1 Kings 7
7
Solomon's Palace Is Built
1Solomon's palace took 13 years to build.
2-3Forest Hall was the largest room in the palace. It was 44 meters long, 22 meters wide, and 13.5 meters high, and was lined with cedar from Lebanon. It had 4 rows of cedar pillars, 15 in a row, and they held up 45 cedar beams. The ceiling was covered with cedar. 4Three rows of windows on each side faced each other, 5and there were three doors on each side near the front of the hall.
6Pillar Hall was 22 meters long and 13.5 meters wide. A covered porch supported by pillars went all the way across the front of the hall.
7Solomon's throne was in Justice Hall, where he judged cases. This hall was completely lined with cedar.
8 #
1 K 3.1. The section of the palace where Solomon lived was behind Justice Hall and looked exactly like it. He had a similar place built for his wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt.
9From the foundation all the way to the top, these buildings and the courtyard were made out of the best stones#7.9 From … best stones: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. carefully cut to size, then smoothed on every side with saws. 10The foundation stones were huge, good stones—some of them four and a half meters long and others three and a half meters long. 11The cedar beams and other stones that had been cut to size were on top of these foundation stones. 12The walls around the palace courtyard were made out of three layers of cut stones with one layer of cedar beams, just like the front porch and the inner courtyard of the temple.
Hiram Makes the Bronze Furnishings
(2 Chronicles 3.15-17; 4.1-10)
13-14Hiram was a skilled bronze worker from the city of Tyre.#7.13,14 Hiram … city of Tyre: This is not the same person as “King Hiram of Tyre” (see 5.1). His father was now dead, but he also had been a bronze worker from Tyre, and his mother was from the tribe of Naphtali.
King Solomon asked Hiram to come to Jerusalem and make the bronze furnishings to use for worship in the Lord's temple, and he agreed to do it.
15Hiram made two bronze columns eight meters tall and almost two meters across. 16For the top of each column, he also made a bronze cap just over two meters high. 17The caps were decorated with seven rows of designs that looked like chains,#7.17 seven rows … chains: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. 18with two rows of designs that looked like pomegranates.#7.18 pomegranates: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 18. A pomegranate is a bright red fruit that looks like an apple. In ancient times, it was a symbol of life.
19The caps for the columns of the porch were almost two meters high and were shaped like lilies.#7.19 lilies: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 19.
20The chain designs on the caps were right above the rounded tops of the two columns, and there were 200 pomegranates in rows around each cap. 21Hiram placed the two columns on each side of the main door of the temple. The column on the south side was called Jachin,#7.21 Jachin: Or “He makes secure.” and the one on the north was called Boaz.#7.21 Boaz: Or “He is strong.”
22The lily-shaped caps were on top of the columns.
This completed the work on the columns.
23Hiram also made a large bowl called the Sea. It was just over two meters deep, about 4.5 meters across, and 13.5 meters around. 24Two rows of bronze gourds were around the outer edge of the bowl, ten gourds to every 45 centimeters. 25The bowl itself sat on top of twelve bronze bulls with three bulls facing outward in each of four directions. 26The sides of the bowl were 75 millimeters thick, and its rim was like a cup that curved outward like flower petals. The bowl held about 40,000 liters.
27Hiram made ten movable bronze stands, each one over a meter high, almost two meters long, and almost two meters wide. 28-29The sides were made with panels attached to frames decorated with flower designs. The panels themselves were decorated with figures of lions, bulls, and winged creatures. 30-31Each stand had four bronze wheels and axles and a round frame 68 centimeters across, held up by four supports 45 centimeters high. A small bowl rested in the frame. The supports were decorated with flower designs, and the frame with carvings.
The side panels of the stands were square, 32and the wheels and axles were underneath them. The wheels were about 68 centimeters high 33and looked like chariot wheels. The axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were made out of bronze.
34-35Around the top of each stand was a 22-centimeter strip, and there were four braces#7.34,35 braces: Or “handles.” attached to the corners of each stand. The panels and the supports were attached to the stands, 36and the stands were decorated with flower designs and figures of lions, palm trees, and winged creatures. 37Hiram made the ten bronze stands from the same mold, so they were exactly the same size and shape.
38 #
Ex 30.17-21. Hiram also made ten small bronze bowls, one for each stand. The bowls were almost two meters across and could hold about 800 liters.
39He put five stands on the south side of the temple, five stands on the north side, and the large bowl at the southeast corner of the temple.
40Hiram made pans for hot ashes, and also shovels and sprinkling bowls.
