UST by section 1 KI 6:1

⌂ ← 1 KI 6:1–6:38 → ║ ═ ©

The First Book of Kings 6

6 Solomon’s workers began to build the temple 480 years after the Israelite people left Egypt. That was the fourth year that Solomon was the king of Israel, The workers started constructing a temple for Yahweh in the second month of that year, the month of Ziv. 2 Inside, the main part of the temple was nearly 28 meters long, over 9 meters wide, and nearly 14 meters high. 3 There was a porch in front of the entrance to the Holy Place in the temple. This porch extended across the entire width of the temple, so it was over nine meters long. It extended nearly five meters outward from the front of the temple. 4 There were windows in the temple walls. The workers decorated these windows with beautiful metal cross-pieces. 5 Against the sides and all around the back of the outer wall of the temple, the workers built a structure that had rooms in it where priests could stay and also store items. 6 The workers built three rows of ledges along the side and back walls of the temple so that the addition could rest on them for support rather than on the temple itself. The bottom ledge was the thickest, so the bottom floor of the addition was two and one third meters wide. The middle ledge was less thick, so the middle floor of the addition was two and three quarters meters wide. The top ledge was even less thick, so the top floor of the addition was three and a quarter meters wide. 7 When the workers cut out huge stones for the foundation of the temple at quarries, they also trimmed the stones there to make them smooth and straight. Because the workers used their hammers and chisels and other iron tools at the quarries, there was no loud noise at the site where the workers were constructing the temple. 8 To get to the middle floor of the addition, people went into the bottom floor through a door on the south side of the temple. From there, they could climb stairs up to the middle floor, and from there, they could climb more stairs up to the top floor. 9 After Solomon’s workers finished building the walls of the temple, they made a roof for the building. They laid cedar beams across its width, and then they laid cedar boards in rows on top of the beams. 10 When the workers built the addition, its weight rested against the temple. But the workers put cedar beams on the ledges that supported the addition as a cushion to prevent damage to the stone walls of the temple. Each floor of the addition was two and one third meters high.

11 While his workers were constructing the temple, Yahweh told Solomon, 12 “If you continually obey everything that I commanded in the law of Moses, I will do for you what I promised to your father David. As for this temple that you are building, 13 I will live in it among the Israelite people. I will never abandon them.”

14 Once Solomon’s workers had finished constructing the temple’s outer walls and roof, 15 they began to work on the inside of the temple. As he instructed them to do, they paneled the walls from the floor to the ceiling with cedar wood. They made the floor out of cypress planks. 16 The workers then built a room that extended out nine meters from the back wall of the temple. They used cedar boards to build the walls of this room. Those walls extended from the floor of the temple all the way up to its ceiling. This room was to be the Most Holy Place. 17 The front part of the temple, the Holy Place, occupied the other eighteen meters of its length. 18 The workers covered the walls inside the temple with cedar panels. They decorated the panels with carvings of gourds and blooming flowers. The cedar panels completely covered the walls. The stones of the walls did not appear anywhere. 19 And as for the room that the workers built at the back of the temple to be the Most Holy Place, where Yahweh’s sacred chest would be, 20 that room was nine meters long, nine meters wide, and nine meters high on the inside. The workers covered its walls with very thin sheets of pure gold. The workers built a small stone altar just outside the Most Holy Place for burning incense. They covered this altar with panels of cedar wood. 21 Solomon’s workers then also covered the walls of the Holy Place with very thin sheets of pure gold. They made gold chains and hung them across the front of the Most Holy Place. They covered the front wall of the Most Holy Place with sheets of gold. 22 In this way, the workers covered all the walls of the temple with gold. They also covered the altar just outside the Most Holy Place with gold. 23 They made large statues from olive wood of two creatures with wings to put inside the Most Holy Place. The first statue was about four and one half meters high. 24 This statute had two wings that were about two and one third meters long, so that the distance across both wings was about four and one half meters. 25 The second statue also had wings that were about four and one half meters across. Since both cherubs were the same size and shape, 26 the second cherub was about four and one half meters high, the same height as the first cherub. 27 The workers placed these statues next to each other in the Most Holy Place. They arranged their wings so that the inner wing of one touched the inner wing of the other in the center of the room, and their outer wings touched the side walls of the room. 28 The workers covered the statues with very thin sheets of gold.

29 The workers had decorated the walls of the Holy Place with artistic carvings of winged creatures and palm trees and blooming flowers before they covered the walls with gold. So both the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place had decorative carvings. 30 They also covered the floors of the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place with very thin sheets of gold. 31 The workers made a set of doors from olive wood to serve as the entrance to the Most Holy Place. The height and width of these doors was one fifth the height and width of the wall, so they were about two meters high and wide. 32 The workers carved decorations of winged creatures, palm trees, and flowers into these olive-wood doors. Then they very carefully hammered thin sheets of gold onto these decorations so that their designs would still show under the gold. 33 They workers made a similar entrance for the Holy Place. They built a door frame from olive wood. The opening was one fourth the width of the wall, so it was about two and one quarter meters wide. 34 They made two doors from cypress wood and fastened them to the doorframe. The doors each had two panels with hinges in the middle, so a person could open only half of a door if he wanted to. 35 The workers carved decorations of winged creatures, palm trees, and flowers into these doors. Then they very carefully hammered thin sheets of gold onto these decorations so that their designs would still show under the gold. 36 The workers created a courtyard around the temple by building a wall. The wall consisted of three rows of stone with a row of cedar beams on top.

37 They laid the foundation of the temple of Yahweh in the month of Ziv, in the fourth year that Solomon ruled. 38 Solomon’s workers finished building the temple in the eighth month, the month of Bul, of the eleventh year of his reign. They had built every part of the temple according to the design they were working from. It had taken them seven years to construct the building.

1 KI C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22

UST by section 1 KI 6:1

The First Book of Kings 6

UST by section 1 KI 6:1