1In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the LORD.
2The house which King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.
3The porch in front of the temple of the house was twenty cubits long, matching the width of the house. It reached ten cubits out in front of the house.
4For the house he made windows with narrow openings.
5Against the wall of the house he built rooms all around, against the walls of the house all around, both of the temple and of the inner room. So he made rooms all around.
6The lowest row of rooms was five cubits wide, the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide. For on the outside he made ledges set back in the wall of the house all around, so that the beams would not be fastened into the walls of the house.
7While the house was being built, it was built of stone that was made ready before it was brought there. So no hammer or axe or any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built.
8The door for the middle row of rooms was on the right side of the house. They went up by winding stairs into the middle rooms, and from the middle into the third.
9So he built the house and finished it. He covered the house with beams and boards of cedar.
10Then he built the rooms against all the house, five cubits high. They rested on the house with timber of cedar.
11The word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying,
12"About this house which you are building: if you will walk in my laws, and carry out my judgments, and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will do for you what I promised to David your father."
13"I will live among the children of Israel, and I will not leave my people Israel."
14So Solomon built the house and finished it.
15He lined the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar, both the floor of the house and the walls of the ceiling. He covered them on the inside with wood, and he covered the floor of the house with planks of fir.
16He built off twenty cubits at the far end of the house, both the floor and the walls, with boards of cedar. He built it inside for the inner room, that is, for the most holy place.
17The house, that is, the temple in front of it, was forty cubits long.
18The cedar inside the house was carved with knobs and open flowers. It was all cedar; no stone could be seen.
19He made ready the inner room inside the house, to set there the ark of the covenant of the LORD.
20The inner room in front was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. He covered it with pure gold, and he covered the altar, which was of cedar.
21So Solomon covered the inside of the house with pure gold. He made a screen with chains of gold in front of the inner room, and he covered it with gold.
22He covered the whole house with gold, until he had finished all the house. He also covered with gold the whole altar that was by the inner room.
23Inside the inner room he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high.
24One wing of the cherub was five cubits, and the other wing of the cherub was five cubits. From the tip of one wing to the tip of the other was ten cubits.
25The other cherub was ten cubits too. Both the cherubim were of one measure and one size.
26The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was that of the other cherub.
27He set the cherubim inside the inner house. Their wings 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. Their wings touched one another in the middle of the house.
28He covered the cherubim with gold.
29He carved all the walls of the house all around with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, both inside and outside.
30He covered the floor of the house with gold, both inside and outside.
31For the entrance of the inner room he made doors of olive wood. The beam above and the side posts were a fifth part of the wall.
32The two doors were of olive wood too. On them he carved cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and he covered them with gold. He spread gold over the cherubim and over the palm trees.
33In the same way he made posts of olive wood for the door of the temple, a fourth part of the wall.
34The two doors were of fir wood. The two leaves of the one door folded, and the two leaves of the other door folded.
35On them he carved cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and he covered them with gold, fitted onto the carved work.
36He built the inner court with three rows of cut stone and a row of cedar beams.
37In the fourth year the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid, in the month Zif.
38In the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its parts and just as it was planned. So he was seven years building it.