UST by section 1 KI 7:1

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The First Book of Kings 7

7 Then Solomon had his workers build a palace for him. It took them 13 years to complete it. 2 One of the buildings they built was a large hall whose name was the House of the Forest of Lebanon. It was 46 meters long, 23 meters wide, and 14 meters high. The workers set up four rows of cedar pillars and laid cedar beams across the top of each row. 3 To make a roof, the workers laid cedar boards in rows on top of cedar beams that 45 pillars in the middle of the hall supported. Those pillars were in rows of 15, creating four long sections within the hall. 4 On each of the two side walls, there were three rows of windows. Each row consisted of a column of three windows. The rows on one wall were opposite the rows on the other wall. 5 All of the doors had square frames, and each window in each column was directly across from the matching window on the other wall. 6 The workers built an entranceway for the House of the Forest of Lebanon. It was an open space with rows of pillars on all sides. It was 23 meters long and 14 meters wide. There was a porch in front of this entranceway. It had a roof that pillars supported. 7 The workers also constructed a building whose name was the Porch of the Throne. It had a second name, the Porch of Judgment. That was where Solomon decided the legal cases that people asked him to judge. The workers used cedar wood to make the entire floor for this building. 8 In the courtyard behind the Porch of Judgment, the workers built a residence for Solomon to live in. They made it with the same materials and in the same style as the other buildings. They also built a similar residence for his wife, who was the daughter of the king of Egypt.

9 The workers built these buildings and the walls around the palace courtyard with stone blocks. They made sure that the stone in the blocks was solid. They trimmed the blocks with saws so that the interior and exterior walls of the buildings and the courtyard walls would be straight and smooth. They used stone blocks to build the entire height of these walls. 10 The workers used huge stone blocks for the foundation of the palace. Some of these stones were about four and a half meters long, and others were over three and a half meters long. 11 The workers used other stone blocks to build the palace on top of these foundation stones. They cut those blocks to make them the sizes they needed. They also used cedar beams to build the palace. 12 The workers built a wall to create a large courtyard all around the palace. The wall consisted of three rows of stone with a row of cedar beams on top. It was just like the wall around the courtyard that surrounded the temple and the porch in front of it.

13 Solomon asked a man whose name was Hiram to come from Tyre to Jerusalem to supervise all the work of making things from bronze for the temple. 14 Hiram’s mother was an Israelite woman from the tribe of Naphtali. His father, who had died, had been from the city of Tyre. His work had been to make things from bronze. Hiram himself was very skilled at making things from bronze. He agreed to come and help King Solomon by making all the bronze articles he needed for the temple. 15 Hiram made two bronze pillars to put in front of the temple. Each pillar was eight and one quarter meters tall and five and one half meters around. 16 Hiram made decorative tops for each of the pillars. He cast them in bronze. Each top was two and one quarter meters tall. 17 He made networks of bronze strands to decorate the two pillar tops. He made seven of these networks for each pillar top. 18 Hiram made bronze decorations in the shape of pomegranates for the pillar tops. He put two rows of pomegranates around the edges of the parts of the pillar tops that the networks covered. 19 Hiram made the upper portion of each pillar top in the shape of a lily. That portion was nearly two meters high. The pillars were on the porch in front of the entrance to the temple. 20 The lower portion of each pillar top, just above each pillar, was in the shape of a ball. That was the portion that the networks of bronze strands covered, and that was the portion that the pomegranates decorated. There were 200 bronze pomegranates in rows around each pillar top. 21 Hiram and his helpers set up the pillars on the porch in front of the temple. Hiram named the pillar on the right side of the porch Jachin. He named the pillar on the left side of the porch Boaz. 22 Those pillars had tops in the shape of lilies. When Hiram and his helpers set them up, that completed his work of making the bronze pillars.

23 Hiram also made a giant water basin. People called it a sea because it contained so much water. Hiram made it by casting bronze in a clay mold. This sea was four and a half meters across its circular top, two and one third meters tall, and nearly 14 meters around. 24 All around the outer edge of the sea there were decorations in the shape of gourds. There were two rows of gourds. There were ten gourds for every 45 centimeters of the outer edge. Hiram included the gourds as part of the design of the sea when he cast it. 25 Hiram cast 12 bronze statues of oxen to be a stand for the sea. He placed the oxen in groups of three facing outward to the north, south, east, and west. Then workers put the sea on the statues of the oxen, and it covered their backs. 26 The sides of this large water basin were eight centimeters thick. When Hiram cast the basin, he made the rim curve outward, like the rim of a cup and like the petals of a lily. The basin could hold over 40,000 liters of water.

