Bible-Reading.comI Kings 5
1Now when Hiram king of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king in his father’s place, he sent envoys to Solomon; for Hiram had always been a friend of David.
2And Solomon relayed this message to Hiram:
3“As you are well aware, due to the wars waged on all sides against my father David, he could not build a house for the Name of the LORD his God until the LORD had put his enemies under his feet.
4But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side, and there is no adversary or crisis.
5So behold, I plan to build a house for the Name of the LORD my God, according to what the LORD said to my father David: ‘I will put your son on your throne in your place, and he will build the house for My Name.’
6Now therefore, order that cedars of Lebanon be cut down for me. My servants will be with your servants, and I will pay your servants whatever wages you set, for you know that there are none among us as skilled in logging as the Sidonians.”
7When Hiram received Solomon’s message, he rejoiced greatly and said, “Blessed be the LORD this day! He has given David a wise son over this great people!”
8Then Hiram sent a reply to Solomon, saying: “I have received your message; I will do all you desire regarding the cedar and cypress timber.
9My servants will haul the logs from Lebanon to the Sea, and I will float them as rafts by sea to the place you specify. There I will separate the logs, and you can take them away. And in exchange, you can meet my needs by providing my household with food.”
10So Hiram provided Solomon with all the cedar and cypress timber he wanted,
11and year after year Solomon would provide Hiram with 20,000 cors of wheat as food for his household, as well as 20,000 baths of pure olive oil.
12And the LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as He had promised him. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.
13Then King Solomon conscripted a labor force of 30,000 men from all Israel.
14He sent them to Lebanon in monthly shifts of 10,000 men, so that they would spend one month in Lebanon and two months at home. And Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor.
15Solomon had 70,000 porters and 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains,
16not including his 3,300 foremen who supervised the workers.
17And the king commanded them to quarry large, costly stones to lay the foundation of the temple with dressed stones.
18So Solomon’s and Hiram’s builders, along with the Gebalites, quarried the stone and prepared the timber and stone for the construction of the temple.
I Kings 6
1In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt, in the month of Ziv, the second month of the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, he began to build the house of the LORD.
2The house that King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.
3The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple was twenty cubits long, extending across the width of the temple and projecting out ten cubits in front of the temple.
4He also had narrow windows framed high in the temple.
5Against the walls of the temple and the inner sanctuary, Solomon built a chambered structure around the temple, in which he constructed the side rooms.
6The bottom floor was five cubits wide, the middle floor six cubits, and the third floor seven cubits. He also placed offset ledges around the outside of the temple, so that nothing would be inserted into its walls.
7The temple was constructed using finished stones cut at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any other iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.
8The entrance to the bottom floor was on the south side of the temple. A stairway led up to the middle level, and from there to the third floor.
9So Solomon built the temple and finished it, roofing it with beams and planks of cedar.
10He built chambers all along the temple, each five cubits high and attached to the temple with beams of cedar.
11Then the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying:
12“As for this temple you are building, if you walk in My statutes, carry out My ordinances, and keep all My commandments by walking in them, I will fulfill through you the promise I made to your father David.
13And I will dwell among the Israelites and will not abandon My people Israel.”
14So Solomon built the temple and finished it.
15He lined the interior walls with cedar paneling from the floor of the temple to the ceiling, and he covered the floor with cypress boards.
16He partitioned off the twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling to form within the temple an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.
17And the main hall in front of this room was forty cubits long.
18The cedar paneling inside the temple was carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; not a stone could be seen.
19Solomon also prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the ark of the covenant of the LORD there.
20The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold, and he also overlaid the altar of cedar.
21So Solomon overlaid the inside of the temple with pure gold, and he extended gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, which was overlaid with gold.
22So he overlaid with gold the whole interior of the temple, until everything was completely finished. He also overlaid with gold the entire altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary.
23In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim, each ten cubits high, out of olive wood.
