2 Chronicles 3-4

Contemporary English Version

The Temple Is Built

(1 Kings 6.1-38)

3 ^1-2 (A) Solomon's workers began building the temple in Jerusalem on the second day of the second month,^[a] four years after Solomon had become king of Israel. It was built on Mount Moriah where the Lord had appeared to David at the threshing place that had belonged to Araunah^[b] from Jebus.

³ The inside of the temple was 27 meters long and 9 meters wide, according to the older standards.^{[c] 4} Across the front of the temple was a porch 9 meters wide and 9 meters^[d] high. The inside walls of the porch were covered with pure gold.

⁵ Solomon had the inside walls of the temple's main room paneled first with pine and then with a layer of gold, and he had them decorated with carvings of palm trees and designs that looked like chains. ⁶ He used precious stones to decorate the temple, and he used gold imported from Parvaim^{[e] 7} to decorate the ceiling beams, the doors, the door frames, and the walls. Solomon also told the workers to carve designs of winged creatures into the walls.

^8 (B) The most holy place was nine meters square, and its walls were covered with over 20 tons of fine gold. ⁹ Five hundred and seventy grams of gold was used to cover the heads of the nails. The walls of the small storage rooms were also covered with gold.^[f]

^10 (C) Solomon had two statues of winged creatures^[g] made to put in the most holy place, and he covered them with gold. ^11-13 Each creature had two wings and was four and a half meters from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other wing. Solomon set them next to each other in the most holy place, facing the doorway. Their wings were spread out and reached all the way across the nine-meter room.

^14 (D) A curtain^[h] was made of fine linen woven with blue, purple, and red wool, and embroidered with designs of winged creatures.

The Two Columns

(1 Kings 7.15-22)

¹⁵ Two columns were made for the entrance to the temple. Each one was 16 meters tall and had a cap on top that was over 2 meters high. ¹⁶ The top of each column was decorated with designs that looked like chains^[i] and with 100 carvings of pomegranates.^{[j] 17} Solomon had one of the columns placed on the south side of the temple's entrance; it was called Jachin.^[k] The other one was placed on the north side of the entrance; it was called Boaz.^[l]

The Furnishings for the Temple

(1 Kings 7.23-51)

4 ^(E) Solomon had a bronze altar made that was nine meters square and four and a half meters high. ² He also gave orders to make a large metal bowl called the Sea. It was 4.5 meters across, just over two meters deep, and 13.5 meters around. ³ Its outer edge was decorated with two rows of carvings of bulls, ten bulls to about every 45 centimeters, all made from the same piece of metal as the bowl. ⁴ The bowl itself sat on top of twelve bronze bulls, with three bulls facing outward in each of four directions. ⁵ The sides of the bowl were 75 millimeters thick, and its rim was in the shape of a cup that curved outward like flower petals. The bowl held about 60,000 liters.

^6 (F) He also made ten small bowls and put five on each side of the large bowl. The small bowls were used to wash the animals that were burned on the altar as sacrifices, and the priests used the water in the large bowl to wash their hands.

^7 (G) Ten gold lampstands were also made according to the plans. Solomon placed these lampstands inside the temple, five on each side of the main room. ^8 (H) He also made ten tables and placed them in the main room, five on each side. And he made 100 small gold sprinkling bowls.

⁹ Solomon gave orders to build two courtyards: a smaller one that only priests could use and a larger one. The doors to these courtyards were covered with bronze. ¹⁰ The large bowl called the Sea was placed near the southeast corner of the temple.

¹¹ Huram made shovels, sprinkling bowls, and pans for hot ashes. Here is a list of the other furnishings he made for God's temple: ¹² two columns, two bowl-shaped caps for the tops of these columns, two chain designs on the caps, ¹³ 400 pomegranates^[m] in two rows for the chain designs, ¹⁴ the stands and the small bowls, ¹⁵ the large bowl and the twelve bulls that held it up, ¹⁶ pans for hot ashes, as well as shovels and meat forks.

Huram made all these things out of polished bronze ¹⁷ by pouring melted bronze into the clay molds he had set up near the Jordan River, between Succoth and Zeredah.

¹⁸ There were so many bronze furnishings that no one ever knew how much bronze it took to make them.

¹⁹ Solomon also gave orders to make the following temple furnishings out of gold: the altar, the tables that held the sacred loaves of bread,^{[n] 20} the lampstands and the lamps that burned in front of the most holy place, ²¹ flower designs, lamps and tongs, ²² lamp snuffers, small sprinkling bowls, ladles, fire pans, and the doors to the most holy place and the main room of the temple.