1 Kings 7–9

1Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.

2For he built the House of the Forest of Lebanon. Its length was one hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits, on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams on the pillars.

3It was covered with cedar above over the forty-five beams that were on the pillars, fifteen in a row.

4There were beams in three rows, and window was facing window in three ranks.

5All the doors and posts were made square with beams; and window was facing window in three ranks.

6He made the hall of pillars. Its length was fifty cubits and its width thirty cubits, with a porch before them, and pillars and a threshold before them.

7He made the porch of the throne where he was to judge, even the porch of judgment; and it was covered with cedar from floor to floor.

8His house where he was to dwell, the other court within the porch, was of the same construction. He made also a house for Pharaoh’s daughter (whom Solomon had taken as wife), like this porch.

9All these were of costly stones, even of stone cut according to measure, sawed with saws, inside and outside, even from the foundation to the coping, and so on the outside to the great court.

10The foundation was of costly stones, even great stones, stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits.

11Above were costly stones, even cut stone, according to measure, and cedar wood.

12The great court around had three courses of cut stone with a course of cedar beams, like the inner court of Yahweh’s house and the porch of the house.

13King Solomon sent and brought Hiram out of Tyre.

14He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze; and he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill to work all works in bronze. He came to King Solomon and performed all his work.

15For he fashioned the two pillars of bronze, eighteen cubits high apiece; and a line of twelve cubits encircled either of them.

16He made two capitals of molten bronze to set on the tops of the pillars. The height of the one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other capital was five cubits.

17There were nets of checker work and wreaths of chain work for the capitals which were on the top of the pillars: seven for the one capital, and seven for the other capital.

18So he made the pillars; and there were two rows of pomegranates around the one network, to cover the capitals that were on the top of the pillars; and he did so for the other capital.

19The capitals that were on the top of the pillars in the porch were of lily work, four cubits.

20There were capitals above also on the two pillars, close by the belly which was beside the network. There were two hundred pomegranates in rows around the other capital.

21He set up the pillars at the porch of the temple. He set up the right pillar and called its name Jachin; and he set up the left pillar and called its name Boaz.

22On the tops of the pillars was lily work. So the work of the pillars was finished.

23He made the molten sea ten cubits from brim to brim, round in shape. Its height was five cubits; and a line of thirty cubits encircled it.

24Under its brim around there were buds which encircled it for ten cubits, encircling the sea. The buds were in two rows, cast when it was cast.

25It stood on twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east; and the sea was set on them above, and all their hindquarters were inward.

26It was a hand width thick. Its brim was worked like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily. It held two thousand baths.

27He made the ten bases of bronze. The length of one base was four cubits, four cubits its width, and three cubits its height.

28The work of the bases was like this: they had panels; and there were panels between the ledges;

29and on the panels that were between the ledges were lions, oxen, and cherubim; and on the ledges there was a pedestal above; and beneath the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging work.

30Every base had four bronze wheels and axles of bronze; and its four feet had supports. The supports were cast beneath the basin, with wreaths at the side of each.

31Its opening within the capital and above was a cubit. Its opening was round like the work of a pedestal, a cubit and a half; and also on its opening were engravings, and their panels were square, not round.

32The four wheels were underneath the panels; and the axles of the wheels were in the base. The height of a wheel was a cubit and half a cubit.

33The work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel. Their axles, their rims, their spokes, and their hubs were all of cast metal.

34There were four supports at the four corners of each base. Its supports were of the base itself.

35In the top of the base there was a round band half a cubit high; and on the top of the base its supports and its panels were the same.

36On the plates of its supports and on its panels, he engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, each in its space, with wreaths all around.

37He made the ten bases in this way: all of them had one casting, one measure, and one form.

38He made ten basins of bronze. One basin contained forty baths. Every basin measured four cubits. One basin was on every one of the ten bases.

39He set the bases, five 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 eastward and toward the south.

