CHAPTER 6

¹And it happened in the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in King Solomon’s fourth year in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, that he set out to build a house to the LORD. ²And the house that King Solomon built was sixty cubits in length and twenty in width and thirty cubits in height. ³And the outer court that was in front of the great hall of the house was twenty cubits in length along the width of the house, ten cubits in width along the house. ⁴And he made inset and latticed windows for the house. ⁵And he built on the wall of the house a balcony all around the walls of the house in the great hall and in the sanctuary, and he made supports all around. ⁶And the lowest balcony was five cubits in width and the middle one six cubits in width and the third one seven cubits in width, for he set recesses in the house all around on the outside so as to fasten nothing to the walls of the house. ⁷And the house when it was built, of whole stones brought from the quarry it was built, and no hammers nor axes nor any iron tools were heard in the house when it was built. ⁸The entrance at the middle support was on the right side of the house, and on spiral stairs they would go up to the middle chamber and from the middle to the third. ⁹And he built the house and finished it, and he paneled the house with cedar beams and boards. ¹⁰And he built the balcony over all the house, five cubits in height, and it held the house fast in cedarwood. ¹¹And the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying: ¹²“This house that you build—if you walk by My statutes and do My laws and keep all My commands to walk by them, I shall fulfill My word with you that I spoke to David your father, ¹³and I shall dwell in the midst of the Israelites, and I shall not forsake My people Israel.” ¹⁴And Solomon built the house and finished it. ¹⁵And he built the walls of the house from within with cedar supports from the floor of the house to the ceiling, overlaid it with wood within, and he overlaid the floor of the house with cypress supports. ¹⁶And he built the twenty cubits from the corners of the house with cedar supports from the floor to the walls, and he built it from within the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. ¹⁷And the house was forty cubits, which was the great hall. ¹⁸And cedar was the house inside, a weave of birds and blossoms. Everything was cedar, no stone was seen. ¹⁹And the sanctuary in the innermost part of the house he readied to place there the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD. ²⁰And before the sanctuary twenty cubits in length and twenty cubits in width and twenty cubits in height he overlaid with pure gold, and he overlaid the altar with cedar. ²¹And Solomon overlaid the house from within with pure gold, and he fastened gold chains in front of the sanctuary and overlaid it with gold. ²²And the house he overlaid with gold till the whole house was finished, and the whole altar which was in the inner sanctum he overlaid with gold. ²³And in the sanctuary he made two cherubim of olivewood, ²⁴one cherub with a five-cubit wing and the other wing five cubits, ten cubits from one edge of its wings to the other. ²⁵And the second cherub was ten cubits, a single measure and shape for both cherubim. ²⁶The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and the same for the second cherub. ²⁷And he placed the cherubim within the inner chamber. And the wings of the cherubim were spread, and the wing of the one touched the wall and that of the second cherub touched the other wall, and their inner wings touched wing to wing. ²⁸And he overlaid the cherubim with gold. ²⁹And all the walls of the house all round he wove in carvings of intertwined cherubim and palms and birds, within and without. ³⁰And the floor of the house he overlaid with gold, within and without. ³¹And the entrance of the sanctuary he made of olivewood doors, five-sided capitals and doorposts, ³²and two olivewood doors. And he wove on them a weave of cherubim and buds and overlaid them with gold, and he worked the gold down over the cherubim and the palms. ³³And the same he did for the entrance of the great hall, four-sided olivewood doorposts. ³⁴And the two doors were cypresswood, the two supports of the one door cylindrical and the two supports of the other door cylindrical. ³⁵And he wove cherubim and palms and buds and overlaid them with gold directly over the incising. ³⁶And he built the inner court in three rows of hewn stone and a row of cut cedars. ³⁷In the fourth year did he lay the foundations of the LORD’s house, in the month of Ziv. ³⁸And in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, he finished the house in all its details and in all its designs, and he was seven years building it.