Chapter 7

Solomon’s Palace.^{[a] 1} Now Solomon took thirteen years to completely finish building his own palace. ² He built the palace out of Lebanon wood. It was one hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. It was built upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams stretching out upon the pillars. ³ It was roofed with cedar that lay over the beams that rested on the pillars. There were forty-five beams, fifteen in a row. ⁴ Its windows were set high in the wall in sets of three, each set facing the other. ⁵ All of the doorways and windows had rectangular frames, with the windows facing each other in sets of three.

⁶ He made a hall of pillars. It was fifty cubits long and thirty cubits wide. There was a porch in front of it with other pillars and covered over by a canopy.

⁷ There was a throne room, the hall of justice, where he would sit in judgment. He covered it with cedar from floor to ceiling. ⁸ The palace in which he lived had another court inside the hall which had the same design. Solomon also built another palace like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter whom he wed.

⁹ All of these, from the outside to the great courtyard, and from the foundations to the eaves, were built with costly stone that had been trimmed with saws on the inside and outside edges. ¹⁰ The foundations were laid with costly stones that were quite large, some being ten cubits and some eight cubits. ¹¹ Above these were costly stone, cut to measure, and cedar beams.

¹² The great courtyard was surrounded by three layers of cut stone and one layer of cedar beams, as was the inner courtyard of the temple of the Lord and its porch.

^13 [b]King Solomon brought back Hiram from Tyre. ¹⁴ His mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father had been a craftsman from Tyre who worked in bronze. He was wise and knowledgeable and a skilled craftsman with all varieties of bronze work. He came to King Solomon and did all of his work.

¹⁵ He cast two bronze pillars, each of them measured eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in circumference.^{[c] 16} He also cast two bronze capitals to be set on the top of the pillars. Each of the capitals was five cubits high. ¹⁷ A network of chains decorated the capitals on top of the pillars, seven on each of the capitals. ¹⁸ He made two rows of pomegranates which covered the network upon the capitals on top of the pillars. He did this on each of the capitals. ¹⁹ The capitals on top of the pillars that were in the porch were in the shape of lilies, four cubits high. ²⁰ Upon each of the capitals of the two pillars, on the outwardly curved surface between the network, there were two rows of pomegranates, two hundred in all. ²¹ He erected the pillars in the porch of the temple. He erected the pillar on the right and called it Jachin, and he erected the pillar on the left and called it Boaz. ²² On the top of the pillars there was lily work. Thus, the work on the pillars was completed.

²³ Then he made a molten sea, ten cubits from one edge to the other. It was five cubits high, and thirty cubits in circumference. ²⁴ Under the brim of its circumference there were gourds, ten to a cubit. There were two rows of gourds all around the sea, the gourds having been cast when the rest of it was cast. ²⁵ It stood upon twelve oxen, three facing to the north, three facing to the west, three facing to the south, and three facing to the east. The sea rested upon them, and their hindquarters were on the inside. ²⁶ It was a handsbreath thick, and its brim was like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held two thousand baths.

²⁷ He also made ten bronze carts. Each cart was four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three cubits high. ²⁸ This is how the carts were made. They had panels, and the panels were set in frames. ²⁹ There were lions, oxen, and cherubim on the panels between the frames. On the top of the frames was a stand. Below the lions and the oxen there were embossed wreaths.

³⁰ Each cart had four bronze wheels and bronze axles. There were supports for a basin at the four corners. The supports were cast with wreaths on either side. ³¹ The opening at the top of the cart was one cubit, and the opening was round, shaped like a pedestal, and it was one and a half cubits deep. There were carvings around the opening. The panels of the cart were square and not round.

³² The four wheels were under the panels, and the axles for the wheels were attached to the cart. Each wheel was one and a half cubits high. ³³ The wheels were made like chariot wheels, with axles, rims, spokes, and hubs, all of which were made from cast metal.

³⁴ Each cart had four handles, one on each corner, the handles being one piece with the cart. ³⁵ There was a circular band a half a cubit high at the top of the cart. The supports and the panels were attached to the top of the cart. ³⁶ He engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees on the surface of the supports and the panels wherever he could, with wreaths all around them.

³⁷ This is how he made the ten carts. They were all cast from one mold, so they were the same size and shape. ³⁸ He then made ten bronze basins. Each basin held forty baths and was four cubits across. There was one basin for each of the ten carts.

