First Kings 6:1-19

¹So Solomon began to build the temple of Yahweh. This happened in the 480th year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month.

²The temple that King Solomon built for Yahweh was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.

³The portico in front of the temple's main hall was twenty cubits in length, equal to the width of the temple, and ten cubits deep in front of the temple.

⁴For the house he made windows with frames that made them more narrow at the outside than on the inside.

⁵Against the walls of the main chamber he built rooms around it, around both the outer room and the inner room. He built rooms all around the sides.

⁶The lowest story was five cubits wide, the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide. For on the outside he made offsets in the wall of the house all around so that the beams would not be inserted in the walls of the house.

⁷The house was built of stones prepared at the quarry. No hammer, ax, or any iron tool was heard in the house while it was being built.

⁸On the south side of the temple there was an entrance at the ground level, then one went up by stairs to the middle level, and from the middle to the third level.

⁹So Solomon built the temple and finished it; he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar.

¹⁰He built the side rooms against the inner chambers of the temple, each side five cubits high; they were joined to the house with timbers of cedar.

¹¹The word of Yahweh came to Solomon, saying,

¹²“Concerning this temple which you are building, if you walk in my statutes and do justice, keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will confirm my promise with you that I had made to David your father.

¹³I will live among the people of Israel and will not forsake them.”

¹⁴So Solomon built the house and finished it.

¹⁵Then he built the interior walls of the house with boards of cedar. From the floor of the house to the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood, and he covered the floor of the house with cypress boards.

¹⁶He built twenty cubits onto the rear of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the ceiling. He built this room to be the inner room, the most holy place.

¹⁷The main hall, that is, the holy place that was in front of the most holy place, was forty cubits long.

¹⁸There was cedar inside the house, carved in the shape of gourds and open flowers. All was cedar inside. No stonework was visible on the inside.

¹⁹Solomon prepared the inner room inside the house in order to place the ark of the covenant of Yahweh there.