1 Kings 6

1In the 480th year after the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of Yahweh.

2The house that King Solomon built for Yahweh was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.

3The porch in front of the main hall of the house was twenty cubits long, matching the width of the house, and it extended ten cubits out from the front of the house.

4He made windows for the house with recessed frames.

5Against the wall of the house he built a side structure all around, against the walls of the house all around both the main hall and the inner sanctuary, and he made side rooms all around.

6The lowest story was five cubits wide, the middle story six cubits wide, and the third seven cubits wide. For he made offsets in the wall all around the outside of the house, so that the beams would not have to be inserted into the walls of the house.

7When the house was built, it was built with stone finished at the quarry. No hammer, axe, or any iron tool was heard in the house while it was being built.

8The entrance to the middle side rooms was on the south side of the house, and stairways went up to the middle story, and from the middle story to the third.

9So he built the house and finished it. He roofed the house with beams and planks of cedar.

10He built the side structure against the whole house, each story five cubits high, and it was joined to the house with cedar beams.

11Then the word of Yahweh came to Solomon:

12“As for this house you are building, if you walk in my statutes, carry out my ordinances, and keep all my commandments by walking in them, then I will fulfill through you the promise I made to your father David.

13I will dwell among the Israelites, and I will not forsake my people Israel.”

14So Solomon built the house and finished it.

15He lined the inside walls of the house with cedar boards, from the floor of the house up to the rafters of the ceiling; he covered the inside with wood. He covered the floor of the house with cypress boards.

16He partitioned off twenty cubits at the rear of the house with cedar boards from the floor to the rafters. He built this inside as an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.

17The house, that is, the main hall in front of it, was forty cubits long.

18The cedar inside the house was carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; no stone could be seen.

19He prepared the inner sanctuary within the house, to place the ark of the covenant of Yahweh there.

20The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high, and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid the cedar altar.

21Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold. He stretched gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary and overlaid it with gold.

22He overlaid the whole house with gold, until the whole house was finished. He also overlaid with gold the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary.

23In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high.

24One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long, and the other wing of the cherub was five cubits long; it was ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other.

25The second cherub also measured ten cubits. Both cherubim had the same measurements and the same shape.

26The height of one cherub was ten cubits, and so was that of the other cherub.

27He placed the cherubim inside the innermost room of the house. The wings of the cherubim were spread out, so that the wing of one touched one wall and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall, while their wings touched each other in the middle of the house.

28He overlaid the cherubim with gold.

29On all the walls of the house all around, in both the inner and outer rooms, he carved engravings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers.

30He overlaid the floor of the house with gold, in both the inner and outer rooms.

31For the entrance to the inner sanctuary he made doors of olive wood; the lintel and the doorposts formed a five-sided frame.

32On the two doors of olive wood he carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and he overlaid them with gold, spreading the gold over the cherubim and the palm trees.

33In the same way, for the entrance to the main hall he made doorposts of olive wood, forming a four-sided frame,

34and two doors of cypress wood. Each door had two leaves that turned on pivots.

35He carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers on them, and he overlaid them with gold applied evenly over the carving.

36He built the inner courtyard with three courses of dressed stone and one course of cedar beams.

37In the fourth year, in the month of Ziv, the foundation of the house of Yahweh was laid.

38In the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its details and according to all its specifications. He spent seven years building it.