2 Chronicles 3
What Happens in This Chapter
Solomon starts building the temple in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, in the fourth year of his reign. The chapter gives the size of the building and describes how the walls, beams, and doors were covered with gold. It also describes the inner room with its two large winged figures, the woven curtain, and the two pillars named Jachin and Boaz that stood at the front.
Plain reading written for kids. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time.
Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
1Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem. He built it on Mount Moriah. That is where the LORD had appeared to David, Solomon's father. David had already picked this spot. It was the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. A threshing floor is a flat place where grain is beaten to clean it.
2And he began to build in the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign.
2He began building on the second day of the second month. It was the fourth year that he was king.
3Now these are the things wherein Solomon was instructed for the building of the house of God. The length by cubits after the first measure was threescore cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits.
3Here is the size that Solomon set for the house of God. The base was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. He used the older way of measuring.
A cubit was about eighteen inches, roughly the length of a man's forearm. Sixty cubits is about ninety feet.
4And the porch that was in the front of the house, the length of it was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and the height was an hundred and twenty: and he overlaid it within with pure gold.
4A porch stood across the front of the house. It was twenty cubits wide, the same as the house. Its height was one hundred twenty. Solomon covered the inside of the porch with pure gold.
5And the greater house he cieled with fir tree, which he overlaid with fine gold, and set thereon palm trees and chains.
5He lined the main room with wood from fir trees. He covered that wood with fine gold. Then he added carvings of palm trees and chains.
6And he garnished the house with precious stones for beauty: and the gold was gold of Parvaim.
6He decorated the house with precious stones to make it beautiful. The gold he used came from a place called Parvaim.
7He overlaid also the house, the beams, the posts, and the walls thereof, and the doors thereof, with gold; and graved cherubims on the walls.
7He covered the beams, the doorposts, the walls, and the doors with gold. He also carved cherubim on the walls. Cherubim are winged creatures, something like angels.
8And he made the most holy house, the length whereof was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits: and he overlaid it with fine gold, amounting to six hundred talents.
8Then he made the Most Holy Place, the special room deep inside. It was twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. He covered it with six hundred talents of fine gold.
A talent was a heavy weight, around seventy-five pounds. A shekel was small, less than half an ounce.
9And the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. And he overlaid the upper chambers with gold.
9The gold nails weighed fifty shekels. He covered the upper rooms with gold too.
10And in the most holy house he made two cherubims of image work, and overlaid them with gold.
10In the Most Holy Place he made two cherubim. They were carved figures, and he covered them with gold.
11And the wings of the cherubims were twenty cubits long: one wing of the one cherub was five cubits, reaching to the wall of the house: and the other wing was likewise five cubits, reaching to the wing of the other cherub.
11Their wings reached twenty cubits from tip to tip. One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long and touched the wall. Its other wing was five cubits long and touched the other cherub's wing.
12And one wing of the other cherub was five cubits, reaching to the wall of the house: and the other wing was five cubits also, joining to the wing of the other cherub.
12One wing of the second cherub was five cubits long and touched the wall. Its other wing was five cubits long and touched the first cherub's wing.
13The wings of these cherubims spread themselves forth twenty cubits: and they stood on their feet, and their faces were inward.
13So the wings of these cherubim stretched twenty cubits across. The cherubim stood on their feet. They faced the main room.
14And he made the vail of blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine linen, and wrought cherubims thereon.
14He made the curtain out of blue, purple, and crimson yarn and fine linen. Cherubim were woven into the cloth.
15Also he made before the house two pillars of thirty and five cubits high, and the chapiter that was on the top of each of them was five cubits.
15In front of the house he made two pillars. Together they stood thirty-five cubits tall. Each pillar had a decorated top that was five cubits tall.
16And he made chains, as in the oracle, and put them on the heads of the pillars; and made an hundred pomegranates, and put them on the chains.
16He made chains that looped together, and he put them on top of the pillars. He made one hundred pomegranates and fastened them onto the chains. Pomegranates are round fruits, and these were shaped like them.
17And he reared up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand, and the other on the left; and called the name of that on the right hand Jachin, and the name of that on the left Boaz.
17Then he set the pillars up in front of the temple. One stood on the south side and one on the north side. He named the south pillar Jachin and the north pillar Boaz.
The KJV says "right hand" and "left hand." The temple faced east, so the right hand side was south and the left hand side was north.
← → to turn the page · P for plain English · click a verse to sit with it