1 Kings - The Old Testament

¹ As regards his palace, Solomon spent thirteen years on it before the building was completed.

² He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon, a hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high, on four rows of cedar-wood pillars,

³ with lengths of cedar wood laid horizontally on the pillars. The upper part was panelled with cedar right down to the tie-beams on forty-five pillars, fifteen in each row.

⁴ There were three rows of window-frames, with the windows corresponding to one another at three levels.

⁵ All the doorways and windows were rectangular, with the windows corresponding to one another at three levels.

⁶ He also made the Colonnade, fifty cubits long and thirty cubits broad, with a cornice in front.

⁷ He also made the Hall of the Throne where he used to dispense justice, that is, the Hall of Justice; it was panelled in cedar from floor to beams.

⁸ His own living quarters, in the other court and inwards from the Hall, were of the same construction. And there was a house similar to this Hall for Pharaoh's daughter whom he had taken in marriage.

⁹ All these buildings were of special stones cut to measure, trimmed on the inner and outer sides with the saw, from the foundations to the coping-

¹⁰ the foundations were of special stones, huge stones, of ten and eight cubits,

¹¹ and, above these, special stones, cut to measure, and cedar wood-

¹² and, on the outside, the great court had three courses of dressed stone round it and one course of cedar beams; so also had the inner court of the Temple of Yahweh and the vestibule of the Temple.

¹³ King Solomon sent for Hiram of Tyre;

¹⁴ he was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, but his father had been a Tyrian, a bronzeworker. He was a highly intelligent craftsman, skilled in all types of bronzework. He came to King Solomon and did all this work for him.

¹⁵ He cast the two bronze pillars; the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a cord twelve cubits long gave the measurement of its girth; so also was the second pillar.

¹⁶ He made two capitals of cast bronze for the tops of the pillars; the height of one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other five cubits.

¹⁷ He made two sets of filigree to cover the moulding of the two capitals surmounting the pillars, one filigree for one capital and one filigree for the other.

¹⁸ He also made pomegranates: two rows of them round each filigree,four hundred in all,

¹⁹ The capitals surrounding the pillars were lily-shaped.

²⁰ applied on the raised moulding behind the filigree; there were two hundred pomegranates round one capital and the same round the other capital.

²¹ He erected the pillars in front of the portico of the Temple, he erected the right-hand pillar and named it Jachin; he erected the left-hand pillar and named it Boaz.

²² Thus, the work on the pillars was completed.

²³ He made the Sea of cast metal, ten cubits from rim to rim, circular in shape and five cubits high; a cord thirty cubits long gave the measurement of its girth.

²⁴ Under its rim and completely encircling it were gourds surrounding the Sea; over a length of thirty cubits the gourds were in two rows, of one and the same casting with the rest.

²⁵ It rested on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, three facing east; on these, their hindquarters all turned inwards, stood the Sea.

²⁶ It was a hand's breadth in thickness, and its rim was shaped like the rim of a cup, lily-shaped. It could hold two thousand measures.

²⁷ He made the ten bronze stands; each stand was four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three high.

²⁸ They were designed as follows; they had an undercarriage and crosspieces to the undercarriage.

²⁹ On the crosspieces of the undercarriage were lions and bulls and winged creatures, and on top of the undercarriage was a support; under the lions and oxen there were scrolls in the style of. . .

³⁰ Each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles; its four feet had shoulderings under the basin, and the shoulderings were cast. . .

³¹ Its mouth measured one and a half cubits from where the shoulderings met to the top; its mouth was round like a stand for a vessel, and on the mouth there were engravings too; the crosspieces, however, were rectangular and not round.

³² The four wheels were under the crosspieces. The axles of the wheels were inside the stands; the height of the wheels was one and a half cubits.

³³ The wheels were designed like chariot wheels: their axles, felloes, spokes and naves had all been cast.

³⁴ There were four shoulderings at the four corners of each stand: the stand and the shoulderings were all of a piece.

³⁵ At the top of the stand there was a support, circular in shape and half a cubit high; and on top of the stand there were lugs. The crosspieces were of a piece with the stand.

³⁶ On the bands he engraved winged creatures and lions and palm leaves. . . and scrolls right round.

³⁷ He made the ten stands like this: the same casting and the same measurements for all.

³⁸ He made ten bronze basins; each basin held forty measures and each basin measured four cubits, one basin to each of the ten stands.

³⁹ He arranged the stands, five on the right-hand side of the Temple, five on the left-hand side of the Temple; the Sea he placed on the right-hand side of the Temple, to the south east.

⁴⁰ Hiram made the ash containers, the scoops and the sprinkling bowls. He finished all the work that he did for King Solomon on the Temple of Yahweh:

⁴¹ Two pillars; the two mouldings of the capitals surrounding the pillars; the two sets of filigree to cover the two mouldings of the capitals surmounting the pillars;

⁴² the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of filigree -- two rows of pomegranates for each set of filigree;

⁴³ the ten stands and the ten basins on the stands;

⁴⁴ the one Sea and the twelve oxen beneath the Sea;

⁴⁵ the ash containers, the scoops, and sprinkling bowls. All these objects made by Hiram for King Solomon for the Temple of Yahweh were of burnished bronze.

⁴⁶ He made them by the process of sand casting, in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zarethan.

⁴⁷ There were so many of them, that the weight of the bronze was never calculated.

⁴⁸ Solomon made all the objects designed for the Temple of Yahweh: the golden altar and the gold table for the loaves of permanent offering;

⁴⁹ the lamp-stands, five on the right and five on the left in front of the Debir, of pure gold; the floral work, the lamps, the tongs, of gold;

⁵⁰ the basins, the snuffers, the sprinkling bowls, the incense ladles and the pans, of real gold; the door panels -- for the inner shrine -- that is, the Holy of Holies -- and for the Hekal, of gold.

⁵¹ Thus all the work done by King Solomon for the Temple of Yahweh was completed, and Solomon brought in the gifts which his father David had consecrated; and he had the silver, the gold and the utensils put into the treasuries of the Temple of Yahweh.