First Book of Kings 6

¹ In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt[*a] the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the Temple of Yahweh.

² The Temple[*b] that King Solomon built for Yahweh was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and twenty five in height.

³ The Ulam in front of the Hekal of the Temple was twenty cubits long across the width of the temple and ten cubits wide along the length of the Temple.

⁴ He made windows for the Temple with frames and latticework.

⁵ He also built an annex against the Temple wall round the Hekal and the Debir, and made side tiers all round.

⁶ The lower story was five cubits wide, the middle one six cubits, and the third seven cubits, for round the Temple on the outside he had placed offsets so that this was not attached to the Temple walls.

⁷ The building of the Temple was done with quarry-dressed stone; no sound of hammer or pick or any iron tool was to be heard in the Temple while it was being built.

⁸ The entrance to the lower story was at the right-hand corner of the Temple, and access to the middle story above was by trap-doors, and so from the middle story to the third.

⁹ He built the Temple, completed it, and covered it with cedar wood.

¹⁰ He built the annex on to the whole length of the Temple; it was five cubits high and was attached to the Temple by beams of cedar wood. .

¹¹ And the word of Yahweh came to Solomon,

¹² ‘This house you are building … if you follow my statutes and obey my ordinances and faithfully follow my commandments, I will fulfil that promise I made about you to your father David.

¹³ And I will make my home among the sons of Israel, and never forsake Israel my people.’

¹⁴ Solomon built the Temple, and completed it.

¹⁵ He lined the inside of the Temple walls with panels of cedar wood – panelling them on the inside from the floor of the Temple to the rafters in the roof – and laid the floor of the Temple with juniper planks.

¹⁶ The twenty cubits measured from the end of the Temple he built of cedar planks from floor to rafters, and this

¹⁷ The Temple measured forty cubits – the Hekal – in front of the Debir.

¹⁸ There was cedar wood round the inside of the Temple, ornamentally carved with gourds and rosettes; all was cedar wood, with no stone showing.

¹⁹ In the inner part of the Temple he designed a Debir, to contain the ark of the covenant of Yahweh.

²⁰ The Debir was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty high, and he plated it on the inside with pure gold. He made an altar of cedar wood

²¹ in front of the Debir and plated it with gold.

²² He plated the whole Temple with gold, the whole Temple entirely.

²³ In the Debir he made two cherubs of olive wood … It was ten cubits high.

²⁴ One cherub’s wing was five cubits long and the other wing five cubits: ten cubits from wing tip to wing tip.

²⁵ The other cherub also measured ten cubits; both cherubs had the same measurements and the same shape.

²⁶ The height of one cherub was the same as the other’s.

²⁷ He placed the cherubs in the middle of the inner chamber; their wings were spread out so that the wing of one touched one of the walls and the wing of the other touched the other wall, while their wings met in the middle of the chamber, wing to wing.

²⁸ And he plated the cherubs with gold. All round the Temple walls he carved figures of cherubs, palm trees and rosettes, both inside and outside.

³⁰ He plated the floor of the Temple with gold, both inside and outside.

³¹ He made the door of the Debir with uprights of olive wood, and five-sided door jambs,

³² and the two leaves of olive wood. He carved figures of cherubs, palm trees and rosettes which he plated with gold; he put a gold surface on the cherubs and palm trees.

³³ Similarly, he made uprights of olive wood for the door of the Hekal, and four-sided door jambs,

³⁴ and the two leaves of juniper: one leaf had two ribs binding it, and the other had two ribs binding it.

³⁵ He carved cherubs, palm trees and rosettes, which he plated with gold laid evenly over the carvings.

³⁶ He built the wall of the inner court in three courses of dressed stone and one course of cedar beams.

³⁷ In the fourth year, in the month of Ziv, the foundations of the Temple were laid;

³⁸ in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul – that is, the eighth month – the Temple was completed exactly as it had been planned and designed. Solomon took seven years to build it.