The chat will start when you send the first message.
1In the four hundred eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, during the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month named Ziv, which is the second month, Solomon began to build the house for the Lord .[#6:1 corresponds to April/May.]
2The house which King Solomon built for the Lord was ninety feet long, thirty feet wide, and forty-five feet high.[#6:2 Sixty cubits, twenty cubits , and thirty cubits respectively, using a cubit of eighteen inches. Since the numbers of the temple measurements do not seem to have symbolic values, the translation converts them into modern measurements.]
3The porch in front of the temple building was thirty feet wide, the same as the width of the building. It extended out fifteen feet from the front of the building.[#6:3 Or portico, entry hall , or vestibule . It is uncertain whether this was an unroofed porch or a roofed, enclosed vestibule or foyer.; #6:3 Literally in front of the temple of the house . In this section of Kings, the Hebrew word , which has the base meaning house , sometimes refers to the whole temple building, including both rooms. The word , which often means temple or palace , sometimes refers only to the first room inside the temple building, that is, the front room or main hall, which is also called the Holy Place .]
4He made latticed windows high on the walls of the building.[#6:4 Or framed windows narrower on the outside than on the inside . The purpose of these windows, located high on the walls of the temple building, was to let in light. It is uncertain whether they were latticed or had angled side walls which made them narrower on the outer side. In either case the purpose was the same—to restrict the entry of birds. Compare Ezekiel 41:16. Another interpretation is windows with recessed frames within frames . See the footnote on 6:31.]
5He added a structure along the outer walls of the building, all the way around the three sides of the building. It was built against the walls of both the front room and the inner room of the sanctuary. In this structure he constructed three levels of storage rooms, all the way around the building.[#6:5 Or main room or nave . The Hebrew word , usually translated temple , here refers only to the first room in the temple building. This room is also called the Holy Place .; #6:5 Hebrew . This room is also called the Holy of Holies or the Most Holy Place .]
6The width of the rooms on the lowest story was seven and a half feet. The rooms of the middle story were nine feet wide, and the rooms of the third story were ten and a half feet wide, because he had built three receding ledges into the outside wall of the temple building all the way around, so that the floor beams of each story would not have to be inserted into the walls of the main building.
7While the building was under construction, only stones that had been finished at the quarry were used in the building. No hammer or chisel or any other iron tool was heard in the building while it was under construction.
8The entrance into the lowest story of the side rooms was on the south side of the building. Winding stairs went up to the middle floor, and also from the middle floor to the third floor.[#6:8 is the reading of the Greek Old Testament and the Targum. The Hebrew text reads the middle story , but the rest of the verse makes it clear that the entry was on the ground floor. Ezekiel 41:7 also states that the stairs went up from the lowest story to the top story through the middle story.; #6:8 In this description, in Hebrew the is called the right side , and the north side is called the left side .; #6:8 Or ladders . The precise meaning is uncertain.]
9So Solomon finished building the house, and he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar.[#6:9 Or roofed]
10He built the floors for the storerooms that were all around the house. Each story was seven and a half feet high. Each story was supported by cedar timbers which rested on the receding ledges constructed along the walls of the building.[#6:10 Literally they grasped the house with cedar timbers]
11The word of the Lord came to Solomon. He said,
12“In regard to this house which you are building, if you walk according to my statutes and carry out my ordinances and keep all my commands by walking according to them, you will be the one through whom I will fulfill my promise which I spoke to your father David.
13I will dwell among the descendants of Israel, and I will not forsake my people Israel.”
14So Solomon finished building the house.
15He paneled the inside walls of the building with cedar boards, from the floor of the building to the rafters of the ceiling. He covered the inside walls with wood. He also covered the floor of the building with boards of fir wood.[#6:15 The reading () is the reading of the Greek Old Testament. The Hebrew text reads walls ().]
16Thirty feet from the back wall of the building he built a wall of cedar boards from the floor to the ceiling. He built this wall inside the building to create an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.
17The front part of the building became a main room sixty feet long.
18Gourds and open flowers were carved into the cedar on the inside of the building. Everything was covered with cedar. No stone was visible.[#6:18 Or knobs or buds]
19He prepared the inner room of the sanctuary inside the building as a place to set the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord .
20The inner sanctuary was thirty feet long, thirty feet wide, and thirty feet high, and he overlaid it with pure gold.
He also overlaid the cedar altar with gold.
21So Solomon covered the inside of the building with pure gold. He stretched gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, and he overlaid the sanctuary with gold.
22He overlaid the whole building with gold, until the whole building had been covered. He also overlaid the whole altar, which was in front of the inner sanctuary, with gold.
23For the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim of olive wood. Each one was fifteen feet tall.[#6:23 are the angels who are the Lord's honor guard. They are described in Ezekiel 1.]
24Seven and a half feet was the length of one wing of a cherub, and seven and a half feet was the length of the other wing of a cherub. The distance from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other was fifteen feet.[#6:24 The EHV retains the repetitious style of the text, which may be for rhetorical emphasis.]
25The other cherub also was fifteen feet wide. Both of the cherubim were the same size and looked the same.
26One cherub was fifteen feet tall, and so was the other cherub.
27He set the cherubim inside the inner sanctuary of the house. The wings of the cherubim were stretched out, so that the outer wing of the first one touched the wall, and the outer wing of the other cherub touched the opposite wall, and their wings touched one another in the middle of the room.
28He overlaid the cherubim with gold.
29He decorated the walls on all sides of both rooms of the building with carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers.
30He overlaid the floor of the building with gold in both the inner and outer rooms.
31For the entrance to the inner sanctuary, he made olive wood doors with five-sided frames.[#6:31 Or with five recessed frames , that is, the doorframe had five recessed sills, like doorways within a doorway. If the doorposts were five-sided , each doorpost may have been a pentagon, or each doorway may have had a peaked upper side.]
32He carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers on them and overlaid them with gold. He shaped sheets of hammered gold to cover the cherubim and the palm trees.
33He did the same for the entrance to the front room. It had door posts of olive wood that were four-sided
34and two doors made of fir wood. The door on one side was made with two folding leaves, and the door on the other side was made with two folding leaves.
35He carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers on them, and he overlaid them with gold leaf, shaped to the carvings.
36He built the inner courtyard with three courses of cut stone and one course of cedar beams.
37The foundation of the Lord 's house was laid in the fourth year, in the month named Ziv.[#6:37 April/May]
38In the eleventh year, in the month named Bul, which is the eighth month, all the parts of the house were finished according to all its specifications. Solomon had spent seven years building it.[#6:38 October/November]