7 Then Solomon built his own palace, which took thirteen years to construct.
2 One of the rooms in the palace was called the Hall of the Forest of Lebanon. It was huge—measuring 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. The great cedar ceiling beams rested upon four rows of cedar pillars. 3-4 There were forty-five windows in the hall, set in three tiers, one tier above the other, five to a tier, facing each other from three walls. 5 Each of the doorways and windows had a square frame.
6 Another room was called the Hall of Pillars. It was seventy-five feet long and forty-five feet wide, with a porch in front covered by a canopy that was supported by pillars.
7 There was also the Throne Room or Judgment Hall, where Solomon sat to hear legal matters; it was paneled with cedar from the floor to the rafters.
8 His cedar-paneled living quarters surrounded a courtyard behind this hall. (He designed similar living quarters, the same size, in the palace that he built for Pharaoh’s daughter—one of his wives.) 9 These buildings were constructed entirely from huge, expensive stones, cut to measure. 10 The foundation stones were twelve to fifteen feet across. 11 The huge stones in the walls were also cut to measure and were topped with cedar beams. 12 The Great Court had three courses of hewn stone in its walls, topped with cedar beams, just like the inner court of the Temple and the porch of the palace.
13 King Solomon then asked for a man named Hiram to come from Tyre, for he was a skilled craftsman in bronze work. 14 He was half Jewish, being the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father had been a foundry worker from Tyre. So he came to work for King Solomon.
15 He cast two hollow bronze pillars, each twenty-seven feet high and eighteen feet around, with three-inch-thick walls. 16-22 At the tops of the pillars he made two lily-shaped capitals from molten bronze, each 7½ feet high. The upper part of each capital was shaped like a lily, six feet high. Each capital was decorated with seven sets of bronze, chain-designed lattices and four hundred pomegranates in two rows. Hiram set these pillars at the entrance of the Temple. The one on the south was named the Jachin Pillar, and the one on the north, the Boaz Pillar.*
23 Then Hiram cast a round bronze tank, 7½ feet high and 15 feet from brim to brim; 45 feet in circumference. 24 On the underside of the rim were two rows of ornaments an inch or two apart, which were cast along with the tank. 25 It rested on twelve bronze oxen standing tail to tail, three facing north, three west, three south, and three east. 26 The sides of the tank were four inches thick; its brim was shaped like a goblet, and it had a twelve thousand gallon capacity.
27-30 Then he made ten four-wheeled movable stands, each 6 feet square and 4½ feet high. They were constructed with undercarriages braced with square crosspieces. These crosspieces were decorated with carved lions, oxen, and Guardian Angels. Above and below the lions and oxen were wreath decorations. Each of these movable stands had four bronze wheels and bronze axles, and at each corner of the stands were supporting posts made of bronze and decorated with wreaths on each side. 31 The top of each stand was a round piece 1½ feet high. Its center was concave, 2¼ feet deep, decorated on the outside with wreaths. Its panels were square, not round.
32 The stands rode on four wheels which were connected to axles that had been cast as part of the stands. The wheels were twenty-seven inches high 33 and were similar to chariot wheels. All the parts of the stands were cast from molten bronze, including the axles, spokes, rims, and hubs. 34 There were supports at each of the four corners of the stands, and these, too, were cast with the stands. 35 A nine-inch rim surrounded the tip of each stand, banded with lugs. All was cast as one unit with the stand. 36 Guardian Angels, lions, and palm trees surrounded by wreaths were engraved on the borders of the band wherever there was room. 37 All ten stands were the same size and were made alike, for each was cast from the same mold.
38 Then he made ten brass vats, and placed them on the stands. Each vat was six feet square and contained 240 gallons of water. 39 Five of these vats were arranged on the left and five on the right-hand side of the room. The tank was in the southeast corner, on the right-hand side of the room. 40 Hiram also made the necessary pots, shovels, and basins and at last completed the work in the Temple of the Lord that had been assigned to him by King Solomon.
41-46 Here is a list of the items he made:
Two pillars;
A capital at the top of each pillar;
Latticework covering the bases of the capitals of each pillar;
Four hundred pomegranates in two rows on the latticework, to cover the bases of the two capitals;
Ten movable stands holding ten vats;
One large tank and twelve oxen supporting it;
Pots;
Shovels;
Basins.
All these items were made of burnished bronze and were cast at the plains of the Jordan River between Succoth and Zarethan. 47 The total weight of these pieces was not known because they were too heavy to weigh!
48 All the utensils and furniture used in the Temple were made of solid gold. This included the altar, the table where the Bread of the Presence of God was displayed, 49 the lampstands (five on the right-hand side and five on the left, in front of the Most Holy Place), the flowers, lamps, tongs, 50 cups, snuffers, basins, spoons, firepans, the hinges of the doors to the Most Holy Place, and the main entrance doors of the Temple. Each of these was made of solid gold.
51 When the Temple was finally finished, Solomon took into the treasury of the Temple the silver, the gold, and all the vessels dedicated for that purpose by his father David.
Footnotes
- 1 Kings 7:16
- 1 Kings 7:24
- 1 Kings 7:25
- 1 Kings 7:27
