Temple Construction Begins

1Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared ¹⁷to his father David. This was the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan ¹⁸the Jebusite.

2Solomon began construction on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.

3The foundation that Solomon laid for the house of God was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide, ¹⁹according to the old standard. ²⁰

4The portico at the front, extending across the width of the temple, was twenty cubits long ²¹and twenty cubits high. ²²He overlaid the inside with pure gold.

The Temple’s Interior

5He paneled the main room with cypress, ²³which he overlaid with fine gold and decorated with palm trees and chains.

6He adorned the temple with precious stones for beauty, and its gold was from Parvaim.

7He overlaid its beams, thresholds, walls, and doors with gold, and he carved cherubim on the walls.

8Then he made the Most Holy Place; ²⁴its length corresponded to the width of the temple—twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. And he overlaid the inside with six hundred talents of fine gold. ²⁵

9The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. ²⁶He also overlaid the upper rooms with gold.

The Cherubim

10In the Most Holy Place he made two cherubim of sculptured work, and he overlaid them with gold.

11The total wingspan of the cherubim was twenty cubits. One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long ²⁷and touched the wall of the temple, and its other wing was five cubits long and touched the wing of the other cherub.

12The wing of the second cherub also measured five cubits and touched the wall of the temple, while its other wing measured five cubits and touched the wing of the first cherub.

13So the total wingspan of these cherubim was twenty cubits. They stood on their feet, facing the main room.

The Veil and Pillars

14He made the veil of blue, purple, and crimson yarn and fine linen, with cherubim woven into it.

15In front of the temple he made two pillars, which together were thirty-five cubits high, ²⁸each with a capital on top measuring five cubits.

16He made interwoven chains ²⁹and put them on top of the pillars. He made a hundred pomegranates and fastened them into the chainwork.

17Then he set up the pillars in front of the temple, one on the south and one on the north. The pillar on the south he named Jachin, ³⁰and the pillar on the north he named Boaz. ³¹