within the inner sanctuary Solomon placed two statues of Guardian Angels^[j] made from olive wood, each fifteen feet high. They were placed so that their outspread wings reached from wall to wall, while their inner wings touched each other at the center of the room; each wing was 7-1/2 feet long, so each Angel measured fifteen feet from wing tip to wing tip. The two Angels were identical in all dimensions, and each was overlaid with gold.

²⁹ Figures of Guardian Angels, palm trees, and open flowers were carved on all the walls of both rooms of the Temple, ³⁰ and the floor of both rooms was overlaid with gold.

³¹ The doorway to the inner sanctuary was a five-sided opening, ³² and its two olive-wood doors were carved with Guardian Angels, palm trees, and open flowers, all overlaid with gold.

³³ Then he made square doorposts of olive wood for the entrance to the Temple. ³⁴ There were two folding doors of cypress wood, and each door was hinged to fold back upon itself. ³⁵ Angels, palm trees, and open flowers were carved on these doors and carefully overlaid with gold.

³⁶ The wall of the inner court had three layers of hewn stone and one layer of cedar beams.

³⁷ The foundation of the Temple was laid in the month of May in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign, ³⁸ and the entire building was completed in every detail in November of the eleventh year of his reign. So it took seven years to build.

7 Then Solomon built his own palace, which took thirteen years to construct.

² One of the rooms in the palace was called the Hall of the Forest of Lebanon. It was huge—measuring 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. The great cedar ceiling beams rested upon four rows of cedar pillars. ^3-4 There were forty-five windows in the hall, set in three tiers, one tier above the other, five to a tier, facing each other from three walls. ⁵ Each of the doorways and windows had a square frame.

⁶ Another room was called the Hall of Pillars. It was seventy-five feet long and forty-five feet wide, with a porch in front covered by a canopy that was supported by pillars.

⁷ There was also the Throne Room or Judgment Hall, where Solomon sat to hear legal matters; it was paneled with cedar from the floor to the rafters.

⁸ His cedar-paneled living quarters surrounded a courtyard behind this hall. (He designed similar living quarters, the same size, in the palace that he built for Pharaoh’s daughter—one of his wives.) ⁹ These buildings were constructed entirely from huge, expensive stones, cut to measure. ¹⁰ The foundation stones were twelve to fifteen feet across. ¹¹ The huge stones in the walls were also cut to measure and were topped with cedar beams. ¹² The Great Court had three courses of hewn stone in its walls, topped with cedar beams, just like the inner court of the Temple and the porch of the palace.

¹³ King Solomon then asked for a man named Hiram to come from Tyre, for he was a skilled craftsman in bronze work. ¹⁴ He was half Jewish, being the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father had been a foundry worker from Tyre. So he came to work for King Solomon.

¹⁵ He cast two hollow bronze pillars, each twenty-seven feet high and eighteen feet around, with three-inch-thick walls. ^16-22 At the tops of the pillars he made two lily-shaped capitals from molten bronze, each 7-1/2 feet high. The upper part of each capital was shaped like a lily, six feet high. Each capital was decorated with seven sets of bronze, chain-designed lattices and four hundred pomegranates in two rows. Hiram set these pillars at the entrance of the Temple. The one on the south was named the Jachin Pillar,^[k] and the one on the north, the Boaz Pillar.

²³ Then Hiram cast a round bronze tank, 7-1/2 feet high and 15 feet from brim to brim; 45 feet in circumference. ²⁴ On the underside of the rim were two rows of ornaments an inch or two apart,^[l] which were cast along with the tank. ²⁵ It rested on twelve bronze^[m] oxen standing tail to tail, three facing north, three west, three south, and three east. ²⁶ The sides of the tank were four inches thick; its brim was shaped like a goblet, and it had a twelve thousand gallon capacity.

^27-30 Then he made ten four-wheeled movable stands, each 6 feet square and 4-1/2 feet high. They were constructed with undercarriages braced with square^[n] crosspieces. These crosspieces were decorated with carved lions, oxen, and Guardian Angels. Above and below the lions and oxen were wreath decorations. Each of these movable stands had four bronze wheels and bronze axles, and at each corner of the stands were supporting posts made of bronze and decorated with wreaths on each side. ³¹ The top of each stand was a round piece 1-1/2 feet high. Its center was concave, 2-1/4 feet deep, decorated on the outside with wreaths. Its panels were square, not round.

³² The stands rode on four wheels which were connected to axles that had been cast as part of the stands. The wheels were twenty-seven inches high ³³ and were similar to chariot wheels. All the parts of the stands were cast from molten bronze, including the axles, spokes, rims, and hubs. ³⁴ There were supports at each of the four corners of the stands, and these, too, were cast with the stands. ³⁵ A nine-inch rim surrounded the tip of each stand, banded with lugs. All was cast as one unit with the stand. ³⁶ Guardian Angels, lions, and palm trees surrounded by wreaths were engraved on the borders of the band wherever there was room. ³⁷ All ten stands were the same size and were made alike, for each was cast from the same mold.