1 Kings 6
6
Building the Temple
1Solomon began to build the temple for the Lord in the four hundred eightieth year # Ac 13:20 after the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of his reign over Israel, in the second month, in the month of Ziv. # April–May # 1Kg 6:37; 2Ch 3:1-2; Ezr 3:8 2The temple that King Solomon built for the Lord # Ezr 5:11 was 90 feet # Lit 60 cubits long, 30 feet # Lit 20 cubits wide, and 45 feet # Lit 30 cubits high. # 2Ch 3:3; Ezk 41:1 3The portico in front of the temple sanctuary was 30 feet # Lit 20 cubits long extending across the temple’s width, and 15 feet deep # Lit 10 cubits wide in front of the temple. # 2Ch 3:4; Ezk 40:49 4He also made windows with beveled frames # Hb obscure for the temple. # Ezk 41:16
5He then built a chambered structure # Lit built the house of chamber along the temple wall, encircling the walls of the temple, that is, the sanctuary and the inner sanctuary. # 1Kg 6:16,19-21 And he made side chambers # Lit made ribs or sides all around. # Jr 35:2; Ezk 41:5-6 6The lowest chamber was 7 1/2 feet # Lit five cubits wide, the middle was nine feet # Lit six cubits wide, and the third was 10 1/2 feet # Lit seven cubits wide. He also provided offset ledges for the temple all around the outside so that nothing would be inserted into the temple walls. 7The temple’s construction used finished stones cut at the quarry so that no hammer, chisel, or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built. # 1Kg 5:17
8The door for the lowest # LXX, Tg; MT reads middle side chamber was on the right side of the temple. They # = people went up a stairway # Hb obscure to the middle chamber, and from the middle to the third. 9When he finished building the temple, # 1Kg 6:1,14,38 he paneled it with boards and planks of cedar. 10He built the chambers along the entire temple, joined to the temple with cedar beams; # 1Kg 5:6,8,10 each story was 7 1/2 feet # Lit five cubits high.
11The word of the Lord came to Solomon: # 1Kg 3:5,11-15; 9:2 12“As for this temple you are building — if you walk in My statutes, observe My ordinances, and keep all My commands by walking in them, # 1Kg 11:10 I will fulfill My promise to you, which I made to your father David. # 2Sm 7:12-16; 1Kg 9:5 13I will live among the Israelites and not abandon My people Israel.” # Lv 26:11; Jos 1:5-6; Heb 13:5
14When Solomon finished building the temple, # LXX omits these vv. # 1Kg 6:1,38 15he paneled the interior temple walls with cedar boards; from the temple floor to the surface of the ceiling he overlaid the interior with wood. He also overlaid the floor with cypress boards. # 1Kg 5:8,10; 7:7; Ezk 41:16 16Then he lined 30 feet # Lit 20 cubits of the rear of the temple with cedar boards from the floor to the surface of the ceiling, # LXX; MT omits of the ceiling ; 1Kg 6:15 and he built the interior as an inner sanctuary, the most holy place. # Ex 26:33-34; 1Kg 8:6; Heb 9:3 17The temple, that is, the sanctuary in front of the most holy place, # Lit front of me; Hb obscure was 60 feet # Lit 40 cubits long. 18The cedar paneling inside the temple was carved with ornamental gourds # 1Kg 7:24 and flower blossoms. Everything was cedar; # 1Kg 5:8,10 not a stone could be seen.
19He prepared the inner sanctuary # Ezk 41:3-4 inside the temple to put the ark of the Lord’s covenant # Dt 10:16; Jos 3:11 there. 20The interior of the sanctuary was 30 feet # Lit 20 cubits long, 30 feet # Lit 20 cubits wide, and 30 feet # Lit 20 cubits high; he overlaid it with pure gold. # 2Ch 3:8-9 He also overlaid the cedar altar. 21Next, Solomon overlaid the interior of the temple with pure gold, and he hung # Lit he caused to pass across gold chains # 2Ch 3:14; Mt 27:51 across the front of the inner sanctuary # 2Ch 3:16 and overlaid it with gold. 22So he added the gold overlay to the entire temple until everything was completely finished, including the entire altar # 1Kg 7:48; Heb 9:3-4 that belongs to the inner sanctuary.
23In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim # Ex 25:18-22; 2Ch 3:10-13 15 feet # Lit 10 cubits high out of olive wood. 24One wing of the first cherub was 7 1/2 feet long, # Lit five cubits and the other wing was 7 1/2 feet long. The wingspan was 15 feet # Lit 10 cubits from tip to tip. 25The second cherub also was 15 feet; # Lit 10 cubits both cherubim had the same size and shape. 26The first cherub’s height was 15 feet # Lit 10 cubits and so was the second cherub’s. 27Then he put the cherubim inside the inner temple. Since their wings were spread out, the first one’s wing touched one wall while the second cherub’s wing touched the other # Lit the second wall, and in the middle of the temple their wings were touching wing to wing. # 2Ch 5:8 28He also overlaid the cherubim with gold.
29He carved all the surrounding temple walls with carved engravings — cherubim, # Ezk 41:18,25 palm trees and flower blossoms — in both the inner and outer sanctuaries. 30He overlaid the temple floor with gold in both the inner and outer sanctuaries.
