Solomon builds the temple

¹Solomon began to build the LORD ’s temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, on the place David had prepared at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.[#3.1 LXX; MT lacks .]

²He began building in the second month of the fourth year of his rule.[#3.2 LXX; MT adds on the second (day).]

³Solomon laid the foundations for these structures in order to build the temple of God. The length according to the old standard of measurement was ninety feet and the width thirty feet.[#3.3 Syr the measurements]

⁴Across the front of the temple was a porch as long as the temple was and thirty feet wide, and thirty feet high. He covered the inside walls with pure gold.[#3.4 LXX; cf 1 Kgs 6:3; #3.4 LXX, Syr; MT one hundred eighty feet]

⁵He paneled the walls of the main room with pine, covered them with fine gold, and decorated them with palm trees and chains.

⁶He studded the room with precious stones for beauty; the gold was from Parvaim.

⁷He covered the room, its beams, doorframes, walls, and doors with gold, and carved images of winged creatures on the walls.

⁸Then he made the most holy place. It was as long as the temple was wide, thirty feet long and thirty feet wide. He covered it with six hundred kikkars of fine gold.

⁹The gold nails weighed fifty shekels. He also covered the upper rooms with gold.[#3.9 Or approximately thirty ounces]

¹⁰In the most holy place he formed two statues of winged creatures and covered them with gold.

¹¹Together the wingspan of these creatures was thirty feet. One of the first creature’s wings was seven and a half feet long and touched the temple wall, while the other wing was seven and a half feet long, touching the wing of the other creature.

¹²Similarly, one wing of the other creature was seven and a half feet long and touched the temple wall, while the other wing was seven and a half feet long and touched the other creature.

¹³The wings of these creatures extended thirty feet. They stood on their feet facing the main room.

¹⁴Then he made the curtain out of fine linen and violet, purple, and crimson yarn, weaving winged creatures into it.

¹⁵Then he made two columns in front of the temple, fifty-two and a half feet high, with a seven and a half foot cap on top of each.

¹⁶Then he made chains like a necklace and placed them on the tops of the columns. He made a hundred pomegranates and placed them into the chains.[#3.16 Heb adds in the inner room.]

¹⁷Then he set up the pillars in front of the sanctuary, one on the south, the other on the north. The one on the south he named Jachin, and the one on the north he named Boaz.