24One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long, and the other wing was five cubits long as well. So the full wingspan was ten cubits.
25The second cherub also measured ten cubits; both cherubim had the same size and shape,
26and the height of each cherub was ten cubits.
27And he placed the cherubim inside the innermost room of the temple. Since their wings were spread out, the wing of the first cherub touched one wall, while the wing of the second cherub touched the other wall, and in the middle of the room their wingtips touched.
28He also overlaid the cherubim with gold.
29Then he carved the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer sanctuaries, with carved engravings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers.
30And he overlaid the temple floor with gold in both the inner and outer sanctuaries.
31For the entrance to the inner sanctuary, Solomon constructed doors of olive wood with five-sided doorposts.
32The double doors were made of olive wood, and he carved into them cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers and overlaid the cherubim and palm trees with hammered gold.
33In the same way he made four-sided doorposts of olive wood for the sanctuary entrance.
34The two doors were made of cypress wood, and each had two folding panels.
35He carved into them cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers; and he overlaid them with gold, hammered evenly over the carvings.
36Solomon built the inner courtyard with three rows of dressed stone and one row of trimmed cedar beams.
37The foundation of the house of the LORD was laid in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign, in the month of Ziv.
38In his eleventh year and eighth month, the month of Bul, the temple was finished in every detail and according to every specification. So he built the temple in seven years.
I Kings 7
1Solomon, however, took thirteen years to complete the construction of his entire palace.
2He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon a hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high, with four rows of cedar pillars supporting the cedar beams.
3The house was roofed with cedar above the beams that rested on the pillars—forty-five beams, fifteen per row.
4There were three rows of high windows facing one another in three tiers.
5All the doorways had rectangular frames, with the openings facing one another in three tiers.
6Solomon made his colonnade fifty cubits long and thirty cubits wide, with a portico in front of it and a canopy with pillars in front of the portico.
7In addition, he built a hall for the throne, the Hall of Justice, where he was to judge. It was paneled with cedar from floor to ceiling.
8And the palace where Solomon would live, set further back, was of similar construction. He also made a palace like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had married.
9All these buildings were constructed with costly stones, cut to size and trimmed with saws inside and out from the foundation to the eaves, and from the outside to the great courtyard.
10The foundations were laid with large, costly stones, some ten cubits long and some eight cubits long.
11Above these were high-grade stones, cut to size, and cedar beams.
12The great courtyard was surrounded by three rows of dressed stone and a row of trimmed cedar beams, as were the inner courtyard and portico of the house of the LORD.
13Now King Solomon sent to bring Huram from Tyre.
14He was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a craftsman in bronze. Huram had great skill, understanding, and knowledge for every kind of bronze work. So he came to King Solomon and carried out all his work.
15He cast two pillars of bronze, each eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in circumference.
16He also made two capitals of cast bronze to set on top of the pillars, each capital five cubits high.
17For the capitals on top of the pillars he made a network of lattice, with wreaths of chainwork, seven for each capital.
18Likewise, he made the pillars with two rows of pomegranates around each grating to cover each capital atop the pillars.
19And the capitals atop the pillars in the portico were shaped like lilies, four cubits high.
20On the capitals of both pillars, just above the rounded projection next to the network, were the two hundred pomegranates in rows encircling each capital.
21Thus he set up the pillars at the portico of the temple. The pillar to the south he named Jachin, and the pillar to the north he named Boaz.
22And the tops of the pillars were shaped like lilies. So the work of the pillars was completed.
23He also made the Sea of cast metal. It was circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim, five cubits in height, and thirty cubits in circumference.
24Below the rim, ornamental buds encircled it, ten per cubit all the way around the Sea, cast in two rows as a part of the Sea.
25The Sea stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The Sea rested on them, with all their hindquarters toward the center.
26It was a handbreadth thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold two thousand baths.
27In addition, he made ten movable stands of bronze, each four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three cubits high.
