16Solomon took a census of all the aliens who were in the land of Israel, besides the census taken by his father David, and they were found to be 153,600. 17He made 70,000 of them basket carriers, and 80,000 of them quarriers, with 3,600 supervisors to see that the people worked.
3 aThen Solomon began to build the House of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where [the LORD] had appeared to his father David, at the place which David had designated, at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 2He began to build on the second day of the second month of the fourth year of his reign. 3These were the dimensions Solomon established for building the House of God: its length in cubits, by the former measure, was 60, and its breadth was 20. 4The length of the porch in front [was equal] to the breadth of the House—20 cubits, and its height was 120. Inside he overlaid it with pure gold. 5The House itself he paneled with cypress wood. He overlaid it with fine gold and embossed on it palms and chains. 6He studded the House with precious stones for decoration; the gold was from Parvaim. 7He overlaid the House with gold— the beams, the thresholds, its walls and doors; he carved cherubim on the walls. 8He made the Holy of Holies: its length was [equal to] the breadth of the house—20 cubits, and its breadth was 20 cubits. He overlaid it with 600 talents of fine gold. 9The weight of the nails was 50 shekels of gold; the upper chambers he overlaid with gold. 10He made two sculptured cherubim in the Holy of Holies, and they were overlaid with gold. 11The outspread wings of the cherubim were 20 cubits across: one wing 5 cubits long touching one wall of the House, and the other wing 5 cubits long touching the wing of the other cherub; 12one wing of the other [cherub] 5 cubits long extending to the other wall of the House, and its other wing 5 cubits long touching the wing of the first cherub. 13The wingspread of these cherubim was thus 20 cubits across, and they were standing up facing the House. 14He made the curtain of blue, purple, and crimson yarn and fine linen, and he worked cherubim into it. 15At the front of the House he made two columns 35 cubits high; the capitalsb on top of them were 5 cubits high. 16He made chainwork in the inner Sanctuary and set it on the top of the columns; he made a hundred pomegranates and set them into the chainwork. 17He erected the columns in front of the Great Hall, one to its right and one to its left; the one to the right was called Jachin, and the one to the left, Boaz.
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
