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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—that is, the second month, he began to build the House of the Lord.
2 The temple that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. 3 The portico at the front of the main hall of the sanctuary was twenty cubits in length across the width of the temple, and it projected forward ten cubits from the front of the temple. 4 He also made windows with bevelled frames for the temple.
5 Against the outside walls of the temple he built an external structure that encircled the walls of the temple, that is, both the main hall and the inner sanctuary. He also made side rooms all around. 6 The lowest floor was five cubits wide, the middle six cubits wide, and the third seven cubits wide. He also made offset ledges all around the outside of the temple, so that nothing would be inserted into the temple walls.
7 While the temple was being built the stone was cut and prepared at the quarry so that no hammer, chisel, or any iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.
8 The entrance to the middle floor was on the right side of the temple. A stairway went up to the middle level, and from the middle to the third. 9 When he had completed building the temple, he panelled it with beams and planks of cedar. 10 He then built the side rooms along the whole temple, each five cubits high; and they were attached to the temple with beams of cedar.
11 The word of the Lord came to Solomon: 12 “As for this temple you are building, if you will walk in My statutes, carry out My ordinances, and keep all My commandments by walking in them, I will fulfil My promise with you, that I gave to your father David. 13 I will dwell among the Israelites, and not forsake My people Israel.”
14 So Solomon built the temple and completed it. 15 He lined the interior walls of the temple with cedar boards. He panelled the interior from the floor of the temple to the ceiling, and he overlaid the floor with cypress boards. 16 He partitioned off twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from the floor to the ceiling to serve as the inner sanctuary, that is, the Most Holy Place. 17 The front section of the temple that made up the main hall was forty cubits long. 18 The interior of the temple was cedar, with carvings in the shape of gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar, no stone was visible.
19 He prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the ark of the Lord’s covenant there. 20 The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. He overlaid it with pure gold, and he also overlaid the altar of cedar. 21 Then Solomon overlaid the interior of the temple with pure gold, and he hung gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary and overlaid it with gold. 22 So he overlaid the entire interior surfaces of the temple with gold until everything was completed. He also overlaid with gold the altar that belonged in the inner sanctuary.
23 In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high. 24 One wing on the cherub was five cubits in length and the other wing was also five cubits, so the spread of the wings was ten cubits from wing tip to wing tip. 25 The other cherub also measured ten cubits, and both the cherubim were identical in size and shape. 26 The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was that of the other cherub. 27 He set the cherubim inside the innermost room of the temple. The wings of the cherubim were outstretched, so the wing of one cherub reached out to one wall, and the wing of the other cherub reached out to the other wall, and in middle of the room their wings were touching each other. 28 He also overlaid the cherubim with gold.
29 On all the walls of the temple throughout he set carved engravings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, in both the inner and outer sanctuaries. 30 He overlaid the floor of the temple with gold in both the inner and outer sanctuaries.
31 For the entrance of the inner sanctuary he made doors of olive wood. The lintel and doorposts were five-sided. 32 The two doors were also made of olive wood, and on them he carved carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. He overlaid the cherubim and the palm trees with beaten and dressed gold.
33 In the same way, he made four-sided doorposts of olive wood for the sanctuary entrance. 34 The two doors were made of cypress wood, with each door consisting of two folding panels. 35 He carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers on them, and overlaid them with gold applied evenly over the carvings.
36 He built the inner courtyard with three courses of dressed stone and one course of smoothed cedar beams.
37 The foundation of the Temple of the Lord was laid in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv. 38 In the eleventh year in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was completed throughout in every detail according to its design specification. He had spent seven years building it.