21When Hiram heard Solomon’s message, he was overjoyed. “Praised be the LORD this day,” he said, “for granting David a wise son to govern this great people.” 22So Hiram sent word to Solomon: “I have your message; I will supply all the cedar and cypress logs you require. 23My servants will bring them down to the sea from the Lebanon; and at the sea I will make them into floats and [deliver them] to any place that you designate to me. There I shall break them up for you to carry away. You, in turn, will supply the food I require for my household.” 24So Hiram kept Solomon provided with all the cedar and cypress wood he required, 25and Solomon delivered to Hiram 20,000 kors of wheat as provisions for his household and d-20 kors-d of beaten oil. Such was Solomon’s annual payment to Hiram.
26The LORD had given Solomon wisdom, as He had promised him. There was friendship between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.
27King Solomon imposed forced labor on all Israel; the levy came to 30,000 men. 28He sent them to the Lebanon in shifts of 10,000 a month: they would spend one month in the Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor. 29Solomon also had 70,000 porters and 80,000 quarriers in the hills, 30apart from Solomon’s 3,300 officials who were in charge of the work and supervised the gangs doing the work.
31The king ordered huge blocks of choice stone to be quarried, so that the foundations of the house might be laid with hewn stones. 32Solomon’s masons, Hiram’s masons, and the men of Gebal shaped them. Thus the timber and the stones for building the house were made ready.
6 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites left the land of Egypt, in the month of Ziv—that is, the second month—in the fourth year of his reign over Israel, Solomon began to build the House of the LORD. 2The House which King Solomon built for the LORD was 60 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. 3The portico in front of the Great Hall of the House was 20 cubits long—along the width of the House—and 10 cubits deep to the front of the House. 4aHe made windows for the House, recessed and latticed. 5Against the outside wall of the House—the outside walls of the House enclosing the Great Hall and the Shrineb—he built a storied structure; and he made side chambers all around. 6The lowest story was 5 cubits wide, the middle one 6 cubits wide, and the third 7 cubits wide; for he had provided recesses around the outside of the House so as not to penetrate the walls of the House.
7When the House was built, only finished stones cut at the quarry were used, so that no hammer or ax or any iron tool was heard in the House while it was being built.
8The entrance to the middlec [story of] the side chambers was on the right side of the House; and winding stairs led up to the middle chambers, and from the middle chambers to the third story. 9When he finished building the House, d-he paneled the House with beams and planks of cedar.-d 10He built the storied structure against the entire House—each story 5 cubits high, so that it encased the House with timbers of cedar.
11Then the word of the LORD came to Solomon, 12“With regard to this House you are building—if you follow My laws and observe My rules and faithfully keep My commandments, I will fulfill for you the promise that I gave to your father David: 13I will abide among the children of Israel, and I will never forsake My people Israel.”
14When Solomon had completed the construction of the House, 15he paneled the walls of the House on the inside with planks of cedar. He also overlaid the walls on the inside with wood, from the floor of the House to the ceiling. And he overlaid the floor of the House with planks of cypress. 16Twenty cubits from the rear of the House, he built [a partition] of cedar planks from the floor to the walls;e he furnished its interior to serve as a shrine, as the Holy of Holies. 17fThe front part of the House, that is, the Great Hall, measured 40 cubits. 18The cedar of the interior of the House had carvings of gourds and calyxes; it was all cedar, no stone was exposed. 19In the innermost part of the House, he fixed a Shrine in which to place the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant. 20b-The interior of the-b Shrine was 20 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 20 cubits high. He overlaid it with solid gold; he similarly overlaid [its] cedar altar. 21Solomon overlaid the interior of the House with solid gold; and he inserted golden chains g-into the door of-g the Shrine. He overlaid [the Shrine] with gold, 22so that the entire House was overlaid with gold; he even overlaid with gold the entire altar of the Shrine. And so the entire House was completed.
23In the Shrine he made two cherubim of olive wood, each 10 cubits high. 24[One] had a wing measuring 5 cubits and another wing measuring 5 cubits, so that the spread from wingtip to wingtip was 10 cubits; 25and the wingspread of the other cherub was also 10 cubits. The two cherubim had the same measurements and proportions: 26the height of the one cherub was 10 cubits, and so was that of the other cherub.
27He placed the cherubim inside the h-inner chamber.-h Since the wings of the cherubim were extended, a wing of the one touched one wall and a wing of the other touched the other wall, while their wings in the center of the chamber touched each other. 28He overlaid the cherubim with gold. 29All over the walls of the House, of both the inner area and the outer area, he carved reliefs of cherubim, palms, and calyxes, 30and he overlaid the floor of the House with gold, both the inner and the outer areas.
31For the entrance of the Shrine he made doors of olive wood, d-the pilasters and the doorposts having five sides.-d 32The double doors were of olive wood, and on them he carved reliefs of cherubim, palms, and calyxes. He overlaid them with gold, hammering the gold onto the cherubim and the palms. 33For the entrance of the Great Hall, too, he made doorposts of oleaster wood, d-having four sides,-d 34and the double doors of cypress wood, each door consisting of two rounded planks. 35On them he carved cherubim, palms, and calyxes, overlaying them with gold applied evenly over the carvings. 36He built the inner enclosure of three courses of hewn stones and one course of cedar beams.
37In the fourth year, in the month of Ziv, the foundations of the House were laid; 38and in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul—that is, the eighth month—the House was completed according to all its details and
7 all its specifications. It took him seven years to build it. 1And it took Solomon thirteen years to build his palace, until his whole palace was completed.
2He built the a-Lebanon Forest House with four rows-a of cedar columns, and with hewn cedar beams above the columns. Its length was 100 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. 3It was paneled above with cedar, with the planksb that were above on the 45 columns—15 in each row. 4And there were three rows of window frames, with three tiers of windows facing each other. 5All the doorways and doorpostsc had square frames—with three tiers of windows facing each other.
6He made the portico of columns 50 cubits long and 30 cubits wide; d-the portico was in front of [the columns], and there were columns with a canopy in front of them.-d 7He made the throne portico, where he was to pronounce judgment—the Hall of Judgment. It was paneled with cedar from floor to floor.e
8The house that he used as a residence, in the rear courtyard, back of the portico, was of the same construction. Solomon also constructed a palace like that portico for the daughter of Pharaoh, whom he had married.
9All these buildings, from foundation to coping and all the way out to the great courtyard, were of choice stones, hewn according to measure, smooth on all sides.f 10The foundations were huge blocks of choice stone, stones of 10 cubits and stones of 8 cubits; 11and above were choice stones, hewn according to measure, and cedar wood. 12The large surrounding courtyard had three tiers of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams, the same as for the inner court of the House of the LORD, and for the portico of the House.
13King Solomon sent for Hiram and brought him down from Tyre. 14He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father had been a Tyrian, a coppersmith. He was endowed with skill, ability, and talent for executing all work in bronze.g He came to King Solomon and executed all his work. 15He cast two columns of bronze; one column was 18 cubits high and measured 12 cubits in circumference, [and similarly] the other column. 16He made two capitals, cast in bronze, to be set upon the two columns,