31For the entrance of the inner sanctuary, he made olive wood doors. # Ezk 41:23 The pillars of the doorposts were five-sided. # Hb obscure 32The two doors were made of olive wood. He carved cherubim, palm trees, and flower blossoms on them and overlaid them with gold, hammering gold over the cherubim and palm trees. 33In the same way, he made four-sided # Hb obscure olive wood doorposts for the sanctuary entrance. 34The two doors # Ezk 41:23-25 were made of cypress wood; the first door had two folding sides, and the second door had two folding panels. 35He carved cherubim, palm trees, and flower blossoms on them and overlaid them with gold applied evenly over the carving. 36He built the inner courtyard # 2Ch 4:9; Jr 36:10 with three rows of dressed stone # 1Kg 7:12; Ezr 6:4 and a row of trimmed cedar beams.
37The foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid in Solomon’s fourth year in the month of Ziv. 38In his eleventh year in the eighth month, in the month of Bul, # = October–November the temple was completed in every detail and according to every specification. # 1Kg 6:1,14 So he built it in seven years. # 1Kg 7:1
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1 Kings 6
6
Solomon Builds the Temple
1 #
2 Chr. 3:1, 2 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, #Acts 7:47he began to build the house of the Lord. 2#2 Chr. 3:3, 4; See Ezek. 40–42The house that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits#6:2 A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. 3The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and ten cubits deep in front of the house. 4And #Ezek. 40:16; 41:16, 26he made for the house windows with recessed frames.#6:4 Or blocked lattice windows 5#Ezek. 41:6 He also built a structure#6:5 Or platform; also verse 10 against the wall of the house, running around the walls of the house, both the nave and #ver. 16, 19, 20, 23, 31; ch. 7:49; 8:6, 8; 2 Chr. 4:20; 5:7, 9; Ps. 28:2 the inner sanctuary. And he made #Ezek. 41:5, 6side chambers all around. 6The lowest story#6:6 Septuagint; Hebrew structure, or platform was five cubits broad, the middle one was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad. For around the outside of the house he made offsets on the wall in order that the supporting beams should not be inserted into the walls of the house.
7When the house was built, #ch. 5:18; Deut. 27:5, 6it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built.
8The entrance for the lowest#6:8 Septuagint, Targum; Hebrew middle story was on the south side of the house, and one went up by stairs to the middle story, and from the middle story to the third. 9#ver. 14, 38So he built the house and finished it, and he made the ceiling of the house of beams and planks of cedar. 10He built the structure against the whole house, five cubits high, and it was joined to the house with timbers of cedar.
11Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon, 12“Concerning this house that you are building, #ch. 9:4; [ch. 2:4] if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, #2 Sam. 7:13; 1 Chr. 22:10which I spoke to David your father. 13And #Ex. 25:8 I will dwell among the children of Israel #Deut. 31:6, 8; Josh. 1:5and will not forsake my people Israel.”
14 # ver. 9, 38 So Solomon built the house and finished it. 15He lined 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 covered them on the inside with wood, #[ch. 7:7]and he covered the floor of the house with boards of cypress. 16#2 Chr. 3:8 He built twenty cubits of the rear of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the walls, and he built this within as an inner sanctuary, as #ch. 7:50; 8:6; Ex. 26:33, 34; 2 Chr. 3:8; Ezek. 45:3; Heb. 9:3the Most Holy Place. 17The house, that is, the nave in front of the inner sanctuary, was forty cubits long. 18The cedar within the house was carved in the form of #ch. 7:24gourds and open flowers. All was cedar; no stone was seen. 19The inner sanctuary he prepared in the innermost part of the house, to set there the ark of the covenant of the Lord. 20The inner sanctuary#6:20 Vulgate; Hebrew And before the inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high, and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid#6:20 Septuagint made an altar of cedar. 21And Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold, and he drew chains of gold across, in front of the inner sanctuary, and overlaid it with gold. 22And he overlaid the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. #Ex. 30:1, 3, 6Also the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold.
23 # For ver. 23-27, see 2 Chr. 3:10-12 In the inner sanctuary #Ex. 37:7-9he made two cherubim of olivewood, each ten cubits high. 24Five cubits was the length of one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the length of the other wing of the cherub; it was ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. 25The other cherub also measured ten cubits; both cherubim had the same measure and the same form. 26The height of one cherub was ten cubits, and so was that of the other cherub. 27He put the cherubim in the innermost part of the house. #ch. 8:7; Ex. 25:20; 37:9; 2 Chr. 5:8And the wings of the cherubim were spread out so that a wing of one touched the one wall, and a wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; their other wings touched each other in the middle of the house. 28And he overlaid the cherubim with gold.
29Around all the walls of the house he carved engraved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, in the inner and outer rooms. 30The floor of the house he overlaid with gold in the inner and outer rooms.
31For the entrance to the inner sanctuary he made doors of olivewood; the lintel and the doorposts were five-sided.#6:31 The meaning of the Hebrew phrase is uncertain 32He covered the two doors of olivewood with carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. He overlaid them with gold and spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees.
33So also he made for the entrance to the nave doorposts of olivewood, in the form of a square, 34and two doors of cypress wood. #[Ezek. 41:24]The two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding. 35On them he carved cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and he overlaid them with gold evenly applied on the carved work. 36#ch. 7:12He built the inner court with three courses of cut stone and one course of cedar beams.
37 # ver. 1 In the fourth year the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, in the month of Ziv. 38And in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its parts, and according to all its specifications. He was seven years in building it.
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