40Hiram made the pots, the shovels, and the basins. So Hiram finished doing all the work that he worked for King Solomon in Yahweh’s house:

41the two pillars; the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars; the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars;

42the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks; two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars;

43the ten bases; the ten basins on the bases;

44the one sea; the twelve oxen under the sea;

45the pots; the shovels; and the basins. All of these vessels, which Hiram made for King Solomon in Yahweh’s house, were of burnished bronze.

46The king cast them in the plain of the Jordan, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan.

47Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because there were so many of them. The weight of the bronze could not be determined.

48Solomon made all the vessels that were in Yahweh’s house: the golden altar and the table that the show bread was on, of gold;

49and the lamp stands, five on the right side and five on the left, in front of the inner sanctuary, of pure gold; and the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs, of gold;

50the cups, the snuffers, the basins, the spoons, and the fire pans, of pure gold; and the hinges, both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, of the temple, of gold.

51Thus all the work that King Solomon did in Yahweh’s house was finished. Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated—the silver, the gold, and the vessels—and put them in the treasuries of Yahweh’s house.

1Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel with all the heads of the tribes, the princes of the fathers’ households of the children of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of Yahweh’s covenant out of David’s city, which is Zion.

2All the men of Israel assembled themselves to King Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.

3All the elders of Israel came, and the priests picked up the ark.

4They brought up Yahweh’s ark, the Tent of Meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the Tent. The priests and the Levites brought these up.

5King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who were assembled to him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and cattle that could not be counted or numbered for multitude.

6The priests brought in the ark of Yahweh’s covenant to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the most holy place, even under the cherubim’s wings.

7For the cherubim spread their wings out over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its poles above.

8The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place before the inner sanctuary, but they were not seen outside. They are there to this day.

9There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets which Moses put there at Horeb, when Yahweh made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.

10It came to pass, when the priests had come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled Yahweh’s house,

11so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for Yahweh’s glory filled Yahweh’s house.

12Then Solomon said, “Yahweh has said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.

13I have surely built you a house of habitation, a place for you to dwell in forever.”

14The king turned his face around and blessed all the assembly of Israel; and all the assembly of Israel stood.

15He said, “Blessed is Yahweh, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to David your father, and has with his hand fulfilled it, saying,

16‘Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house, that my name might be there; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.’

17“Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

18But Yahweh said to David my father, ‘Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart.

19Nevertheless, you shall not build the house; but your son who shall come out of your body, he shall build the house for my name.’

20Yahweh has established his word that he spoke; for I have risen up in the place of David my father, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as Yahweh promised, and have built the house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

21There I have set a place for the ark, in which is Yahweh’s covenant, which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.”

22Solomon stood before Yahweh’s altar in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven;

23and he said, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above, or on earth beneath; who keeps covenant and loving kindness with your servants who walk before you with all their heart;

24who has kept with your servant David my father that which you promised him. Yes, you spoke with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is today.

25Now therefore, may Yahweh, the God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father that which you have promised him, saying, ‘There shall not fail from you a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take heed to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.’

26“Now therefore, God of Israel, please let your word be verified, which you spoke to your servant David my father.

27But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can’t contain you; how much less this house that I have built!

28Yet have respect for the prayer of your servant and for his supplication, Yahweh my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you today;

29that your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which you have said, ‘My name shall be there;’ to listen to the prayer which your servant prays toward this place.

30Listen to the supplication of your servant, and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Yes, hear in heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive.

31“If a man sins against his neighbor, and an oath is laid on him to cause him to swear, and he comes and swears before your altar in this house,

32then hear in heaven, and act, and judge your servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way on his own head, and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.

33“When your people Israel are struck down before the enemy because they have sinned against you, if they turn again to you and confess your name, and pray and make supplication to you in this house,

34then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land which you gave to their fathers.

35“When the sky is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and confess your name, and turn from their sin when you afflict them,

36then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, and of your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on your land which you have given to your people for an inheritance.

37“If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight, mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is,

38whatever prayer and supplication is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, who shall each know the plague of his own heart, and spread out his hands toward this house,

39then hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to every man according to all his ways, whose heart you know (for you, even you only, know the hearts of all the children of men);

40that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.

