1 Kings 7
7
1-5It took Solomon another thirteen years to finish building his own palace complex. He built the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon a hundred and fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high. There were four rows of cedar columns supporting forty-five cedar beams, fifteen in each row, and then roofed with cedar. Windows in groupings of three were set high in the walls on either side. All the doors were rectangular and arranged symmetrically.
6He built a colonnaded courtyard seventy-five feet long and forty-five wide. It had a roofed porch at the front with ample eaves.
7He built a court room, the Hall of Justice, where he would decide judicial matters, and paneled it with cedar.
8He built his personal residence behind the Hall on a similar plan. Solomon also built another one just like it for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had married.
9-12No expense was spared—everything here, inside and out, from foundation to roof was constructed using high-quality stone, accurately cut and shaped and polished. The foundation stones were huge, ranging in size from twelve to fifteen feet, and of the very best quality. The finest stone was used above the foundation, shaped to size and trimmed with cedar. The courtyard was enclosed with a wall made of three layers of stone and topped with cedar timbers, just like the one in the porch of The Temple of God.
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13-14King Solomon sent to Tyre and asked Hiram (not the king; another Hiram) to come. Hiram’s mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali. His father was a Tyrian and a master worker in bronze. Hiram was a real artist—he could do anything with bronze. He came to King Solomon and did all the bronze work.
15-22a First he cast two pillars in bronze, each twenty-seven feet tall and eighteen feet in circumference. He then cast two capitals in bronze to set on the pillars; each capital was seven and a half feet high and flared at the top in the shape of a lily. Each capital was dressed with an elaborate filigree of seven braided chains and a double row of two hundred pomegranates, setting the pillars off magnificently. He set the pillars up in the entrance porch to The Temple; the pillar to the south he named Security (Jachin) and the pillar to the north Stability (Boaz). The capitals were in the shape of lilies.
22b-24 When the pillars were finished, Hiram’s next project was to make the Sea—an immense round basin of cast metal fifteen feet in diameter, seven and a half feet tall, and forty-five feet in circumference. Just under the rim there were two bands of decorative gourds, ten gourds to each foot and a half. The gourds were cast in one piece with the Sea.
25-26The Sea was set on twelve bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east; the bulls faced outward supporting the Sea on their hindquarters. The Sea was three inches thick and flared at the rim like a cup, or like a lily. It held about 11,500 gallons.
27-33Hiram also made ten washstands of bronze. Each was six feet square and four and a half feet tall. They were made like this: Panels were fastened to the uprights. Lions, bulls, and cherubim were represented on the panels and uprights. Beveled wreath-work bordered the lions and bulls above and below. Each stand was mounted on four bronze wheels with bronze axles. The uprights were cast with decorative relief work. Each stand held a basin on a circular engraved support a foot and a half deep set on a pedestal two and a quarter feet square. The washstand itself was square. The axles were attached under the stand and the wheels fixed to them. The wheels were twenty-seven inches in diameter; they were designed like chariot wheels. Everything—axles, rims, spokes, and hubs—was of cast metal.
34-37There was a handle at the four corners of each washstand, the handles cast in one piece with the stand. At the top of the washstand there was a ring about nine inches deep. The uprights and handles were cast with the stand. Everything and every available surface was engraved with cherubim, lions, and palm trees, bordered by arabesques. The washstands were identical, all cast in the same mold.
38-40a He also made ten bronze washbasins, each six feet in diameter with a capacity of 230 gallons, one basin for each of the ten washstands. He arranged five stands on the south side of The Temple and five on the north. The Sea was placed at the southeast corner of The Temple. Hiram then fashioned the various utensils: buckets and shovels and bowls.
40b-45a Hiram completed all the work he set out to do for King Solomon on The Temple of God:
two pillars;
two capitals on top of the pillars;
two decorative filigrees for the capitals;
four hundred pomegranates for the two filigrees
(a double row of pomegranates for each filigree);
ten washstands each with its washbasin;
one Sea;
twelve bulls under the Sea;
miscellaneous buckets, shovels, and bowls.
45b-47 All these artifacts that Hiram made for King Solomon for The Temple of God were of burnished bronze. He cast them in clay in a foundry on the Jordan plain between Succoth and Zarethan. These artifacts were never weighed—there were far too many! Nobody has any idea how much bronze was used.
48-50Solomon was also responsible for all the furniture and accessories in The Temple of God:
the gold Altar;
the gold Table that held the Bread of the Presence;
the pure gold candelabras, five to the right and five to the left in front of the Inner Sanctuary;
the gold flowers, lamps, and tongs;
the pure gold dishes, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, ladles, and censers;
the gold sockets for the doors of the Inner Sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, used also for the doors of the Main Sanctuary.
51That completed all the work King Solomon did on The Temple of God. He then brought in the items consecrated by his father David, the silver and the gold and the artifacts. He placed them all in the treasury of God’s Temple.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
1 Kings 7
7
Solomon Continues to Build
1Solomon built his house over thirteen years, and he finished all of his house.
2He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon; one hundred cubits its length, fifty cubits its width, and thirty cubits its height, on four rows of cedar pillars and cedar beams atop the pillars. 3It was covered with cedar above, and the supporting beams which were on the forty-five pillars, fifteen to the row. 4There were three rows of specially designed windows; with window to window three times. 5All of the doorways and the doorframes had four-sided casings, with opening to opposite opening three times.