27 Hiram also made ten bronze carts to hold and transport smaller water basins. Each cart was nearly two meters long, nearly two meters wide, and about one and a quarter meters high. 28 Each cart had a framework of bronze bars. Hiram attached bronze panels to the sides of the framework. 29 There were figures of lions, bulls, and winged creatures on those panels. At the bottom of the panels there were decorations that looked like garlands of flowers and leaves. On top of the framework of each cart there was a pedestal to hold a water basin. 30 Each cart had four bronze wheels and two bronze axles. At the top corners of each cart there were bronze supports to help hold up the water basin. On those supports there were decorations of flowers and leaves. 31 Although the panels on the sides of each cart were square, the pedestal on top of the cart that held the basin was round. This pedestal was 69 centimeters across. It was open at the top so that the basin could sit in it. There were decorative carvings all around the rim of its opening. Even though part of the basin rested inside the pedestal, it still extended 46 centimeters above the pedestal. 32 The four wheels of each cart were below its panels. These wheels were 69 centimeters high. Hiram molded the axles for the wheels as part of the cart itself. 33 Hiram made the wheels of the carts to be like the wheels that people make for chariots. He cast every part of these wheels, the axles and rims and spokes and hubs, from bronze. 34 Hiram also molded the bronze supports at the top corners of each cart as part of the cart itself. 35 A round pedestal 23 centimeters high was on top of each cart. Braces held this pedestal in place. There were decorative panels on the rest of the top of the cart. Hiram cast these braces and panels as part of the cart itself. 36 Hiram decorated the surfaces of these braces and the panels with figures of winged creatures, lions, and palm trees, with decorative wreaths all around them. He did this whenever there was space for decorations. 37 That is how Hiram made the ten carts. He cast them all from the same design, so they were all the same size and shape.

38 Hiram also made ten bronze basins, one for each of the ten carts. Each basin was nearly five meters across and held 880 liters of water. 39 Hiram placed five of the carts in front of the right side of the temple, and he placed the other five in front of the left side of the temple. He put the giant water basin, the sea, by the southeast corner of the temple.

40 Hiram also made bronze pots in which to boil meat, shovels for removing ashes, and bowls to catch the blood of the animals that the priests sacrificed. So he completed all of the work that King Solomon requested him to do for Yahweh’s temple. 41 What Hiram made included the two pillars for the temple porch, the two ball-shaped tops for the pillars, the two networks of bronze strands that decorated the ball-shaped pillar tops, 42 the 400 bronze pomegranates that decorated the two networks (these pomegranates were in two rows around each network and they covered the round lower parts of the pillar tops), 43 the ten carts, the ten basins that the carts held, 44 the giant water basin that people called the sea, the 12 statues of oxen on whose backs the sea rested, 45 the pots, the shovels, and the bowls. Hiram and his workers made all these things that King Solomon requested him to make for Yahweh’s temple. Hiram made them all from bronze, and his workers then polished them so that they would gleam brightly. 46 Hiram and his workers made these things for Solomon in the Jordan River valley, between the cities of Succoth and Zarethan. They made them there because the soil consisted of clay that they could use to cast things in bronze. 47 Because Hiram used so much bronze to make these objects, Solomon did not command his workers to weigh them. So no one ever knew what they weighed.

48 Solomon’s workers also made all the gold items that the priests needed to use in Yahweh’s temple. They made the golden altar and the golden table that held the sacred bread. 49 They made from pure gold the ten lampstands that stood in front of the Most Holy Place, five on the south side and five on the north side. They made the golden decorations on the lampstands that looked like flowers, the golden lamps themselves, and the golden tongs for removing burnt parts of the lamp wicks. 50 Solomon’s workers also made from pure gold the dishes, wick snuffers, small bowls, incense dishes, and pans for carrying hot coals that the priests used in the temple. They also made golden sockets for the doors of the Holy Place and for the doors of the Most Holy Place.

51 So Solomon’s workers finished all the work for Yahweh’s temple. Then Solomon put the silver and gold and other valuable items that his father David had dedicated to Yahweh in the temple storerooms.

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UST by section 1 KI 7:1

The First Book of Kings 7

UST by section 1 KI 7:1