³⁹ He placed five of the stands at the right side of the temple, and five of the stands on the left side of the temple. He placed the sea on the right side of the temple, toward the southeast.

⁴⁰ Hiram also made basins, and shovels, and bowls. Thus Hiram completed all of the work that he was doing for King Solomon for the temple of the Lord: ⁴¹ the two pillars, the two bowl-shaped capitals that were on the top of the two pillars, the two networks that covered the bowl-shaped capitals on top of the two pillars, ⁴² the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each of the networks that covered the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars,^{[d] 43} the ten carts, and the ten basins upon the carts, ⁴⁴ one sea, and the twelve oxen under the sea, ⁴⁵ the pots, the shovels, and the basins.

All of the utensils that Hiram made for King Solomon for the temple of the Lord were made from bright bronze. ⁴⁶ The king cast them in the plain of the Jordan, in the clay ground that lie between Succoth and Zarethan. ⁴⁷ Solomon did not weigh any of these utensils because there were too many of them; the weight of the bronze used in them was not determined.

⁴⁸ Solomon also made all of the furnishings that were in the temple of the Lord: the golden altar; the golden table upon which they laid the shewbread; ⁴⁹ the lampstands made of pure gold, five on the right side and five on the left side; the flower work, the lamps, and the tongs, all made of gold; ⁵⁰ the bowls, the snuffers, the sprinkling bowls, the spoons, and the censors, all made from pure gold; and the golden hinges for the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, and for the doors of the main part of the temple.

⁵¹ When King Solomon had completed all of the work on the temple of the Lord, Solomon brought in the things that David, his father, had dedicated: the silver, the gold, and the furnishings. He placed them in the treasury of the temple of the Lord.

Chapter 8

Solomon Dedicates the Temple. ¹ Solomon then assembled all of the elders of Israel, all of the heads of the tribes and the leaders of the ancestral clans of the Israelites. They came to King Solomon in Jerusalem in order to bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord out of the City of David, that is, Zion.

² All of the men of Israel assembled before King Solomon at the festival during the month of Ethanim,^[e] the seventh month. ³ When all of the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests took the Ark ⁴ and they brought the Ark of the Lord and the tent of meeting and all of the sacred furnishings that were in the tabernacle. The priests, and the Levites, ⁵ and King Solomon, and the entire assembly of Israel gathered with him in front of the Ark. They sacrificed so many sheep and oxen that they could not even be counted or numbered.

⁶ The priests then brought the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, underneath the wings of the cherubim. ⁷ The wings of the cherubim were spread out covering the place where the Ark was. The cherubim covered the Ark and its poles. ⁸ The poles stretched out so that one could see the ends of the poles in the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but one could not see them outside. They are still there up to the present. ⁹ There was nothing in the Ark except for the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb when the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁰ When the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the temple of the Lord. ¹¹ The priests could not stand there to minister on account of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the temple of the Lord.

¹² Then Solomon said, “The Lord said that he would live in thick darkness, ¹³ but now I have built you a temple to dwell in, a place where you can abide forever.”

¹⁴ The king then turned around to face the entire assembly of Israel, and he blessed the entire assembly of Israel who stood before him. ¹⁵ He said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has fulfilled what he promised to my father, David, for he said, ¹⁶ ‘From the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I had not chosen a city from all of the tribes of Israel in which a temple for my name could be built, but I chose David to be the leader of my people Israel.’

¹⁷ “My father David desired to build a temple for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, ¹⁸ but the Lord said to my father David, ‘You desired to build a temple for my name, and this desire of yours was good, ¹⁹ but you are not the one who will build the temple. Your son who comes forth from your body will build the temple for my name.’ ²⁰ The Lord has kept the promise that he made. I have been raised up in my father’s stead to reign upon the throne of Israel, just as the Lord promised, and I have built a temple for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. ²¹ I have provided a place for the Ark in which one finds the covenant of the Lord that he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.”

²² Solomon’s Prayer.^[f] Solomon then stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the entire assembly of Israel, and he extended his hands to the heavens. ²³ He said, “O Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in the heavens above or on the earth below, who keeps a covenant of mercy with your servants who walk before you with all their heart. ²⁴ You have kept your promise to your servant, David, my father. You spoke it with your own mouth, and with your own hand, you have fulfilled it today.

²⁵ “And so now, O Lord, God of Israel, take heed of what you said to your servant, David, my father, when you said, ‘You will not fail to have one who will sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your children walk before me as you have walked before me.’ ²⁶ Now, O God of Israel, let what you have said to your servant David, my father, come true. ²⁷ But will God truly dwell upon the earth? Behold, the heavens and the highest heavens could not contain you, how much less this temple that I have built?

²⁸ “Give heed to the prayer of your servant and his supplication, O Lord, my God. Listen to the cry and the prayer that your servant makes before you today. ²⁹ May your eyes be wide open upon this temple night and day, the place of which you said, ‘My name will be there.’ Heed the prayer that your servant makes for this place. ³⁰ Hear the supplication of your servant and your people Israel when they pray for this place. Hear from your dwelling place in heaven, and when you hear, forgive.

³¹ “When a man wrongs his neighbor and he is required to swear an oath, and he comes to make the oath before your altar in this temple, ³² then listen from heaven and act. Judge between your servants, condemning the evil one and bring down upon his head his deeds. Prove innocent the righteous one, giving him what his righteousness deserves.

³³ “When your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and they return to you and confess your name, and they pray and make supplication to you in this temple, ³⁴ then listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land that you gave to their fathers.

³⁵ “When the heavens have been closed up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, and they pray in this place and they confess your name, and they turn from their sin because you have punished them, ³⁶ then listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, so that you might teach them the right path in which they should walk, and send rain upon your land which you have given to your people as an inheritance.

³⁷ “When there is famine in the land, or pestilence, blight, mildew, locusts, or grasshoppers, or if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities, whatever plague or sickness might occur, ³⁸ and whatever prayer or supplication is made by anyone, or by all of your people Israel, because each person knows the plague of his own heart, and he lifts up his hands toward this temple, ³⁹ then listen from your heavenly dwelling place. Forgive, and act, and give each person what his ways deserve, for you know his heart, for you alone know all human hearts, ⁴⁰ so that they might fear you all the days that they live in the land that you gave our fathers.

⁴¹ “And as to the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel, but comes from a distant land for your name’s sake, ⁴² for they have heard about your great name and your strong hand and your outstretched arm, and he comes to this temple to pray, ⁴³ listen from your heavenly dwelling place, and do everything for which the foreigner calls out to you. Then all of the people upon the earth will know your name and fear you just as your people Israel does, and that they might know that the temple that I have built is called by your name.

⁴⁴ “When your people go out to battle against their enemy wherever you send them, and they pray to the Lord toward the city that you have chosen and toward the temple that I have built for your name, ⁴⁵ then listen to their prayer and supplication from heaven and maintain their cause.

⁴⁶ “If they sin against you, for there is no one who is sinless, and you are angry with them so that they are delivered over to the enemy and carried off as captives into the land of their enemy, whether it be far or near, ⁴⁷ and they have a change of heart in the land where they have been carried off into captivity, and they repent and they make supplication to you in the land where they have been carried off as captives, and they say, ‘We have sinned, we have done what is wrong, and we have acted wickedly,’ ⁴⁸ and if they turn back to you with all their heart and all their soul in the land to which their enemies took them as captives, and they pray to you in the direction of the land that you gave their fathers, and the city that you have chosen, and the temple that I have built, ⁴⁹ then listen to their prayer and their supplication from your heavenly dwelling place and maintain their cause. ⁵⁰ Forgive your people who have sinned against you, all of the offenses that they have committed against you, and cause those who carried them off into captivity to be filled with compassion.

⁵¹ “They are your people and your inheritance whom you brought forth from Egypt, from the midst of an iron-smelting furnace. ⁵² May your eyes be open to see the supplication of your servant and the supplication of your people Israel. Listen to them whenever they call out to you, ⁵³ for you separated your inheritance from all the other people upon the earth, as you declared through Moses your servant, when you O Lord, my Lord, brought our fathers out of Egypt.”

⁵⁴ When Solomon had finished saying all of these prayers and supplications to the Lord, he rose up from before the altar of the Lord where he had been kneeling with his hands lifted up to the heavens. ⁵⁵ He stood, and he blessed the whole assembly of Israel in a loud voice, saying, ⁵⁶ “Praise be to the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. He has not failed to fulfill a single word of all the good promises that he made through Moses his servant.

⁵⁷ “May the Lord, our God, be with us, just as he was with our fathers; may he not leave us or abandon us. ⁵⁸ May he turn our hearts to him to walk in all of his ways and to observe all of his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances which he commanded our fathers.

