2 Chronicles 2-3

New King James Version

Solomon Prepares to Build the Temple^(A)

2 Then Solomon ^(B)determined to build a temple for the name of the Lord, and a royal house for himself. ²^(C)Solomon selected seventy thousand men to bear burdens, eighty thousand to quarry stone in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred to oversee them.

³Then Solomon sent to ^[a]Hiram king of Tyre, saying:

^(D)As you have dealt with David my father, and sent him cedars to build himself a house to dwell in, so deal with me. ⁴Behold, ^(E)I am building a temple for the name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to Him, ^(F)to burn before Him ^[b]sweet incense, for ^(G)the continual showbread, for ^(H)the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the ^(I)Sabbaths, on the New Moons, and on the ^[c]set feasts of the Lord our God. This is an ordinance forever to Israel.

⁵And the temple which I build will be great, for ^(J)our God is greater than all gods. ⁶^(K)But who is able to build Him a temple, since heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him? Who am I then, that I should build Him a temple, except to burn sacrifice before Him?

⁷Therefore send me at once a man skillful to work in gold and silver, in bronze and iron, in purple and crimson and blue, who has skill to engrave with the skillful men who are with me in Judah and Jerusalem, ^(L)whom David my father provided. ⁸^(M)Also send me cedar and cypress and algum logs from Lebanon, for I know that your servants have skill to cut timber in Lebanon; and indeed my servants will be with your servants, ⁹to prepare timber for me in abundance, for the ^[d]temple which I am about to build shall be great and wonderful.

¹⁰^(N)And indeed I will give to your servants, the woodsmen who cut timber, twenty thousand kors of ground wheat, twenty thousand kors of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.

¹¹Then Hiram king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon:

^(O)Because the Lord loves His people, He has made you king over them.

¹²^[e]Hiram also said:

^(P)Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, ^(Q)who made heaven and earth, for He has given King David a wise son, endowed with prudence and understanding, who will build a temple for the Lord and a royal house for himself!

¹³And now I have sent a skillful man, endowed with understanding, ^[f]Huram my ^[g]master craftsman ¹⁴^(R)(the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre), skilled to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, stone and wood, purple and blue, fine linen and crimson, and to make any engraving and to accomplish any plan which may be given to him, with your skillful men and with the skillful men of my lord David your father.

¹⁵Now therefore, the wheat, the barley, the oil, and the wine which ^(S)my lord has spoken of, let him send to his servants. ¹⁶^(T)And we will cut wood from Lebanon, as much as you need; we will bring it to you in rafts by sea to ^[h]Joppa, and you will carry it up to Jerusalem.

¹⁷^(U)Then Solomon numbered all the aliens who were in the land of Israel, after the census in which ^(V)David his father had numbered them; and there were found to be one hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred. ¹⁸And he made ^(W)seventy thousand of them bearers of burdens, eighty thousand stonecutters in the mountain, and three thousand six hundred overseers to make the people work.

Solomon Builds the Temple^(X)

3 Now ^(Y)Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at ^(Z)Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where ^[i]the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of ^(AA)Ornan^[j] the Jebusite. ²And he began to build on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.

³This is the foundation ^(AB)which Solomon laid for building the house of God: The length was sixty cubits (by cubits according to the former measure) and the width twenty cubits. ⁴And the ^(AC)vestibule that was in front of ^[k]the sanctuary was twenty cubits long across the width of the house, and the height was ^[l]one hundred and twenty. He overlaid the inside with pure gold. ⁵^(AD)The larger ^[m]room he ^(AE)paneled with cypress which he overlaid with fine gold, and he carved palm trees and chainwork on it. ⁶And he decorated the house with precious stones for beauty, and the gold was gold from Parvaim. ⁷He also overlaid the house—the beams and doorposts, its walls and doors—with gold; and he carved cherubim on the walls.

⁸And he made the ^(AF)Most Holy Place. Its length was according to the width of the house, twenty cubits, and its width twenty cubits. He overlaid it with six hundred talents of fine gold. ⁹The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold; and he overlaid the upper ^(AG)area with gold. ¹⁰^(AH)In the Most Holy Place he made two cherubim, fashioned by carving, and overlaid them with gold. ¹¹The wings of the cherubim were twenty cubits in overall length: one wing of the one cherub was five cubits, touching the wall of the room, and the other wing was five cubits, touching the wing of the other cherub; ¹²one wing of the other cherub was five cubits, touching the wall of the room, and the other wing also was five cubits, touching the wing of the other cherub. ¹³The wings of these cherubim spanned twenty cubits overall. They stood on their feet, and they faced inward. ¹⁴And he made the ^(AI)veil of blue, purple, crimson, and fine linen, and wove cherubim into it.

¹⁵Also he made in front of the ^[n]temple ^(AJ)two pillars ^[o]thirty-five cubits ^[p]high, and the capital that was on the top of each of them was five cubits. ¹⁶He made wreaths of chainwork, as in the inner sanctuary, and put them on top of the pillars; and he made ^(AK)one hundred pomegranates, and put them on the wreaths of chainwork. ¹⁷Then he ^(AL)set up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand and the other on the left; he called the name of the one on the right hand ^[q]Jachin, and the name of the one on the left ^[r]Boaz.