1 Kings 6

It was the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt. It was the fourth year of Solomon's rule over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month. In that year Solomon began to build the house of the LORD.

1And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.

Note"The house of the LORD" is the temple. Hebrew uses the ordinary word for a dwelling-house: the building is spoken of throughout as a residence for God, not as a meeting hall for worshipers, who stayed in the courtyards outside. (Zif (also spelled Ziv) is an old Canaanite-style month name, used only here in the Bible; the writer adds "which is the second month" because by his day Israelites numbered their months instead of naming them. It falls in our April–May. Solomon's fourth year is usually dated to around 966 BC.) The figure of 480 years is the Bible's one direct statement of the gap between the exodus and the temple. It is exactly twelve times forty, and forty is the standard round number for a generation, so scholars disagree over whether it is a literal total or a schematic one; the text itself does not say.

2The house that King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.

2And the house which king Solomon built for the LORD, the length thereof was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits.

NoteA cubit was the distance from elbow to fingertip, about eighteen inches (45 cm). The building was therefore roughly 90 feet long, 30 wide, and 45 high (27 x 9 x 13.5 m), small by the standards of ancient temples, since crowds never went inside.

3The porch in front of the main hall of the house was twenty cubits long, matching the width of the house. It stuck out ten cubits in front of the house.

3And the porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; and ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house.

NoteA porch here means a roofed entrance chamber, open at the front, running the full width of the building, a standard feature of temples in Syria and Canaan, which were typically entered through a shallow vestibule like this.

4For the house he made windows that were narrow, recessed and framed.

4And for the house he made windows of narrow lights.

NoteThe point of "narrow lights" is that the openings were splayed: narrow on the outside and wider within, or wider outside and narrowing in. The Hebrew phrase is unusual and its exact sense is uncertain.

5Against the outside wall of the house he built a structure of rooms that ran all the way around. It ran around the walls of both the main hall and the inner room. So he made side rooms all around the building.

5And against the wall of the house he built chambers round about, against the walls of the house round about, both of the temple and of the oracle: and he made chambers round about:

NoteThe King James word for the inner room is "oracle," which in 1611 meant the place where God speaks, not a prediction. Modern translations render the same Hebrew word as "inner sanctuary."

6The lowest floor of side rooms was five cubits wide, the middle floor six cubits wide, and the third floor seven cubits wide. On the outside of the house wall he made ledges that stepped back as the wall rose. That way the beams did not have to be set into the walls of the house itself.

6The nethermost chamber was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad: for without in the wall of the house he made narrowed rests round about, that the beams should not be fastened in the walls of the house.

7The stone for the house was cut and finished at the quarry before it was carried to the building site. So no hammer, axe, or any other iron tool was heard at the house while it was going up.

7And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.

NoteDressing stone means cutting and squaring it. Doing all of it at the quarry was practical, less weight to haul, but the writer's interest is the silence: no iron was heard at the site. Israelite law required altar stones to be untouched by iron tools (Exodus 20:25), and iron carried associations with weapons and war.

8The doorway to the middle floor of side rooms was on the right side of the house. A stairway wound up to the middle floor, and from the middle floor up to the third.

8The door for the middle chamber was in the right side of the house: and they went up with winding stairs into the middle chamber, and out of the middle into the third.

Note"The right side" is right as you face east, the direction the temple faced; that is the south side, which is how modern translations render it.

9So Solomon built the house and finished it. He roofed it with beams and boards of cedar.

9So he built the house, and finished it; and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar.

NoteCedar came from Lebanon, bought from King Hiram of Tyre (chapter 5). It was the prestige timber of the ancient Near East, fragrant, resistant to rot and insects, and expensive because it had to be shipped and hauled inland.

10Then he built the side rooms along the whole house, each floor five cubits high. They were attached to the house with cedar timbers.

10And then he built chambers against all the house, five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.

11Then the word of the LORD came to Solomon. God said:

11And the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying,

12"About this house you are building: if you live by my rules, carry out my decisions, and keep all my commands and follow them, then I will make good, through you, the promise I made to your father David.

12Concerning this house which thou art in building, if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then will I perform my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father:

NoteThe promise to David is the one recorded in 2 Samuel 7, where God tells David that his son will build the temple and that his dynasty will be established. Here it is restated with a condition attached.

13I will live among the people of Israel, and I will not abandon my people Israel."

13And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.

14So Solomon built the house and finished it.

14So Solomon built the house, and finished it.

15He lined the inside walls of the house with cedar boards, from the floor of the house up to the ceiling. He covered the walls on the inside with wood, and he covered the floor of the house with planks of fir wood.

15And he built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar, both the floor of the house, and the walls of the ceiling: and he covered them on the inside with wood, and covered the floor of the house with planks of fir.

Note"Fir" in the King James translates a Hebrew tree name whose identity is uncertain; cypress and juniper are the usual modern guesses. It was a hardwood used for flooring and doors.

16He walled off the last twenty cubits at the back of the house with cedar boards, from the floor up to the ceiling. This formed a room inside the house, the inner room, which is the Most Holy Place.

16And he built twenty cubits on the sides of the house, both the floor and the walls with boards of cedar: he even built them for it within, even for the oracle, even for the most holy place.

NoteThe Most Holy Place (literally "the holy of holies," a Hebrew way of forming a superlative) was the innermost room, kept dark and empty except for the ark. Under Israelite law only the high priest entered it, and only once a year.

17The main hall, the part of the house in front of that inner room, was forty cubits long.

