1 Kings 6:1-19

¹Four hundred and eighty years after the Israelites left Egypt, in the fourth year of King Solomon's reign, in the month of Ziv, Solomon began building the Temple of the Lord.

²The Temple King Solomon built for the Lord measured sixty cubits long by twenty cubits wide by thirty cubits high.

³The entrance room at the front of the Temple was twenty cubits wide. It ran the whole width of the Temple and projected out ten cubits in front of the Temple.

⁴He had latticed windows made to be placed high up in the Temple.

⁵He also had a structure built against the outer wall of the Temple, both the outer and the inner sanctuary, to provide a series of side rooms.

⁶The ground floor measured five cubits wide, the first floor six cubits, and the second floor seven cubits. In addition he had offset ledges placed all the way around the outside, so that beams would not have to be inserted into the Temple walls.

⁷When the Temple was built the stones were finished at the quarry so that no noise from any hammer, ax, or any iron tool was heard in the Temple during construction.

⁸The entrance to the ground floor was on the south side of the Temple. Stairs led to the first floor, and then on to the second floor.

⁹So Solomon finished building the Temple, covering it with a roof made of cedar rafters and planks.

¹⁰He built the external structure along the whole of the Temple. It was five cubits high, joined to the Temple with cedar joists.

¹¹The Lord sent this message to Solomon, telling him,

¹²“About this Temple you are building: if you follow what I have said, fulfilling my requirements and keeping my commandments in what you do, I will keep the promise I made to your father David through you.

¹³I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon Israel, my people.”

¹⁴Solomon finished building the Temple.

¹⁵He lined the walls with cedar panels from floor to ceiling and he covered the floor of the Temple with cypress boards.

¹⁶He sectioned off twenty cubits at the rear of the Temple with boards of cedar from floor to ceiling, making an inner sanctuary as the Most Holy Place.

¹⁷The main Temple in front of this room measured forty cubits long.

¹⁸The cedar panels inside the Temple were decorated with carvings of gourds and open flowers. Everything was lined with cedar—none of the stone was visible.

¹⁹He also had the inner sanctuary made within the Temple where the Ark of the Lord's Agreement would be placed.