6The hall of pillars he made fifty cubits in its length and thirty cubits in its width, and a porch was in front of them,#Literally “on their face” with pillars and an overhang in front of them.#Literally “on their face” 7He made the hall of the throne where he would pronounce judgment, the hall of justice, and it was covered with cedar from the floor to the rafters.#Hebrew “floor,” but other ancient versions have “rafters” 8His house where he would live in the next courtyard on the inside of the porch was like this work, and he would make a house like this porch for the daughter of Pharaoh whom Solomon had taken as wife. 9All of these were of precious stones, according to the measurement of dressed stone, sawn with a saw on all sides;#Literally “on the inside and on the outside” from the foundation up to the eaves and from the outside up to the great courtyard. 10The foundation was of precious stones, and large stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits 11with precious stones above, just the right size,#Literally “according to the measurement of dressed stones” and cedar. 12The great courtyard all around had three rows of dressed stones and a row of cedar beams; for both the courtyard of the inner house#Or “temple” of Yahweh and for the porch of the house.
13King Solomon invited and received Hiram from Tyre. 14He was the son of a widow woman from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, an artisan of bronze. He was filled with wisdom and with ability and with the knowledge to do all the work with the bronze. And he came to King Solomon, and he did all of his work. 15He cast the two pillars out of bronze; eighteen cubits was the height of the first, and a cord of twelve cubits would encircle the second pillar. 16He made two capitals to place on the tops of the pillars out of molten bronze; the first capital was five cubits in height, and the second capital was five cubits in height. 17A network of latticework and wreaths of chainwork with small chains were for the capitals which were on top of the pillars; seven for the first capital and seven for the second capital. 18He also made the pillars with two rows around on the lattice, each to cover the capitals which were on top, out of the pomegranate-shaped ornaments, and thus he did for the second capital as well. 19And on the capitals which were on top of the pillars in the porch were works of lilies four cubits high. 20And capitals were on the two pillars above near the bulging section which was beside the lattice, and two hundred pomegranate-shaped ornaments were in rows all around on the second capital. 21He set up the pillars for the porch of the main hall; he erected the pillar on the right and called its name Jakin, and he set up the pillar on the left and called its name Boaz. 22On the top of the pillars was a work of lilies; and so the work of the pillars was finished.
23He also made the molten#That is, cast from molten bronze sea, ten cubits in diameter,#Literally “from its edge up to its edge, round all around” and five cubits was its height. A measuring line of thirty cubits would encircle it all around. 24Gourds were under its rim surrounding it all around; ten to the cubit, surrounding the sea all around with two rows of gourds, which were cast when he cast the metal. 25The sea was standing on twelve oxen, with three facing to the north, three facing to the west, three facing to the south, and three facing to the east. The sea was on top of them, with all of their hindquarters turned to the inside. 26Its thickness was a handbreadth, but its rim was as the work on the brim of a cup, like the bud of a lily; it held two thousand baths.
27He made the ten stands of bronze; each stand was four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three cubits in height. 28Now this was the construction of the stands: there were frames for them and frames between the crossbars, 29and on the frames which were between the crossbars were lions, oxen, and cherubim. On the crossbars both above and beneath the lions and oxen were works of cascading wreaths. 30There were four bronze wheels for each of the stands, with bronze axles; the four support pedestals for these were under the basin, and the supports were decorated on each side with wreaths. 31Its opening from the inside of the capital and above was a cubit; its pedestal was a round work of a cubit and a half; moreover, on its opening were the carvings with four-sided frames, not circular. 32Four of the wheels were underneath the frames, and the axles of the wheels were on the stands. The height of each wheel was a cubit and a half. 33The construction of the wheel was like the construction of the wheel of the chariot; their axles, their rims, their spokes, and their naves were all cast. 34The four supports were the four corners of each stand, with the stand supporting it. 35On top of the stand was half a cubit deep, circular all around, and on the top of the stand were its supports and its frames. 36He engraved on the plates, on its supports, and on its frame cherubim, lions and images of a palm tree, according to the space for each, with wreaths all around. 37He made the ten stands like this in one cast, with the same measurement and shape for each of them.
38He also made ten bronze basins, each holding forty baths; each basin was four cubits, one basin on each of the ten stands. 39He placed five of the stands on the south side of the house and five on the north side of the house, and the sea he set on the southeast side of the house.
40Hiram also made the basins and the shovels and the bowls for drinking wine; and so Hiram finished doing all of the work that he was to do#Literally “that he did” for King Solomon in the house of Yahweh: 41the two pillars and the bowls of the capitals which were atop the two pillars, and the two lattice works to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were atop the pillars; 42and the four hundred pomegranate-shaped ornaments for the two lattice works, the two rows of pomegranate-shaped ornaments for each latticework to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on the surface of the pillars; 43and the ten stands and the ten basins on the stands; 44and the one sea and the twelve oxen under the sea; 45and the pots, the shovels, and the bowls for drinking wine. All the vessels of the tent which Hiram had made for King Solomon for the house of Yahweh were polished bronze. 46The king had cast them in the plain of the Jordan with the casting mold set in the ground between Succoth and Zarethan. 47Solomon left all of the vessels unweighed because of their very great abundance, so the weight of the bronze could not be determined.
48Solomon also made all of the vessels which were in the house of Yahweh: the golden altar and the golden table on which was the bread of the presence; 49as well as the five lampstands of beaten gold at the south and five lampstands at the north before the presence of the inner sanctuary, with the flower-shaped ornaments, the lamps, and the pair of tongs all of gold. 50The cups, the snuffers, the bowls for drinking wine, the bowls for the incense, and the firepans were made from beaten gold; the facades for the doors of the inner house, for the most holy place,#Literally “holy of the holiest” for the doors of the main hall of the temple were of gold. 51When all of the work which king Solomon did on the house of Yahweh was completed, Solomon brought out the holy objects of his father David, the silver and the gold and the vessels, which he put in the treasury rooms of the house of Yahweh.
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