1 Kings 6:1-19

¹480 years after the Israeli people left Egypt, during the fourth year that Solomon ruled Israel, early in May, Solomon's workers began to build the temple.

²Inside, the main part of the temple was 90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 45 feet high.

³The entrance room was 15 feet long and 30 feet wide, just as wide as the main part of the temple.

⁴There were windows in the walls of the temple. The windows were narrower on the outside than on the inside.

⁵Against the two sides and against the back of the temple walls, they built a structure/building that had rooms in it. This structure had three levels/stories and each was 7-1/2 feet high.

⁶Each room in the lowest level/story was 7-1/2 feet wide. Each room in the middle level/story was nine feet wide. The rooms in the top level/story were 10-1/2 feet wide. The wall of the temple at the top level/story was thinner than the wall at the middle level/story, and the wall of the middle level/story was thinner than the wall at the bottom level/story. The result was that the rooms could be supported by the wall underneath them, and did not require wooden beams to support them.

⁷The huge stones for the foundation of the temple were cut and shaped at the quarry to become very smooth. The result was that while the workers were building the temple there was no noise, because they did not use hammers or chisels or any other iron tools there.

⁸The entrance to the bottom level/story of that attached structure was on the south side of the temple. There were stairs from the bottom level/story to the middle and top level/story.

⁹So Solomon's workers finished building the framework of the temple. They made the ceiling from cedar beams and boards.

¹⁰They built the structure that had three levels/stories, that was against the walls of the temple. Each level/story was 7-1/2 feet high, and was joined to the temple with cedar beams.

¹¹Then Yahweh said this to Solomon:

¹²“ I want to tell you about this temple that you are building. If you continually obey all my statutes and laws and commands, I will do for you what I promised to your father David.

¹³I will live among the Israeli people, in this temple, and I will never abandon them.”

¹⁴Solomon's workers finished building the temple.

¹⁵On the inside, they lined/covered the walls with cedar boards. They lined/covered them from the floor to the ceiling. They made the floor from cypress boards.

¹⁶Inside the back part of the temple they built an inner room, called the Very Holy Place. It was 30 feet long. All the walls of this room were lined with cedar boards.

¹⁷In front of the Very Holy Place there was a room that was 60 feet long.

¹⁸The cedar boards on the walls inside the temple were decorated with carvings of gourds and flowers. The walls were completely covered with cedar boards, with the result that the stones of the walls behind them could not be seen.

¹⁹At the back of the temple they made the Very Holy Place, where the Sacred Chest would be put.