3
The Temple Built and Furnished
(1 Kings 6:1–38; 7:13–51)
1 Solomon began to build the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared to his father David. There David had prepared the site on the threshing floor* of Ornan the Jebusite. 2 He began to build on the second day in the second month of the fourth year of his reign.
3 This is how Solomon laid the foundation to build God’s temple. It was 90 feet long and 30 feet wide. (They used the old standard measurement.) 4 The entrance hall in front of ⌞the main room⌟ was 30 feet wide (the same as the width of the temple) and 30 feet high. He covered its inside walls with pure gold. 5 He paneled the larger building with cypress, overlaid it with fine gold, and decorated it with ⌞designs in the form of⌟ palm trees and chains. 6 He covered the building with gems to beautify it and used gold from Parvaim. 7 He also overlaid the building, the rafters, the threshold, the walls, and the doors with gold, and he carved angels† into the walls.
8 He made the most holy place. It was as long as the temple was wide, 30 feet long. It was also 30 feet wide. He overlaid it with 45,000 pounds of fine gold. 9 The gold nails weighed 20 ounces. He also overlaid the upper rooms with gold.
10 In the most holy place he made two sculptured angels and covered them with gold. 11 The combined length of the angels’ wings was 30 feet. A wing of one of the angels was 7½ feet long and touched the wall of the building. Its other wing was 7½ feet long and touched one wing of the other. 12 The wing of the other one of the angels was 7½ feet long and touched the other wall of the building. Its other wing was 7½ feet long and touched the wing of the first. So the angels’ combined wingspan was 30 feet. 13 They stood on their feet and faced the main hall. 14 Solomon made the canopy of violet, purple, and dark red cloth and of linen and decorated it with angels.
15 He made two pillars for the front of the temple. They were 53 feet long, and the capital on each pillar was 7½ feet ⌞high⌟. 16 He made chains for the inner room and ⌞also⌟ put them on the capitals. He made 100 pomegranates and put them on the chains. 17 He set up the pillars in front of the temple, one on the right and the other on the left. He named the one on the right Jachin [He Establishes] and the one on the left Boaz [In Him Is Strength].
* 3:1 A threshing floor is an outdoor area where grain is separated from its husks. † 3:7 Or “cherubim.”