Solomon & The Temple

And Solomon had threescore and ten thousand that bare burdens, and fourscore thousand that were hewers in the mountains;

besides Solomon’s chief officers that were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, who bare rule over the people that wrought in the work.

And the king commanded, and they hewed out great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with wrought stone.

And Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites did fashion them, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the house.

And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were 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, that he began to build the house of Jehovah.

And the house which king Solomon built for Jehovah, the length thereof was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits.

And the porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; and ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house.

And for the house he made windows of fixed lattice-work.

And against the wall of the house he built stories round about, against the walls of the house round about, both of the temple and of the oracle; and he made side-chambers round about.

The nethermost story was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad; for on the outside he made offsets in the wall of the house round about, that the beams should not have hold in the walls of the house.

And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready at the quarry; and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.

The door for the middle side-chambers was in the right side of the house: and they went up by winding stairs into the middle story, 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.

And he built the stories against all the house, each five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.

And the word of Jehovah came to Solomon, saying,

Concerning this house which thou art building, if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute mine ordinances, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then will I establish my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father.

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

So Solomon built the house, and finished it.

And he built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar: from the floor of the house unto the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood; and he covered the floor of the house with boards of fir.

And he built twenty cubits on the hinder part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor unto the walls of the ceiling: he built them for it within, for an oracle, even for the most holy place.

And the house, that is, the temple before the oracle, was forty cubits long.

And there was cedar on the house within, carved with knops and open flowers: all was cedar; there was no stone seen.

And he prepared an oracle in the midst of the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of Jehovah.

And within the oracle was a space of twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height thereof; and he overlaid it with pure gold: and he covered the altar with cedar.

So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold: and he drew chains of gold across before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold.