The Daily Audio Bible

Solomon Gets Ready to Build the House of God

5 Now Hiram the king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, when he heard that they had set him apart to be king in place of his father. Hiram had always loved David. ² Then Solomon sent word to Hiram, saying, ³ “You know that my father David was not able to build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of the wars all around him. The Lord had not yet put those who hated him under his feet. ⁴ But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side. There is no trouble or anything bad happening. ⁵ So I plan to build a house for the name of the Lord my God. Because the Lord said to my father David, ‘I will set your son on your throne in your place. He will build the house for My name.’ ⁶ So tell them to cut cedar trees of Lebanon for me. My servants will join yours. And I will give you whatever you say to pay your servants. For you know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut trees like the Sidonians.”

⁷ When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he was filled with joy and said, “Thanks be to the Lord today. He has given to David a wise son to rule this great people.” ⁸ Hiram sent word to Solomon, saying, “I have heard the news you have sent me. I will do what you want with the cedar and cypress trees. ⁹ My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea. I will make them ready to go on the sea to the place you choose. I will have them broken up there, and you can carry them away. Then you will do what I wish by giving food to those of my house.” ¹⁰ So Hiram gave Solomon as much as he wanted of the cedar and cypress trees. ¹¹ Then Solomon gave Hiram 200,000 baskets of grain as food for those of his house, and 200 jars of beaten oil. Solomon gave this to Hiram each year. ¹² And the Lord gave wisdom to Solomon, just as He promised him. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they made an agreement.

¹³ Now King Solomon made men work for him from all Israel. There were 30,000 men made to work for him. ¹⁴ He sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 men each month. They were in Lebanon one month and at home two months. Adoniram ruled those who were made to work. ¹⁵ Now Solomon had 70,000 men to carry loads, and 80,000 stone cutters in the mountains. ¹⁶ And he had 3,300 men who were leaders of the work, and who ruled over the people doing the work. ¹⁷ Then as the king told them, they cut out large stones of much worth for the house of God to be built on. ¹⁸ Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites cut them. They made the wood and the stones ready to build the house.

Solomon Builds the House of God

6 In the 480th year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s rule over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the house of the Lord. ² The house which King Solomon built for the Lord was as long as thirty long steps, as wide as ten long steps, and eight times taller than a man. ³ All along the front of the House of God was a porch ten long steps long and five long steps wide. It was as long as the house was wide. ⁴ He made windows for the house with beautiful cross-pieces. ⁵ He made a building of rooms against the outer walls of three sides of the house. These rooms were three floors high. ⁶ The bottom floor was as wide as three steps. The second floor was as wide as three long steps. And the third floor was as wide as four steps. For around the outside of the house he made places for the large wood cross-pieces to rest on. That way they would not need to be put into holes in the walls of the house. ⁷ The house was built of stone that was cut at the place where it was taken from the ground. There was no noise of a hammer or an ax or any iron object heard in the house while it was being built. ⁸ The door for the first floor room was on the right side of the house. They would go up steps to the second floor, and from the second to the third. ⁹ So he built the house and finished it. And he made the roof of the house of large pieces of cedar wood. ¹⁰ He built the three floors against the outside wall of the house. Each one was as high as a man could raise his hand. They were joined to the house with big pieces of cedar wood.

¹¹ Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying, ¹² “If you obey My Laws and keep My Word, then I will keep My promise with you, which I spoke to your father David about this house you are building. ¹³ I will live among the sons of Israel. And I will not leave My people Israel alone.”

¹⁴ So Solomon built the house and finished it. ¹⁵ He built the walls of the house on the inside with pieces of cedar wood. He put wood over the inside walls from the floor of the house to the roof. And he put pieces of cypress wood over the floor of the house. ¹⁶ An inside room called the most holy place was built in the back part of the house with pieces of cedar wood, from the floor to the roof and as wide as ten long steps. ¹⁷ The rest of the house, the center room in front of the most holy place, was as long as twenty long steps. ¹⁸ There was cedar on the house within, cut to look like gourds and open flowers. It was all cedar. No stone was seen. ¹⁹ Then he built the most holy place inside the house, in which to put the special box of the agreement. ²⁰ The most holy place was as long as ten long steps, as wide as ten long steps, and more than five times taller than a man. He covered it with pure gold. And he covered the altar with cedar. ²¹ Solomon covered the inside of the house with pure gold. He crossed the front of the most holy place with chains of gold, and he covered it with gold. ²² He covered the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. And he covered the whole altar by the most holy place with gold.

²³ In the most holy place he made two cherubim of olive wood. Each one was almost three times taller than a man. ²⁴ One wing of the cherub was as long as three steps. And the other wing of the cherub was as long as three steps. It was as far as five long steps from the end of one wing to the end of the other wing. ²⁵ It was as much as five long steps between the ends of the wings of the other cherub also. Both the cherubim were the same height, length and width, and they looked alike. ²⁶ Each of the cherubim was almost three times taller than a man. ²⁷ He put the cherubim in the most holy place of the house. The wings of the cherubim were spread out. The wing of the one cherub was touching the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub was touching the other wall. So their wings were touching each other in the center of the house. ²⁸ He covered the cherubim with gold.

²⁹ Then he cut pictures in all the walls around the house to look like cherubim, palm trees and open flowers, in the center room and the most holy place. ³⁰ He covered the floor of the house with gold, in the center room and the most holy place. ³¹ He made doors of olive wood for the most holy place. The top and sides of the door had five sides. ³² He cut pictures in the two doors of olive wood, to look like cherubim, palm trees and open flowers, and covered them with gold. He spread the gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees. ³³ For the doorway of the center room he made four-sided side pieces of olive wood ³⁴ and two doors of cypress wood. Each door had two moving parts. ³⁵ On them he cut pictures of cherubim, palm trees and open flowers. And he covered the pictures with an even covering of gold. ³⁶ He built the inside place with three rows of cut stone and one row of large pieces of cedar wood.

³⁷ In the fourth year the base of the house was laid in the month of Ziv. ³⁸ In the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, the eighth month, all the parts of the house were finished just as all the plans had been made. Solomon took seven years to build it.

Stephen Speaks about the God of Abraham

7 The head religious leader asked Stephen, “Are these things true?” ² Stephen said, “My brothers and fathers, listen to me. The great God showed Himself to our early father Abraham while he lived in the country of Mesopotamia. This was before he moved to the country of Haran. ³ God said to him, ‘Leave your family and this land where you were born. Go to a land that I will show you.’ ⁴ He went from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. After his father died, he came to this country where you now live. ⁵ God did not give him any land to own, not even enough to put his feet on. But He promised that the land would be his and his children’s after him. At that time he had no children. ⁶ This is what God said, ‘Your children’s children will be living in a strange land. They will live there 400 years. They will be made to work without pay and will suffer many hard things. ⁷ I will say to that nation that it is guilty for holding them and making them work without pay. After that they will go free. They will leave that country and worship Me in this place.’

⁸ “He made a promise with Abraham. It was kept by a religious act of becoming a Jew. Abraham had a son, Isaac. On the eighth day Abraham took Isaac and had this religious act done to him. Isaac was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of our twelve early fathers.

⁹ “The sons of Jacob sold Joseph to people from the country of Egypt because they were jealous of him. But God was with Joseph. ¹⁰ He helped him in all his troubles. He gave him wisdom and favor with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. This king made Joseph leader over Egypt and over all the king’s house.

¹¹ “The time came when there was no food to eat in all the land of Egypt and Canaan. The people suffered much. Our early fathers were not able to get food. ¹² Then Jacob heard there was food in Egypt. He sent our early fathers there the first time.

¹³ “The second time they went to the country of Egypt, Joseph made himself known to his brothers. The family of Joseph became known to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ Joseph asked his father Jacob and all his family to come. There were seventy-five people in the family. ¹⁵ Jacob moved down to Egypt and died there. Our early fathers died there also. ¹⁶ They were brought back to the city of Shechem where they were buried. Abraham paid money for the grave from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

Stephen Speaks about the God of Moses

¹⁷ “The promise God had given Abraham was about to happen. At this time many more of our people were in the country of Egypt. ¹⁸ Then another man became king in Egypt. He was a king who did not know Joseph. ¹⁹ He was hard on our people and nation. He worked against our early fathers. He made them put their babies outside so they would die.

²⁰ “At that time Moses was born. He was beautiful in God’s sight. He was fed in his father’s house for three months. ²¹ Then he was put outside. Pharaoh’s daughter took him and cared for him as her own son. ²² Moses was taught in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He became a powerful man in words and in the things he did. ²³ When he was forty years old, he thought he should visit his brothers, the Jews. ²⁴ He saw one of the Jews being hurt. Moses helped the Jew and killed the man from Egypt. ²⁵ He thought his people would understand. He thought they knew God would let them go free by his help. But the people did not understand.

²⁶ “The next day Moses came to some Jews who were fighting. He tried to get them to stop. Moses said to the Jews, ‘Sirs, you are brothers. Why do you hurt each other?’ ²⁷ One was beating his neighbor. He pushed Moses away and said, ‘Who made you a leader over us? Who said you could say who is guilty? ²⁸ Do you want to kill me as you killed the man from Egypt yesterday?’ ²⁹ When Moses heard that, he went as fast as he could to the country of Midian where he was a stranger. While he was there, he became the father of two sons.

God Is Good to His People

127 Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders work for nothing. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the men who watch over it stay awake for nothing. ² You rise up early, and go to bed late, and work hard for your food, all for nothing. For the Lord gives to His loved ones even while they sleep.

³ See, children are a gift from the Lord. The children born to us are our special reward. ⁴ The children of a young man are like arrows in the hand of a soldier. ⁵ Happy is the man who has many of them. They will not be put to shame when they speak in the gate with those who hate them.

²⁸ A bad man spreads trouble. One who hurts people with bad talk separates good friends.

²⁹ A man who hurts people tempts his neighbor to do the same, and leads him in a way that is not good.

³⁰ He who winks his eyes plans to do bad things. He who closes his lips allows sinful things to happen.