17And the house, that is, the temple before it, was forty cubits long.

18The cedar on the inside of the house was carved with gourd shapes and open flowers. Everything was cedar. No stone could be seen.

18And the cedar of the house within was carved with knops and open flowers: all was cedar; there was no stone seen.

Note"Knops" is an old English word for knobs or buds; the Hebrew word suggests gourd shapes. Palm trees, flowers and gourds were common decorative motifs in the region, and evoke a garden.

19He prepared the inner room, deep inside the house, so the ark of the covenant of the LORD could be set there.

19And the oracle he prepared in the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of the LORD.

NoteThe ark of the covenant was a gold-covered wooden chest, about four feet long, carried on poles. It held the stone tablets of the law and had traveled with Israel since the wilderness, housed until now in a tent.

20The inner room measured twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. He covered it with pure gold, and he covered the altar, which was made of cedar, in the same way.

20And the oracle in the forepart was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height thereof: and he overlaid it with pure gold; and so covered the altar which was of cedar.

Note"Covered" means overlaid: thin sheets of gold hammered over wood, not solid gold. The cedar altar in the inner room is the incense altar. Its placement is described inconsistently in the Bible: elsewhere it stands in the main hall just outside the inner room, and the Hebrew here is ambiguous about which side of the partition it belonged to.

21So Solomon covered the inside of the house with pure gold. He stretched gold chains across the front of the inner room, and he covered that with gold as well.

21So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold: and he made a partition by the chains of gold before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold.

NoteThe gold chains stretched across the entrance of the inner room, marking it off. Other accounts describe a woven curtain there instead; the two are not necessarily in conflict, but the text does not explain the relationship.

22He covered the whole inside of the house with gold until the entire house was finished. He also covered with gold the whole altar that belonged to the inner room.

22And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the house: also the whole altar that was by the oracle he overlaid with gold.

23Inside the inner room he made two cherubim out of olive wood, each one ten cubits high.

23And within the oracle he made two cherubims of olive tree, each ten cubits high.

NoteCherubim (the plural of cherub; the King James "cherubims" doubles the plural ending) were not infants. In ancient Near Eastern art they are composite winged creatures (often a lion or bull body, wings, and a human face) placed as guardians beside thrones and doorways. Here two of them, each about fifteen feet high, stand over the ark, and their outstretched wings span the full twenty-cubit width of the room.

24One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long, and its other wing was five cubits long. From the tip of one wing to the tip of the other was ten cubits.

24And five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub: from the uttermost part of the one wing unto the uttermost part of the other were ten cubits.

25The second cherub also measured ten cubits. Both cherubim were the same size and the same shape.

25And the other cherub was ten cubits: both the cherubims were of one measure and one size.

26The first cherub was ten cubits high, and the second one was ten cubits high too.

26The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was it of the other cherub.

27He set the cherubim inside the innermost room of the house. Their wings were spread out, so that one wing of the first cherub touched one wall and a wing of the second cherub touched the other wall. In the middle of the room their wings touched each other.

27And he set the cherubims within the inner house: and they stretched forth the wings of the cherubims, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house.

28He covered the cherubim with gold.

28And he overlaid the cherubims with gold.

29He carved all the walls of the house, all the way around, with figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. He did this in the inner room and in the outer hall.

29And he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers, within and without.

30He covered the floor of the house with gold, in the inner room and in the outer hall.

30And the floor of the house he overlaid with gold, within and without.

31For the entrance to the inner room he made doors of olive wood. The beam across the top and the posts at the sides made a five-sided frame.

31And for the entering of the oracle he made doors of olive tree: the lintel and side posts were a fifth part of the wall.

NoteThe Hebrew here is obscure. It may describe a five-sided or five-tiered recessed doorframe, or state that the doorway took up a fifth of the wall's width; translators are divided, and the plain rendering picks one of the possibilities.

32The two doors were made of olive wood. He carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers into them. He covered them with gold, hammering the gold over the cherubim and over the palm trees.

32The two doors also were of olive tree; and he carved upon them carvings of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold, and spread gold upon the cherubims, and upon the palm trees.

33In the same way he made doorposts of olive wood for the entrance to the main hall. These were four-sided.

33So also made he for the door of the temple posts of olive tree, a fourth part of the wall.

NoteSame obscure construction as verse 31, with "four" instead of "five", either a four-sided frame or a proportion of the wall.

34The two doors there were made of fir wood. Each of the two doors had two panels that folded.

34And the two doors were of fir tree: the two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding.

NoteFolding panels means each door leaf was itself hinged in two, so it could concertina back against the wall, a way of opening a wide doorway in a shallow space.

35He carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers into them. He covered them with gold, hammered evenly over the carved work.

35And he carved thereon cherubims and palm trees and open flowers: and covered them with gold fitted upon the carved work.

36He built the inner courtyard with three rows of cut stone and one row of trimmed cedar beams.

36And he built the inner court with three rows of hewed stone, and a row of cedar beams.

NoteThree courses of stone topped by a course of timber was a recognized building technique in the region; the wooden layer gave the wall some flexibility, which helped it survive earth tremors.

37The foundation of the house of the LORD was laid in the fourth year of Solomon's rule, in the month Zif.

37In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of the LORD laid, in the month Zif:

38In the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in every part and exactly to plan. So Solomon spent seven years building it.

38And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it.

NoteBul is another old Canaanite-style month name, our October–November. Fourth year to eleventh year is seven years by the ancient way of counting, which includes both the year work started and the year it ended, even though neither was a full twelve months.