1It happened in the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv (that is, the second month), that he built the house for Yahweh.
2As for the house that King Solomon built for Yahweh, its length was sixty cubits, its width twenty, and its height thirty cubits.
3The portico in front of the main hall of the house was twenty cubits long, along the width of the house, and ten cubits deep in front of the house.
4He made for the house windows with recessed frames.
5Against the wall of the house he built a structure all around, against the walls of the house all around — for both the main hall and the inner sanctuary; and he made side chambers all around.
6The lowest story was five cubits wide, the middle six cubits wide, and the third seven cubits wide; for he made offsets around the outside of the house, so that nothing would take hold in the walls of the house.
7The house, when it was being built, was built of stone finished at the quarry; so that no hammer or axe, nor any tool of iron, was heard in the house while it was being built.
8The entrance to the middle story was on the south side of the house; by a winding stairway one would go up to the middle story, and from the middle to the third.
9So he built the house and finished it, and he covered the house with beams and rows of planks of cedar.
10He built the annex against the whole house, five cubits high, and he fastened it to the house with beams of cedar.
11Then the word of Yahweh came to Solomon, saying:
12“As for this house that you are building: if you walk in my statutes, and carry out my ordinances, and keep all my commandments by walking in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father.
13And I will dwell among the Israelites, and I will not forsake my people Israel.”
14So Solomon built the house and finished it.
15He built the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar; from the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling he overlaid them with wood on the inside, and he overlaid the floor of the house with boards of cypress.
16He built the twenty cubits at the rear of the house with boards of cedar, from the floor to the walls, and he built it within as an inner sanctuary, as the Most Holy Place.
17And the house — that is, the main hall in front of it — was forty cubits long.
18The cedar on the inside of the house was carved with gourds and open flowers; it was all cedar — no stone was visible.
19He prepared the inner sanctuary in the middle of the house, within, to place there the ark of the covenant of Yahweh.
20And the front of the inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high; he overlaid it with pure gold, and he overlaid the altar of cedar.
21So Solomon overlaid the house on the inside with pure gold, and he drew chains of gold across in front of the inner sanctuary, and he overlaid it with gold.
22He 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.
23In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high.
24One wing of the cherub was five cubits, and the other wing of the cherub was five cubits — ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other.
25The second cherub was also ten cubits; both cherubim had one measure and one form.
26The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was the second cherub.
27He set the cherubim inside the innermost house, and the wings of the cherubim were spread out so that the wing of the one touched the one wall and the wing of the second cherub touched the other wall, while their wings toward the middle of the house touched wing to wing.
28And he overlaid the cherubim with gold.
29On all the walls of the house all around he carved engraved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, both inside and outside.
30He overlaid the floor of the house with gold, both inside and outside.
31For the entrance of the inner sanctuary he made doors of olive wood; the lintel and doorposts formed a fivefold recess.
32And the two doors were of olive wood, and on them he carved carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and he overlaid them with gold; he hammered the gold onto the cherubim and onto the palm trees.
33So also for the entrance of the main hall he made doorposts of olive wood, forming a fourfold recess,
34and two doors of cypress wood; the two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding.
35He carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and he overlaid them with gold fitted evenly over the incised work.
36He built the inner court with three courses of dressed stone and a course of cut cedar beams.
37In the fourth year the foundation of the house of Yahweh was laid, in the month of Ziv.
38And in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul—that is, the eighth month—the house was finished in all its parts and according to all its specifications. So he built it in seven years.
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