Open English Translation 1KI Chapter 7

7 Shelomoh also spent thirteen years getting his own palace finished. 2 He built the ‘Lebanon Forest Hall’ that was forty-six metres long, twenty-three metres wide, and fourteen metres high, with four rows of cedar pillars and cedar beams sitting across the pillars. 3 It was roofed with cedar boards on forty-five supports set out into three rows of fifteen. 4 There were three rows of window gaps arranged in sets of three. 5 All the entrances and doorposts were made with wood planed with square sides, and they were arranged in sets of three.

6 He made his covered porch with pillars. It was twenty-three metres long and fourteen metres wide.

7 He made a hall for his throne where he would judge cases—called ‘The Judgement Hall’. It was covered with cedar from floor to ceiling.

8 His actual residence behind the hall was constructed in a similar way. Shelomoh also built a house for his wife who was Far-oh’s daughter.[ref]

9 All these buildings were constructed with expensive stones that had been cut to size and trimmed with saws inside and out. They went from the foundation up to the eaves, and from the outside across to the great courtyard. 10 These large, costly stones in the foundations were cut in two sizes, with the largest almost five metres long. 11 On top of those were other costly stones of various sizes, and then cedar beams. 12 The largest courtyard had three rows of dressed stones and one row of cedar beams, as did the inner temple courtyard and the palace hall.

13 King Shelomoh sent for a craftsman in Tsor (Tyre) called Huram.[fn] 14 His mother was a widow with Naftali ancestry, and his father had been a bronze engraver in Tsor. He was very knowledgeable and skilled in everything to do with bronze, and so he came to work for King Shelomoh.

15 He cast two hollow bronze pillars—each being just over eight metres tall and measuring over five metres around. 16 Then he made two decorative bronze caps for those pillars—each over two metres high. 17 To hang over them, he made ornamental chains and wreaths—seven sets over the cap on each pillar. 18 Then he made two rows of decorative bronze pomegranates to go around each of the two caps. 19 The two caps were each shaped like lilies that were nearly two metres high 20 and there were two hundred bronze pomegranates in rows around each cap. NEED A DIAGRAM

21 Huram stood the two pillars at the temple entrance porch. (The lefthand pillar got nicknamed ‘Yakin’ and the one on the right, ‘Boaz’.) 22 The two bronze caps shaped like lilies were placed on top of the pillars and so the pillar construction was completed.

23 Huram also cast a very large round basin nicknamed ‘The sea’ that was five metres across (so a circumference of fourteen metres) and over two metres high. 24 Part of the same casting was two rows of decorative buds that went around it under the lip of the basin. There were about eighteen buds for each metre of circumference. 25 Twelve bronze cattle had also been cast and the large basin was sitting on their backs. The cattle were facing outwards with three facing towards each of the four compass points. 26 The basin was about 8cm thick and it had a lip around the outside like a lily blossom. It could contain around forty-four thousand litres of water.

27 Then Huram cast ten bronze carts for individual water basins. Each one was nearly two metres long and two metres wide and just over a metre tall, 28 and they had frames on the sides with panels between them. 29 There were bronze lions, oxen, and winged creatures in relief on the panels, and above and below those, wreaths were inset into the bronze. 30 Each cart had two bronze axles with four bronze wheels attached to them. At each of the top four corners, there were bronze supports to hold a wash basin, and these were also cast with decorative wreaths. 31 Inside those supports there was a round frame that protruded half a metre upwards and was inset by a quarter of a metre. It also had engravings on it inside square frames. 32 The axles were part of the main casting, and the four 70cm bronze wheels were below the panels. 33 The design of the wheels was similar to chariot wheels, but with their axles, rims, spokes, and hubs all cast from bronze. 34 Each cart had four handles as part of the casting—one projecting from each corner. 35 There was a 25cm bronze band around the top of each cart as well as supports and frames—all part of the main casting. 36 He engraved winged creatures, lions, and palm trees on the flat areas of the carts wherever there was space, and engraved wreaths around them. 37 So that’s how he made the ten carts—all the same shape and size using the same mold.

38 Huram also cast ten bronze wash basins for the ten carts—each one was almost two metres across and could hold 900 litres of water.[ref] 39 He put five basins on carts on each side of the temple (north and south of the east-facing temple), and he put the huge basin on its bronze cattle near the south-east corner. 40 Huram also made the basins and the ash shovels and the bowls.

So Huram finished everything that King Shelomoh had requested him to make for Yahweh’s residence: 41 two massive pillars with large decorated caps and then networks of chain over the caps, 42 the four hundred pomegranates with each pillar having two strings of one hundred of them placed over them, 43 the ten carts and the ten basins on them, 44 the huge water tank and the twelve cattle supporting it, 45 and the pots and shovels and bowls and all the other containers.

All the above was made from polished bronze by Huram for King Shelomoh for Yahweh’s residence. 46 The king had them cast in the clay in the Yordan valley between Sukkot and Tsaretan. 47 None of the above was weighed, because bronze was so plentiful that it didn’t matter.

48 Shelomoh also had the gold items made for Yahweh’s residence, including the gold incense altar and the gold table for the sacred bread,[ref] 49 the ten pure gold lampstands that were placed five on each side of the entrance to the inner room, along with the gold flowers, lamps, and tongs,[ref] 50 the pure gold cups, trimmers, bowls, dishes, and firepans, and also the gold door sockets for the inner holiest room and the main room of the temple.

51 Finally all the work that King Shelomoh did for Yahweh’s residence was completed, and he had all the holy things from his father David, including the silver and the gold and the containers, taken into the storerooms of the temple.[ref]