1 Kings 6

¹ In the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of Israel 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 the LORD.

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

³ The vestibule in front of the main hall of the house was twenty cubits long, corresponding to the width of the house, and ten cubits deep in front of the house.

⁴ He made windows for the house—framed windows with narrowing frames.

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

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

⁷ When the house was being built, it was built with stones finished at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any iron tool was heard in the house while it was being built.

⁸ The entrance to the lowest side chamber was on the south side of the house, and they would go up by winding stairs to the middle story, and from the middle to the third.

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

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

¹¹ Then the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying,

¹² "This house that you are building—if you walk in my statutes and carry out my judgments and keep all my commandments by walking in them, then I will establish my word with you that I spoke to David your father.

¹³ I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not abandon my people Israel."

¹⁴ So Solomon built the house and finished it.

¹⁵ He lined the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar, from the floor of the house to the rafters of the ceiling. He overlaid them on the inside with wood, and he covered the floor of the house with boards of cypress.

¹⁶ He built twenty cubits at the rear of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the rafters, and he built it on the inside as an inner sanctuary, as the Most Holy Place.

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

¹⁸ The cedar on the inside of the house was carved with gourds and open flowers. All was cedar; no stone was seen.

¹⁹ He prepared the inner sanctuary within the house, to set there the ark of the covenant of the LORD.

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

²¹ Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold, and he drew chains of gold across the front of the inner sanctuary, and he overlaid it with gold.

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

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

²⁴ One wing of the cherub was five cubits, and the other wing of the cherub was five cubits—ten cubits from wing tip to wing tip.

²⁵ The second cherub was also ten cubits. Both cherubim had the same measurement and the same form.

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

²⁷ He placed the cherubim in the innermost part of the house. The wings of the cherubim were spread out so that a wing of the one touched one wall, and a wing of the other cherub touched the other wall. Their wings in the middle of the house touched each other.

²⁸ He overlaid the cherubim with gold.

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

³⁰ The floor of the house he overlaid with gold, in the inner and outer rooms.

³¹ For the entrance of the inner sanctuary he made doors of olive wood; the lintel and doorposts were a fifth of the wall.

³² The two doors were of olive wood, and he carved on them carvings of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold. He spread the gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees.

³³ So also he made for the entrance of the main hall doorposts of olive wood, from a fourth of the wall,

³⁴ and two doors of cypress wood. The two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding.

³⁵ He carved cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold fitted to the carving.

³⁶ He built the inner court with three courses of cut stone and a course of cedar beams.

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

³⁸ In 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 built it in seven years.