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Solomon prepares to build the temple

[a] Solomon gave orders to build a temple for the Lord’s name and to build a royal palace for himself. [b] To work in the highlands, Solomon drafted 70,000 laborers, 80,000 stonecutters, and 3,600 supervisors. Solomon sent the following message to King Huram[c] of Tyre:

When my father David was building his palace, you sent him cedar logs. Now as his son[d] I am about to build a temple in the name of the Lord my God. I will dedicate it to him to burn fragrant incense before him, to set out the bread that is regularly displayed, and to offer entirely burned offerings every morning and evening, on the sabbaths, the first of every month, and the festivals of the Lord our God, as Israel has been commanded to do forever. The temple I am about to build must be magnificent, because our God is greater than all other gods. But who is able to build such a temple when even the highest heaven can’t contain God? And who am I that I should build this temple for God, except as a place to burn incense in his presence? So now send me a craftsman skilled in gold, silver, bronze, and iron, as well as in purple, crimson, and violet yarn—someone also experienced as an engraver. He will work with my craftsmen in Judah and Jerusalem who were provided by my father David. Also send me cedar, cypress, and sandalwood logs from Lebanon. I know your servants know how to cut Lebanese timber, so my servants will work with your servants to prepare plenty of timber for me, because the temple that I am about to build will be magnificent and amazing. 10 I will pay the woodcutters twenty thousand kors[e] of crushed wheat, twenty thousand kors of barley, twenty thousand baths[f] of wine, and twenty thousand baths of olive oil.

11 Tyre’s King Huram replied in a letter that he sent to Solomon:

The Lord must love his people Israel because he has made you their king! 12 Bless the Lord, Israel’s God, who made heaven and earth. He gave King David a wise son who possesses the knowledge and understanding to build a temple for the Lord and a royal palace for himself. 13 I’m sending you a skilled and experienced craftsman, Huram-abi, 14 whose mother is from the tribe of Dan and whose father is from Tyre. He’s skilled in working with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, as well as purple, violet, and crimson yarn, and fine linen. He can do any kind of engraving and make any design given to him with the assistance of your craftsmen and the craftsmen of my master, your father David. 15 So once my master sends the wheat, barley, olive oil, and wine he has promised, 16 we will cut as much timber as you need from Lebanon and bring it by raft on the sea to you at Joppa, where you can take it up to Jerusalem.

17 Then Solomon counted all the immigrants in the land of Israel, as his father David had done, and the total was 153,600. 18 He made 70,000 of these immigrants laborers, 80,000 of them stonecutters in the highlands, and 3,600 of them supervisors to keep the people working.

Solomon builds the temple

Solomon began to build the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord[g] had appeared to his father David, on the place David had prepared at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. He began building in the second month[h] of the fourth year of his rule. Solomon laid the foundations[i] for these structures in order to build the temple of God. The length according to the old standard of measurement was ninety feet and the width thirty feet. Across the front of the temple[j] was a porch as long as the temple was and thirty feet wide, and thirty feet[k] high. He covered the inside walls with pure gold. He paneled the walls of the main room with pine, covered them with fine gold, and decorated them with palm trees and chains. He studded the room with precious stones for beauty; the gold was from Parvaim. He covered the room, its beams, doorframes, walls, and doors with gold, and carved images of winged creatures on the walls. Then he made the most holy place. It was as long as the temple was wide, thirty feet long and thirty feet wide. He covered it with six hundred kikkars of fine gold. The gold nails weighed fifty shekels.[l] He also covered the upper rooms with gold.

10 In the most holy place he formed two statues of winged creatures and covered them with gold. 11 Together the wingspan of these creatures was thirty feet. One of the first creature’s wings was seven and a half feet long and touched the temple wall, while the other wing was seven and a half feet long, touching the wing of the other creature. 12 Similarly, one wing of the other creature was seven and a half feet long and touched the temple wall, while the other wing was seven and a half feet long and touched the other creature. 13 The wings of these creatures extended thirty feet. They stood on their feet facing the main room.

14 Then he made the curtain out of fine linen and violet, purple, and crimson yarn, weaving winged creatures into it. 15 Then he made two columns in front of the temple, fifty-two and a half feet high, with a seven and a half foot cap on top of each. 16 Then he made chains like a necklace[m] and placed them on the tops of the columns. He made a hundred pomegranates and placed them into the chains. 17 Then he set up the pillars in front of the sanctuary, one on the south, the other on the north. The one on the south he named Jachin, and the one on the north he named Boaz.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Chronicles 2:1 1:18 in Heb
  2. 2 Chronicles 2:2 2:1 in Heb
  3. 2 Chronicles 2:3 1 Kings spells the king's name as Hiram.
  4. 2 Chronicles 2:4 LXX; MT lacks his son.
  5. 2 Chronicles 2:10 One kor is equivalent to a homer and is possibly equal to fifty gallons of grain.
  6. 2 Chronicles 2:10 One bath is approximately twenty quarts or five gallons.
  7. 2 Chronicles 3:1 LXX; MT lacks the Lord.
  8. 2 Chronicles 3:2 LXX; MT adds on the second (day).
  9. 2 Chronicles 3:3 Syr the measurements
  10. 2 Chronicles 3:4 LXX; cf 1 Kgs 6:3
  11. 2 Chronicles 3:4 LXX, Syr; MT one hundred eighty feet
  12. 2 Chronicles 3:9 Or approximately thirty ounces
  13. 2 Chronicles 3:16 Heb adds in the inner room.

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