17 Shelomoh had all the foreign men living in Yisrael counted (similar to what his father David had done), and it came to 153,600. 18 He conscripted seventy thousand as porters, eighty thousand as stone-cutters, and 3,600 as supervisors to keep the others working.

3 Then Shelomoh began to build Yahweh’s temple on Mt. Moriyah in Yerushalem, where Yahweh had appeared to his father David. It was at the threshing floor of Ornan the Yebusite where David had planned for it,[ref] 2 and they began the construction in early-May of the fourth year of Shelomoh’s reign.[fn] 3 The temple foundation was twenty-seven metres long and nine metres wide, 4 and the nine metre long front entrance porch was nine metres high.[fn] Shelomoh overlaid the inside walls with pure gold. 5 For the main building, he overlaid it first with cypress planking, then with pure gold, then carved palm trees and chains along the walls. 6 The gold they use came from Parvaim.[fn] The main building was also overlaid with valuable gemstones. 7 He overlaid the temple beams, thresholds, walls, and doors with gold, and he engraved winged creatures on the walls.

8 Then he made themost sacred room inside the temple. It was nine metres long (the full width of the temple) and the same width. He overlaid it with thirty kilograms pure gold (beaten into thin sheets).[ref] 9 Each gold nail weighed half a kilogram, and he also overlaid the upper rooms with gold.

10 He cast molten metal into two winged creatures in the most sacred room and overlaid them with gold.[ref] 11 Each of the creatures had two wings, each 2.3 metres long. One of the wings reached the temple wall, and the other wing was stretched out to touch the other creature’s wingtip, 12 and the same for its companion, 13 so the total span of the two winged creatures was nine metres. They were made standing on their feet, and placed with their faces towards the opening into the main hall. 14 The curtain separating the two rooms was made from fine-linen with blue, purple, and red thread, and with winged creatures embroidered onto it.[ref]