A List of Everything inside the Temple
(2 Chronicles 4.11—5.1)
This is a list of the bronze items that Hiram made for the Lord's temple: 41two columns; two bowl-shaped caps for the tops of the columns; two chain designs on the caps; 42400 pomegranates#7.42 pomegranates: A pomegranate is a bright red fruit that looks like an apple. In ancient times, it was a symbol of life. for the chain designs; 43ten movable stands; ten small bowls for the stands; 44a large bowl; twelve bulls that held up the bowl; 45pans for hot ashes, and also shovels and sprinkling bowls.
Hiram made these bronze things for Solomon 46near the Jordan River between Succoth and Zarethan by pouring melted bronze into clay molds.
47There were so many bronze things that Solomon never bothered to weigh them, and no one ever knew how much bronze was used.
48 #
Ex 30.1-3;
Ex 25.23-30. Solomon gave orders to make the following temple furnishings out of gold: the altar; the table that held the sacred loaves of bread;#7.48 sacred loaves of bread: This bread was offered to the Lord and was a symbol of the Lord's presence in the temple. It was put out on a special table, and was replaced with fresh bread each week (see Leviticus 24.5-9). 49#Ex 25.31-40. ten lampstands that went in front of the most holy place; flower designs; lamps and tongs; 50cups, lamp snuffers, and small sprinkling bowls; dishes for incense; fire pans; and the hinges for the doors to the most holy place and the main room of the temple.
51 #
2 S 8.11; 1 Ch 18.11. After the Lord's temple was finished, Solomon put into its storage rooms everything that his father David had dedicated to the Lord, including the gold and the silver.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
1 Kings 7
7
Solomon’s Palace Built
1#1Ki 9:10; 2Ch 8:1Solomon was building his own house for thirteen years, and he finished all his house. 2#1Ki 10:17; 2Ch 9:16He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon. Its length was a hundred cubits, and its width was fifty cubits, and its height was thirty cubits,#About 150 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high, or 45 meters long, 23 meters wide and 14 meters high. built on four rows of cedar pillars with cedar beams upon the pillars. 3It was covered with cedar over the top of the beams, which sat upon forty-five pillars, fifteen in a row. 4There were window frames in three rows and window opposite window in three tiers. 5All the doors and posts were rectangular with the openings facing each other in three tiers.
6He made a porch of pillars with a length of fifty cubits and a breadth of thirty cubits.#About 75 feet long and 45 feet wide, or 23 meters long and 14 meters wide. There was a porch in front with pillars, and a canopy in front of them.
7#Ps 122:5; Pr 20:8Then he made a porch for the throne, from which he would judge, and called it the Hall of Judgment. It was covered with cedar from one side of the floor to the other. 8#1Ki 3:1; 2Ch 8:11His own house where he lived, in the other court back of the hall, was similar in style. Solomon also made a house like this for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had taken as a wife.
9All these were built with costly stones, cut to size and sawed with saws on the inside and outside, from the foundation up to the coping, throughout the outside toward the great court. 10The foundation was of large, costly stones, stones of ten#About 15 feet, or 4.5 meters; and in v. 23. and eight#About 12 feet, or 3.6 meters. cubits in size. 11Above were costly stones cut to size, along with cedars. 12#1Ki 6:36The great court was enclosed with three rows of hewed stones and a row of cedar beams. So were the inner court of the house of the Lord and the porch of the house.
The Furnishings of the Temple
2Ch 4:2–5:1
13#2Ch 4:11Now King Solomon sent and called Huram out of Tyre. 14#2Ch 2:14; 4:16He was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre who worked in bronze, and he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill to make all sorts of items in bronze. So he came to King Solomon and performed all his work.
15#Jer 52:21; 1Ki 7:21He cast two pillars of bronze eighteen cubits high each and twelve cubits#About 27 feet high and 18 feet in circumference, or 8.1 meters high and 5.4 meters in circumference. in circumference. 16He made two capitals of cast bronze to set on the tops of the pillars. The height of the one capital was five cubits,#About 15 pounds, or 6.9 kilograms; and in v. 29. and the height of the other capital was five cubits. 17He made lattices of checker work with wreaths of chainwork for the capitals on top of the pillars: seven for one capital and seven for the other. 18Likewise he made pomegranates in two rows around the one latticework to cover the capital that was on the top of the pillar, and he did the same for the other capital. 19The capitals that were on top of the pillars in the porch were four cubits#About 6 feet, or 1.8 meters; and in v. 38. high and in the shape of lilies. 20#2Ch 3:16; 4:13The capitals on top of the two pillars also had pomegranates above, by the convex surface which was next to the latticework. There were two hundred pomegranates in rows encircling each capital. 21#2Ch 3:17; 1Ki 6:3He set up the pillars in the porch of the temple. He set up the right pillar and called it Jakin, and he set up the left pillar and called it Boaz. 22The tops of the pillars were in the shape of lilies. This completed the work on the pillars.