28This was the design of the stands: They had side panels attached to uprights,
29and on the panels between the uprights were lions, oxen, and cherubim. On the uprights was a pedestal above, and below the lions and oxen were wreaths of beveled work.
30Each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles and a basin resting on four supports, with wreaths at each side.
31The opening to each stand inside the crown at the top was one cubit deep, with a round opening like the design of a pedestal, a cubit and a half wide. And around its opening were engravings, but the panels of the stands were square, not round.
32There were four wheels under the panels, and the axles of the wheels were attached to the stand; each wheel was a cubit and a half in diameter.
33The wheels were made like chariot wheels; their axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were all of cast metal.
34Each stand had four handles, one for each corner, projecting from the stand.
35At the top of each stand was a circular band half a cubit high. The supports and panels were cast as a unit with the top of the stand.
36He engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees on the surfaces of the supports and panels, wherever each had space, with wreaths all around.
37In this way he made the ten stands, each with the same casting, dimensions, and shape.
38He also made ten bronze basins, each holding forty baths and measuring four cubits across, one basin for each of the ten stands.
39He set five stands on the south side of the temple and five on the north, and he put the Sea on the south side, at the southeast corner of the temple.
40Additionally, Huram made the pots, shovels, and sprinkling bowls. So Huram finished all the work that he had undertaken for King Solomon in the house of the LORD:
41the two pillars; the two bowl-shaped capitals atop the pillars; the two sets of network covering both bowls of the capitals atop the pillars;
42the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of network (two rows of pomegranates for each network covering both the bowl-shaped capitals atop the pillars);
43the ten stands; the ten basins on the stands;
44the Sea; the twelve oxen underneath the Sea;
45and the pots, shovels, and sprinkling bowls. All the articles that Huram made for King Solomon in the house of the LORD were made of burnished bronze.
46The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zarethan.
47Solomon left all these articles unweighed, because there were so many. The weight of the bronze could not be determined.
48Solomon also made all the furnishings for the house of the LORD: the golden altar; the golden table on which was placed the Bread of the Presence;
49the lampstands of pure gold in front of the inner sanctuary, five on the right side and five on the left; the gold flowers, lamps, and tongs;
50the pure gold basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, ladles, and censers; and the gold hinges for the doors of the inner temple (that is, the Most Holy Place ) as well as for the doors of the main hall of the temple.
51So all the work that King Solomon had performed for the house of the LORD was completed. Then Solomon brought in the items his father David had dedicated—the silver, the gold, and the furnishings—and he placed them in the treasuries of the house of the LORD.
I Kings 8
1At that time Solomon assembled before him in Jerusalem the elders of Israel—all the tribal heads and family leaders of the Israelites—to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Zion, the City of David.
2And all the men of Israel came together to King Solomon at the feast in the seventh month, the month of Ethanim.
3When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests took up the ark,
4and they brought up the ark of the LORD and the Tent of Meeting with all its sacred furnishings. So the priests and Levites carried them up.
5There, before the ark, King Solomon and the whole congregation of Israel who had assembled with him sacrificed so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered.
6Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, beneath the wings of the cherubim.
7For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and overshadowed the ark and its poles.
8The poles extended far enough that their ends were visible from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are there to this day.
9There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the LORD had made a covenant with the Israelites after they had come out of the land of Egypt.
10And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, the cloud filled the house of the LORD
11so that the priests could not stand there to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD.
12Then Solomon declared: “The LORD has said that He would dwell in the thick cloud.
13I have indeed built You an exalted house, a place for You to dwell forever.”
14And as the whole assembly of Israel stood there, the king turned around and blessed them all
15and said: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who has fulfilled with His own hand what He spoke with His mouth to my father David, saying,
16‘Since the day I brought My people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house so that My Name would be there. But I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.’
17Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a house for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
18But the LORD said to my father David, ‘Since it was in your heart to build a house for My Name, you have done well to have this in your heart.