41“Moreover, concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, when he comes out of a far country for your name’s sake

42(for they shall hear of your great name and of your mighty hand and of your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house,

43hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you for; that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name.

44“If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to Yahweh toward the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name,

45then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

46If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn’t sin), and you are angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near;

47yet if they repent in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of those who carried them captive, saying, ‘We have sinned and have done perversely; we have dealt wickedly,’

48if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen and the house which I have built for your name,

49then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven, your dwelling place, and maintain their cause;

50and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions in which they have transgressed against you; and give them compassion before those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them

51(for they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out of Egypt, from the middle of the iron furnace);

52that your eyes may be open to the supplication of your servant and to the supplication of your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they cry to you.

53For you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be your inheritance, as you spoke by Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, Lord Yahweh.”

54It was so, that when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication to Yahweh, he arose from before Yahweh’s altar, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread out toward heaven.

55He stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying,

56“Blessed be Yahweh, who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. There has not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by Moses his servant.

57May Yahweh our God be with us as he was with our fathers. Let him not leave us or forsake us,

58that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, which he commanded our fathers.

59Let these my words, with which I have made supplication before Yahweh, be near to Yahweh our God day and night, that he may maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as every day requires;

60that all the peoples of the earth may know that Yahweh himself is God. There is no one else.

61“Let your heart therefore be perfect with Yahweh our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as it is today.”

62The king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before Yahweh.

63Solomon offered for the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered to Yahweh, twenty two thousand head of cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated Yahweh’s house.

64The same day the king made the middle of the court holy that was before Yahweh’s house; for there he offered the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before Yahweh was too little to receive the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the fat of the peace offerings.

65So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt, before Yahweh our God, seven days and seven more days, even fourteen days.

66On the eighth day he sent the people away; and they blessed the king, and went to their tents joyful and glad in their hearts for all the goodness that Yahweh had shown to David his servant, and to Israel his people.

1When Solomon had finished the building of Yahweh’s house, the king’s house, and all Solomon’s desire which he was pleased to do,

2Yahweh appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.

3Yahweh said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before me. I have made this house holy, which you have built, to put my name there forever; and my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.

4As for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my ordinances,

5then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised to David your father, saying, ‘There shall not fail from you a man on the throne of Israel.’

6But if you turn away from following me, you or your children, and not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them,

7then I will cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and I will cast this house, which I have made holy for my name, out of my sight; and Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

8Though this house is so high, yet everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss; and they will say, ‘Why has Yahweh done this to this land and to this house?’

9and they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned Yahweh their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them, and served them. Therefore Yahweh has brought all this evil on them.’”

10At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, Yahweh’s house and the king’s house

11(now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and cypress trees, and with gold, according to all his desire), King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

12Hiram came out of Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they didn’t please him.

13He said, “What cities are these which you have given me, my brother?” He called them the land of Cabul to this day.

14Hiram sent to the king one hundred twenty talents of gold.

15This is the reason of the forced labor which King Solomon conscripted: to build Yahweh’s house, his own house, Millo, Jerusalem’s wall, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

16Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, taken Gezer, burned it with fire, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and given it for a wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.

17Solomon built in the land Gezer, Beth Horon the lower,

18Baalath, Tamar in the wilderness,

19all the storage cities that Solomon had, the cities for his chariots, the cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

20As for all the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel—

21their children who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel were not able utterly to destroy—of them Solomon raised a levy of bondservants to this day.

22But of the children of Israel Solomon made no bondservants; but they were the men of war, his servants, his princes, his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen.

23These were the five hundred fifty chief officers who were over Solomon’s work, who ruled over the people who labored in the work.

24But Pharaoh’s daughter came up out of David’s city to her house which Solomon had built for her. Then he built Millo.

25Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he built to Yahweh three times per year, burning incense with them on the altar that was before Yahweh. So he finished the house.

26King Solomon made a fleet of ships in Ezion Geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.

27Hiram sent in the fleet his servants, sailors who had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.

28They came to Ophir, and fetched from there gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to King Solomon.