Solomon & The Temple

The entire house he overlaid with gold until it was completely covered with it. He also overlaid with gold the entire altar that belonged to the sanctuary.

Inside the sanctuary he made two k'ruvim of olive-wood, each seventeen-and-a-half feet high.

Each of the two wings of one of the k'ruvim was eight-and-three quarters feet long, so that the distance from the end of one wing to the end of the other was seventeen-and-a-half feet.

Likewise the [wingspread of the] other keruv was seventeen-and-a-half feet; both k'ruvim were identical in shape and size.

The height of the one keruv was seventeen-and-a-half feet, likewise that of the other.

He set the k'ruvim in the inner house; the wings of the k'ruvim were stretched out, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other keruv touched the other wall; their wings touched each other in the middle of the house.

He overlaid the k'ruvim with gold.

All around the walls of the house, both inside the sanctuary and outside it, he carved figures of k'ruvim, palm trees and open flowers.

He overlaid the floor of the house with gold, both inside the sanctuary and outside it.

For the entrance to the sanctuary he made doors of olive-wood, set within a five-sided door-frame.

On the two olive-wood doors he carved figures of k'ruvim, palm trees and open flowers. He overlaid the doors with gold, forcing the gold into the shapes of the k'ruvim and palm trees as well.

For the entrance to the temple he also made doorposts of olive-wood, set within a rectangular door-frame,

and two doors of cypress-wood; the two leaves of the one door were folding, as were the two leaves of the other.

On them he carved k'ruvim, palm trees and open flowers, overlaying them with gold fitted to the carved work.

He built the inner courtyard with three rows of cut stone and a row of cedar beams.

The foundation of the house of ADONAI was laid in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv.

In the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, all parts of the house were completed exactly as designed. Thus he was seven years building it.

Shlomo built a palace for himself, taking thirteen years to finish it.

For he built the House of the L'vanon Forest 175 feet long, eighty-seven-and-a-half feet wide and fifty-two-and-a-half feet high, on four rows of cedar posts, with cedar beams on the posts.

It had a roof made of cedar and supported by beams lying on forty-five posts, fifteen in a row.

There were three rows of window openings, placed so that the windows on facing walls were opposite each other at all three levels.

All the doors and doorways were rectangular and opposite each other at all three levels.

He made the columned hall eighty-seven-and-a-half feet long and fifty-two-and-a-half feet wide, with a columned, corniced porch in front of it.

He made the Hall of the Throne his place for dispensing justice, that is, the Hall of Judgment; it was covered with cedar from floor to ceiling.

His own living quarters, in the other courtyard, set back from the Hall, were similarly designed. He also made a house like this Hall for Pharaoh's daughter, whom Shlomo had taken as his wife.