1 Kings 4–6

1King Solomon was king over all Israel.

2These were the princes whom he had: Azariah the son of Zadok, the priest;

3Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, scribes; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, the recorder;

4Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests;

5Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers; Zabud the son of Nathan was chief minister, the king’s friend;

6Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the men subject to forced labor.

7Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household. Each man had to make provision for a month in the year.

8These are their names: Ben Hur, in the hill country of Ephraim;

9Ben Deker, in Makaz, in Shaalbim, Beth Shemesh, and Elon Beth Hanan;

10Ben Hesed, in Arubboth (Socoh and all the land of Hepher belonged to him);

11Ben Abinadab, in all the height of Dor (he had Taphath, Solomon’s daughter, as wife);

12Baana the son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth Shean which is beside Zarethan, beneath Jezreel, from Beth Shean to Abel Meholah, as far as beyond Jokmeam;

13Ben Geber, in Ramoth Gilead (the towns of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, belonged to him; and the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars, belonged to him);

14Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim;

15Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he also took Basemath the daughter of Solomon as wife);

16Baana the son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth;

17Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar;

18Shimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin;

19Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan; and he was the only officer who was in the land.

20Judah and Israel were numerous as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry.

21Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

22Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty cors of fine flour, sixty measures of meal,

23ten head of fat cattle, twenty head of cattle out of the pastures, and one hundred sheep, in addition to deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl.

24For he had dominion over all on this side of the River, from Tiphsah even to Gaza, over all the kings on this side of the River; and he had peace on all sides around him.

25Judah and Israel lived safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.

26Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.

27Those officers provided food for King Solomon, and for all who came to King Solomon’s table, every man in his month. They let nothing be lacking.

28They also brought barley and straw for the horses and swift steeds to the place where the officers were, each man according to his duty.

29God gave Solomon abundant wisdom, understanding, and breadth of mind like the sand that is on the seashore.

30Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt.

31For he was wiser than all men—wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the nations all around.

32He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered one thousand five.

33He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows out of the wall; he also spoke of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish.

34People of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, sent by all kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

1Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the place of his father, and Hiram had always loved David.

2Solomon sent to Hiram, saying,

3“You know that David my father could not build a house for the name of Yahweh his God because of the wars which were around him on every side, until Yahweh put his enemies under the soles of his feet.

4But now Yahweh my God has given me rest on every side. There is no enemy and no evil occurrence.

5Behold, I intend to build a house for the name of Yahweh my God, as Yahweh spoke to David my father, saying, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place shall build the house for my name.’

6Now therefore command that cedar trees be cut for me out of Lebanon. My servants will be with your servants; and I will give you wages for your servants according to all that you say. For you know that there is nobody among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”

7When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly, and said, “Blessed is Yahweh today, who has given to David a wise son to rule over this great people.”

8Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, “I have heard the message which you have sent to me. I will do all your desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning cypress timber.

9My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea. I will make them into rafts to go by sea to the place that you specify to me, and will cause them to be broken up there, and you will receive them. You will accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household.”

10So Hiram gave Solomon cedar timber and cypress timber according to all his desire.

11Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand cors of wheat for food to his household, and twenty cors of pure oil. Solomon gave this to Hiram year by year.

12Yahweh gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty together.

13King Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men.

14He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses: for a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home; and Adoniram was over the men subject to forced labor.

15Solomon had seventy thousand who bore burdens, and eighty thousand who were stone cutters in the mountains,

16besides Solomon’s chief officers who were over the work: three thousand three hundred who ruled over the people who labored in the work.

17The king commanded, and they cut out large stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with worked stone.

18Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites cut them, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the house.

1In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build Yahweh’s house.

2The house which King Solomon built for Yahweh had a length of sixty cubits, and its width twenty, and its height thirty cubits.

3The porch in front of the temple of the house had a length of twenty cubits, which was along the width of the house. Ten cubits was its width in front of the house.

4He made windows of fixed lattice work for the house.

5Against the wall of the house, he built floors all around, against the walls of the house all around, both of the temple and of the inner sanctuary; and he made side rooms all around.

6The lowest floor was five cubits wide, and the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide; for on the outside he made offsets in the wall of the house all around, that the beams should not be inserted into the walls of the house.

7The house, when it was under construction, was built of stone prepared at the quarry; and no hammer or ax or any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was under construction.

8The door for the middle side rooms was in the right side of the house. They went up by winding stairs into the middle floor, and out of the middle into the third.

9So he built the house and finished it; and he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar.

10He built the floors all along the house, each five cubits high; and they rested on the house with timbers of cedar.

11Yahweh’s word came to Solomon, saying,

12“Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in my statutes, and execute my ordinances, and keep all my commandments to walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father.

13I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.”

14So Solomon built the house and finished it.

15He built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar; from the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood. He covered the floor of the house with cypress boards.

16He built twenty cubits of the back part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the ceiling. He built this within, for an inner sanctuary, even for the most holy place.

17In front of the temple sanctuary was forty cubits long.

18There was cedar on the house within, carved with buds and open flowers. All was cedar. No stone was visible.

19He prepared an inner sanctuary in the middle of the house within, to set the ark of Yahweh’s covenant there.

20Within the inner sanctuary was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in width, and twenty cubits in its height. He overlaid it with pure gold. He covered the altar with cedar.

21So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold. He drew chains of gold across before the inner sanctuary, and he overlaid it with gold.

22He overlaid the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. He also overlaid the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary with gold.

23In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high.

24Five cubits was the length of one wing of the cherub, and five cubits was the length of the other wing of the cherub. From the tip of one wing to the tip of the other was ten cubits.

25The other cherub was ten cubits. Both the cherubim were of one measure and one form.

26One cherub was ten cubits high, and so was the other cherub.

27He set the cherubim within the inner house. The wings of the cherubim were stretched out, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the middle of the house.

28He overlaid the cherubim with gold.

29He carved all the walls of the house around with carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, inside and outside.

30He overlaid the floor of the house with gold, inside and outside.

31For the entrance of the inner sanctuary, he made doors of olive wood. The lintel and door posts were a fifth part of the wall.

32So he made two doors of olive wood; and he carved on them carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold. He spread the gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees.

33He also made the entrance of the temple door posts of olive wood, out of a fourth part of the wall,

34and two doors of cypress wood. The two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding.

35He carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers; and he overlaid them with gold fitted on the engraved work.

36He built the inner court with three courses of cut stone and a course of cedar beams.

37The foundation of Yahweh’s house was laid in the fourth year, in the month Ziv.

38In the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished throughout all its parts and according to all its specifications. So he spent seven years building it.