Solomon and Hiram

5 Hiram was the king of Tyre. He had always been David’s friend. So when Hiram heard that Solomon had become the new king after David, he sent his servants to Solomon. ² This is what Solomon said to King Hiram:

³ “You remember that my father, King David, had to fight many wars all around him. So he was never able to build a temple to honor the Lord his God. King David was waiting until the Lord allowed him to defeat all his enemies. ⁴ But now the Lord my God has given me peace along all the borders of my country. I have no enemies, and my people are in no danger.

⁵ “The Lord made a promise to my father David. He said, ‘I will make your son king after you, and he will build a temple to honor me.’ Now, I plan to build that temple to honor the Lord my God. ⁶ And so I ask you to help me. Send your men to Lebanon to cut down cedar trees for me. My servants will work with yours. I will pay you any price that you decide as your servants’ wages, but I need your help. Our carpenters^[a] are not as good as the carpenters of Sidon.”

⁷ Hiram was very happy when he heard what Solomon asked. He said, “I praise the Lord today for giving David a wise son to rule this great nation!” ⁸ Then Hiram sent this message to Solomon:

“I heard what you asked for. I will give you all the cedar trees and the fir trees you want. ⁹ My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea. Then I will tie them together and float them down the shore to the place you choose. There I will separate the logs, and you can take them from there. As payment for this, you will give food to all those who live in my palace.”

¹⁰ So Hiram gave Solomon all the cedar and fir logs that he wanted.

¹¹ Solomon gave Hiram about 120,000 bushels^[b] of wheat and about 120,000 gallons^[c] of pure olive oil every year for his family.

¹² The Lord made Solomon wise as he had promised. Hiram and Solomon made a treaty between themselves and were at peace with one another.

¹³ King Solomon forced 30,000 men of Israel to help in this work. ¹⁴ He chose a man named Adoniram to be in charge of them. Solomon divided the men into three groups with 10,000 men in each group. Each group worked one month in Lebanon and then went home for two months. ¹⁵ Solomon also forced 80,000 men to work in the hill country cutting stone. There were also 70,000 men to carry the stones. ¹⁶ There were 3300 men to supervise the workers. ¹⁷ King Solomon commanded them to cut large, expensive stones for the foundation of the Temple. ¹⁸ Then Solomon and Hiram’s builders and the men from Byblos^[d] carved the stones and prepared them and the logs for use in building the Temple.

Solomon Builds the Temple

6 So in the month of Ziv, the second month of the year, during Solomon’s fourth year as king, he began work on the Temple. This was 480 years after the Israelites left Egypt.^{[e] 2} The Temple was 60 cubits^[f] long, 20 cubits^[g] wide, and 30 cubits^[h] high. ³ The porch of the Temple was 20 cubits long and 10 cubits^[i] wide. The porch ran along the front of the main part of the Temple itself. Its length was equal to the width of the Temple. ⁴ There were narrow windows in the Temple. These windows were smaller on the inside of the wall than on the outside.^{[j] 5} Then Solomon built a row of rooms around the main part of the Temple. This row of rooms was three stories tall with the rooms built one above the other. ⁶ The rooms touched the Temple wall, but their beams were not built into that wall. The Temple wall became thinner at the top, so the rooms on the upper floors were larger than the ones below them. The rooms on the bottom floor were 5 cubits^[k] wide. The rooms on the middle floor were 6 cubits^[l] wide. The rooms above that were 7 cubits^[m] wide. ⁷ The stones were completely finished before they were brought into the Temple area, so there was no noise of hammers, axes, or any other iron tools in the Temple.

⁸ The entrance to these rooms was on bottom floor at the south side of the Temple. Inside there were stairs that went up to the second floor and from there to the third floor.

⁹ Solomon finished building the main part of the Temple and then covered it inside with cedar boards. ¹⁰ Then he finished building the rooms around the Temple. Each story was 5 cubits tall. The cedar beams in these rooms rested on a ledge of the Temple wall.

¹¹ The Lord said to Solomon, ¹² “If you obey all my laws and commands, I will do for you what I promised your father David. ¹³ I will live among the children of Israel in this Temple that you are building, and I will never leave the people of Israel.”

¹⁴ When Solomon finished the stonework on the Temple, ¹⁵ the stone walls inside the Temple were covered with cedar boards from floor to ceiling. Then the stone floor was covered with pine boards. ¹⁶ They built an inner room 20 cubits long in the back part of the Temple. This room was called the Most Holy Place. They covered the walls in this room with cedar boards, from floor to ceiling. ¹⁷ In front of the Most Holy Place was the main part of the Temple. This room was 40 cubits^[n] long. ¹⁸ They covered the walls in this room with cedar boards—none of the stones in the walls could be seen. They carved pictures of flowers and gourds into the cedar.

¹⁹ Solomon finished the inner room in the back part of the Temple. This room was for the Box of the Lord’s Agreement. ²⁰ This room was 20 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 20 cubits high. Solomon covered this room with pure gold. He also covered the cedar altar with gold. ²¹ He covered the inside of the Temple with pure gold and wrapped gold chains around it. ²² The inside of the Temple was covered with gold, and the altar in front of the Most Holy Place was covered with gold.

²³ The workers made two statues of Cherub angels with wings. They made the statues from olive wood and put them in the Most Holy Place. Each angel was 10 cubits tall. ^24-26 Both Cherub angels were the same size and built the same way. Each one had two wings. Each wing was 5 cubits long. From the end of one wing to the end of the other wing was 10 cubits. And each Cherub angel was 10 cubits tall. ²⁷ They put the Cherub angels beside one another in the Most Holy Place. Their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. The other two wings touched each side wall. ²⁸ The two Cherub angels were covered with gold.

²⁹ The walls around the main room and the inner room were carved with pictures of Cherub angels, palm trees, and flowers. ³⁰ The floor of both rooms was covered with gold.

³¹ The workers made two doors from olive wood. They put these doors at the entrance of the Most Holy Place. The frame around the doors was made with five sides.^{[o] 32} They made the two doors from olive wood. The workers carved pictures of Cherub angels, palm trees, and flowers on the doors. Then they covered the doors with gold.

³³ They also made doors for the entrance to the main room. They used olive wood to make a square doorframe. ³⁴ There were two doors made from pine. Each door had two parts that folded together. ³⁵ They carved pictures of Cherub angels, palm trees, and flowers on the doors. Then they covered them with gold.

³⁶ Then they built a wall around the inner yard. Each wall was made from three rows of cut stones and one row of cedar timbers.

³⁷ They started working on the Lord’s Temple in the month of Ziv, the second month of the year. This was during Solomon’s fourth year as king of Israel. ³⁸ The Temple was finished in the month of Bul, the eighth month of the year, in Solomon’s eleventh year as king. It took seven years to build the Temple. It was built exactly as planned.