4 aHe made an altar of bronze 20 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 10 cubits high.
2He made the seab of cast metal 10 cubits across from brim to brim, perfectly round; it was 5 cubits high, and its circumference was 30 cubits. 3Beneath were figures of oxen set all around it, of 10 cubits, encircling the sea; the oxen were in two rows, cast in one piece with it. 4It stood upon twelve oxen: three faced north, three faced west, three faced south, and three faced east, with the sea resting upon them; their haunches were all turned inward. 5It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like that of a cup, like the petals of a lily. It held 3,000 bath.
6He made ten bronze lavers for washing; he set five on the right and five on the left; they would rinse off in them the parts of the burnt offering; but the sea served the priests for washing. 7He made ten lamp-stands of gold as prescribed, and placed them in the Great Hall, five on the right and five on the left. 8He made ten tables and placed them in the Great Hall, five on the right and five on the left. He made one hundred gold basins. 9He built the court of the priests and the great court, and doors for the great court; he overlaid the doors with bronze. 10He set the sea on the right side, at the southeast corner.
11Huram made the pails, the shovels, and the basins. With that Huram completed the work he had undertaken for King Solomon in the House of God: 12the two columns, the globes, and the two capitals on top of the columns; and the two pieces of network to cover the two globes of the capitals on top of the columns; 13the four hundred pomegranates for the two pieces of network, two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two globes of the capitals on top of the columns; 14he made the stands and the lavers upon the stands; 15one sea with the twelve oxen beneath it; 16the pails, the shovels, and the bowls.c And all the vessels made for King Solomon for the House of the LORD by Huram his master were of burnished bronze. 17The king had them cast in molds dug out of the earth, in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zeredah. 18Solomon made a very large number of vessels; the weight of the bronze used could not be reckoned. 19And Solomon made all the furnishings that were in the House of God: the altar of gold; the tables for the bread of display; 20the lampstands and their lamps, to burn as prescribed in front of the inner Sanctuary, of solid gold; 21and the petals, lamps, and tongs, of purest gold; 22the snuffers, basins, ladles, and fire pans, of solid gold; and the entrance to the House: the doors of the innermost part of the House, the Holy of Holies, and the doors of the Great Hall of the House, of gold.
5 aWhen all the work that King Solomon undertook for the House of the LORD was completed, Solomon brought the things that his father David had consecrated—the silver, the gold, and the utensils—and deposited them in the treasury of the House of God.
2Then Solomon convoked the elders of Israel—all the heads of the tribes and the ancestral chiefs of the Israelites—in Jerusalem, to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD from the City of David, that is, Zion.
3All the men of Israel assembled before the king at the Feast,b in the seventh month. 4When all the elders of Israel had come, the Levites carried the Ark. 5They brought up the Ark and the Tent of Meeting and all the holy vessels that were in the Tent—the Levite priests brought them up. 6Meanwhile, King Solomon and the whole community of Israel, who had gathered to him before the Ark, were sacrificing sheep and oxen in such abundance that they could not be numbered or counted.
7The priests brought the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant to its place in the inner Sanctuary of the House, in the Holy of Holies, beneath the wings of the cherubim; 8for the cherubim had their wings spread out over the place of the Ark so that the cherubim covered the Ark and its poles from above. 9The poles projected beyond the Ark and the ends of the poles were visible from the front of the inner Sanctuary, but they could not be seen from the outside; and there they remain to this day. 10There was nothing inside the Ark but the two tablets that Moses placed [there] at Horeb, when the LORD made [a Covenant] with the Israelites after their departure from Egypt. 11When the priests came out of the Sanctuary—all the priests present had sanctified themselves, without keeping to the set divisions—12all the Levite singers, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, their sons and their brothers, dressed in fine linen, holding cymbals, harps, and lyres, were standing to the east of the altar, and with them were 120 priests who blew trumpets. 13The trumpeters and the singers joined in unison to praise and extol the LORD; and as the sound of the trumpets, cymbals, and other musical instruments, and the praise of the LORD, “For He is good, for His steadfast love is eternal,” grew louder, the House, the House of the LORD, was filled with a cloud. 14The priests could not stay and perform the service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the House of God.
6 aThen Solomon declared:
“The LORD has chosen
To abide in a thick cloud;
2I have built for You
A stately House,
And a place where You
May dwell forever.”
3Then, as the whole congregation of Israel stood, the king turned and blessed the whole congregation of Israel. 4He said, “Blessed is the LORD God of Israel, b-who made a promise to my father David and fulfilled it.-b For He said, 5‘From the time I brought My people out of the land of Egypt, I never chose a city from among all the tribes of Israel to build a House where My name might abide; nor did I choose anyone to be the leader of my people Israel. 6But then I chose Jerusalem for My name to abide there, and I chose David to rule My people Israel.’
7“Now my father David had wanted to build a House for the name of the LORD God of Israel. 8But the LORD said to my father David, ‘As for your wanting to build a House for My name, you do well to want that. 9However, you shall not build the House; your son, the issue of your loins, he shall build the House for My name.’ 10Now the LORD has fulfilled the promise that He made. I have succeededc my father David and have ascended the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised. I have built the House for the name of the LORD God of Israel, 11and there I have set the Ark containing the Covenant that the LORD made with the Israelites.”
12Then, standing before the altar of the LORD in front of the whole congregation of Israel, he spread forth his hands. 13Solomon had made a bronze platformd and placed it in the midst of the Great Court; it was 5 cubits long and 5 cubits wide and 3 cubits high. He stood on it; then, kneeling in front of the whole congregation of Israel, he spread forth his hands to heaven 14and said, “O LORD God of Israel, there is no god like You in the heavens and on the earth, You who steadfastly maintain the Covenant with Your servants who walk before You with all their heart; 15You who have kept the promises You made to Your servant, my father David; You made a promise and have fulfilled it—as is now the case. 16And now, O LORD God of Israel, keep that promise that You made to Your servant, my father David, ‘You shall never lack a descendant in My sight sitting on the throne of Israel if only your children will look to their way and walk in the [path] of My teachings as you have walked before Me.’ 17Now, therefore, O God of Israel, let the promise that You made to Your servant, my father David, be confirmed.
18“Does God really dwell with man on earth? Even the heavens to their uttermost reaches cannot contain You; how much less this House that I have built! 19Yet turn, O LORD my God, to the prayer and supplication of Your servant, and hear the cry and the prayer that Your servant offers to You. 20May Your eyes be open day and night toward this House, toward the place where You have resolved to make Your name abide; may