23#2Ki 25:13; 2Ch 4:2He made a cast metal sea, ten cubits from one side to the other. It was round and had a height of five cubits, and a line of thirty cubits#About 45 feet, or 14 meters. encircled it. 24#1Ki 6:18; 2Ch 4:3Under the brim all the way around there were gourds, ten in a cubit. When it was cast, the gourds were placed in two rows going all the way around it.
25#Jer 52:20; 2Ch 4:4–5It stood on top of twelve oxen with three facing north, three facing toward the west, three facing toward the south, and three facing toward the east. The sea was set on them, and their hindquarters were turned inward. 26#2Ch 4:5It was a hand-breadth#About 3 inches, or 7.5 centimeters. thick, and the brim was made similar to the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold two thousand baths.#About 12,000 gallons, or 44,000 liters.
27#2Ch 4:14; 2Ki 25:13He made ten stands out of bronze, each measuring four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three cubits high.#About 6 feet long and wide and 41/2 feet high, or 1.8 meters long and wide and 1.4 meters high. 28The work of the stands looked like this: They had panels, and the panels were set in the frames. 29And on the panels that were set in the frames were lions, oxen, and cherubim. On the frames both above and below the lions and oxen, there were wreaths of beveled work. 30Every stand had four bronze wheels and axles of bronze, and at the four corners were supports for a basin. The supports were cast with wreaths at the side of each. 31Its opening was within a crown that projected upward one cubit. Its opening was round, like the work of a pedestal, a cubit and a half deep.#About 21/4 feet, or 68 centimeters; and in v. 32. At its opening there were engravings, and its panels were four-sided, not round. 32Underneath the panels were four wheels, and the axles of the wheels were joined to the stand, and the height of a wheel was a cubit and a half. 33The wheels worked like chariot wheels in that their axles and rims and spokes and hubs were all cast metal.
34There were four supports for the four corners of each stand, and the supports were part of one piece with the stand itself. 35On the top of the stand, there was a round band half a cubit#About 9 inches, or 23 centimeters. high, and on the top of the stand its stays and its panels were of one piece with it. 36On the surface of its stays and on its panels, he engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, according to the space of each, with wreaths all around. 37In this way he made the ten stands, with them all having the same shape, measure, and size.
38Then he made ten basins of bronze, with each basin able to hold forty baths,#About 240 gallons, or 880 liters. each being four cubits. Upon every one of the ten stands sat one basin. 39He put five stands on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house. He set the sea on the right side of the house toward the southeast. 40#2Ch 4:11–16Huram also made the pots, the shovels, and the basins.
So Huram finished all the work in making items for King Solomon for use in the house of the Lord: 41the two pillars, the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the two pillars, the two latticeworks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were upon the top of the pillars; 42#1Ki 7:20and the four hundred pomegranates for the two latticeworks, two rows of pomegranates for each latticework, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars; 43the ten stands and ten basins on the stands; 44one sea and twelve oxen under the sea; 45#Ex 27:3; 38:3the pots, the shovels, and the basins.
All these vessels that Huram made for King Solomon for the house of the Lord were of burnished bronze. 46#Jos 3:16; Ge 33:17In the plain of the Jordan the king cast them, in the clay ground between Sukkoth and Zarethan. 47#1Ch 22:14; 22:3Solomon left all the vessels unweighed because there were so many. The weight of the bronze was also never measured.
48#Ex 37:10–16; 2Ch 4:8Solomon made all the vessels that were needed for the house of the Lord: the altar of gold, the table of gold on which was showbread, 49#2Ch 4:7the candlesticks of pure gold, five on the right side and five on the left before the inner sanctuary; the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs, of gold; 50the cups, snuffers, basins, dishes for incense, fire pans, of pure gold; the sockets for the doors of the innermost part of the house, the Most Holy Place, and for the doors of the nave of the temple, of gold.
51#2Ch 5:1All the work that King Solomon made for the house of the Lord was completed. And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated—the silver, the gold, and the cups—and he put them among the treasures of the house of the Lord.
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