⁵⁹ “May these words that I have prayed before the Lord draw near to the Lord, our God, both day and night. May he uphold the cause of his servants and the cause of his people Israel, responding to each day’s needs, ⁶⁰ so that all the people upon the earth might know that the Lord is God, there is no other.

⁶¹ “Let your heart, therefore, be at peace with the Lord, our God, by walking in his statutes and observing his commandments, as is true today.”

⁶² Then the king and all of Israel with him offered sacrifices before the Lord. ⁶³ Solomon offered up a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord of twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred twenty-two thousand sheep. This is how the king and all of the people of Israel dedicated the temple of the Lord.

⁶⁴ That day the king consecrated the court in front of the temple for burnt offerings, grain offerings, and for the fat of peace offerings because the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too small for burnt offerings, grain offerings, and the fat of peace offerings.

⁶⁵ At that time Solomon celebrated before the Lord, our God, with all of Israel, a great assembly, people who came from the entrance of Hamath down to the Wadi of Egypt. It lasted seven days, and then another seven days, fourteen days in all.^{[g] 66} The next day he sent the people away. They blessed the king and they went home, filled with joy and glad of heart for all of the good things that the Lord had done for David, his servant, and Israel, his people.

Chapter 9

The Lord’s Promise to Solomon.¹ When Solomon had completed the construction of the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, Solomon had accomplished all that he desired to do.

² The Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. ³ The Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you made before me, and I have consecrated the temple that you built by establishing my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. ⁴ And as for you, if you walk before me as David, your father, walked, in integrity of heart and righteousness, and you do all that I command you, and you observe my statutes and my ordinances, ⁵ then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever just as I promised David, your father, when I said, ‘You will not fail to have one who will reign upon the throne of Israel.’

⁶ “But if your children turn away from me, and they do not follow me nor do they observe my commandments or my statutes that I have set before you, and they go off to serve other gods, and they worship them, ⁷ then I will cut Israel off from the land that I have given them, and I will reject from my sight this temple that I have consecrated for my name. Israel will become a byword and a laughingstock among all the nations. ⁸ Although this temple is now exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will hiss at it, and they will say, ‘Why has the Lord done this to this land and to this temple?’ ⁹ Then they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord, their God, who brought their fathers forth from the land of Egypt. They have embraced other gods, and they have worshiped them and served them. This is why the Lord has brought all of these disasters upon them.’ ”

¹⁰ Taking Account. At the end of twenty years during which Solomon built two buildings, the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, ¹¹ King Solomon gave twenty towns that were in the land of Galilee to King Hiram, the king of Tyre, who had provided Solomon with all the cedar wood, fir, and gold that he desired. ¹² When King Hiram traveled out from Tyre to inspect the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them. ¹³ He said, “What kind of cities have you given me, my brother?” He has called the land Cabul up to the present day. ¹⁴ Now Hiram had sent the king one hundred twenty talents of gold.^[h]

¹⁵ This is an account of the forced labor that King Solomon raised in order to build the temple of the Lord, his own palace, Millo, the walls of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. ¹⁶ (Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had gone up and captured Gezer. He burned it down and killed the Canaanites who were living there. He gave it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. ¹⁷ Solomon then rebuilt Gezer.) He also built lower Beth-horon, ¹⁸ Baalath, and Tadmor in the desert, all of which were within his land. ¹⁹ Solomon also had storage cities for provisions, cities for his chariots, and cities for his horses. Solomon built whatever he desired in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and all the land that he ruled.

²⁰ All of the people who survived from among the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites (for these people were not Israelites), ²¹ that is, their descendants who remained in the land (for the Israelites had not been able to wipe them out) were conscripted by Solomon to serve as slave labor, as is still true today.

²² Solomon did not reduce the Israelites to slavery. They were his fighting men, his officials, his princes, his captains, the commanders of his chariots, and his charioteers. ²³ They were also the chief officials who were in charge of Solomon’s work projects. There were five hundred and fifty of them, and they supervised the men who did the work. ²⁴ After Pharaoh’s daughter came up to the City of David, to the palace that he had built for her, he then built Millo.

²⁵ Three times a year^[i] Solomon offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar that he had built for the Lord. He also burnt incense on the altar before the Lord, and so he fulfilled his temple duties. ²⁶ King Solomon built ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Elath on the Red Sea in the land of Edom. ²⁷ Hiram sent some of his men who were sailors, seafaring men who knew the sea, to sail with Solomon’s men. ²⁸ They sailed to Ophir^[j] and brought back and delivered to King Solomon four hundred and twenty talents of gold.