19Nevertheless, you are not the one to build it; but your son, your own offspring, will build the house for My Name.’
20Now the LORD has fulfilled the word that He spoke. I have succeeded my father David, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised. I have built the house for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
21And there I have provided a place for the ark, which contains the covenant of the LORD that He made with our fathers when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.”
22Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven,
23and said: “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven above or on earth below, keeping Your covenant of loving devotion with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts.
24You have kept Your promise to Your servant, my father David. What You spoke with Your mouth You have fulfilled with Your hand this day.
25Therefore now, O LORD, God of Israel, keep for Your servant, my father David, what You promised when You said: ‘You will never fail to have a man to sit before Me on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants guard their way to walk before Me as you have done.’
26And now, O God of Israel, please confirm what You promised to Your servant, my father David.
27But will God indeed dwell upon the earth? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.
28Yet regard the prayer and plea of Your servant, O LORD my God, so that You may hear the cry and the prayer that Your servant is praying before You today.
29May Your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, toward the place of which You said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that You may hear the prayer that Your servant prays toward this place.
30Hear the plea of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray toward this place. May You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place. May You hear and forgive.
31When a man sins against his neighbor and is required to take an oath, and he comes to take an oath before Your altar in this temple,
32then may You hear from heaven and act. May You judge Your servants, condemning the wicked man by bringing down on his own head what he has done, and justifying the righteous man by rewarding him according to his righteousness.
33When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they return to You and confess Your name, praying and pleading with You in this temple,
34then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel. May You restore them to the land You gave to their fathers.
35When the skies are shut and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and they turn from their sins because You have afflicted them,
36then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, so that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk. May You send rain on the land that You gave Your people as an inheritance.
37When famine or plague comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemy besieges them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come,
38then may whatever prayer or petition Your people Israel make—each knowing his own afflictions and spreading out his hands toward this temple—
39be heard by You from heaven, Your dwelling place. And may You forgive and act, and repay each man according to all his ways, since You know his heart—for You alone know the hearts of all men—
40so that they may fear You all the days they live in the land that You gave to our fathers.
41And as for the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of Your name—
42for they will hear of Your great name and mighty hand and outstretched arm—when he comes and prays toward this temple,
43then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You. Then all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and they will know that this house I have built is called by Your Name.
44When Your people go to war against their enemies, wherever You send them, and when they pray to the LORD in the direction of the city You have chosen and the house I have built for Your Name,
45then may You hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and may You uphold their cause.
46When they sin against You—for there is no one who does not sin—and You become angry with them and deliver them to an enemy who takes them as captives to his own land, whether far or near,
47and when they come to their senses in the land to which they were taken, and they repent and plead with You in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong; we have acted wickedly,’
48and when they return to You with all their heart and soul in the land of the enemies who took them captive, and when they pray to You in the direction of the land that You gave to their fathers, the city You have chosen, and the house I have built for Your Name,
49then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, their prayer and petition, and may You uphold their cause.
50May You forgive Your people who have sinned against You and all the transgressions they have committed against You, and may You grant them compassion in the eyes of their captors to show them mercy.
51For they are Your people and Your inheritance; You brought them out of Egypt, out of the furnace for iron.
52May Your eyes be open to the pleas of Your servant and of Your people Israel, and may You listen to them whenever they call to You.
53For You, O Lord GOD, as Your inheritance, have set them apart from all the peoples of the earth, as You spoke through Your servant Moses when You brought our fathers out of Egypt.”
54Now when Solomon had finished praying this entire prayer and petition to the LORD, he got up before the altar of the LORD, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven.
55And he stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel in a loud voice, saying:
56“Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to His people Israel according to all that He promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises He made through His servant Moses.
57May the LORD our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. May He never leave us nor forsake us.
58May He incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways and to keep the commandments and statutes and ordinances He commanded our fathers.
59And may these words with which I have made my petition before the LORD be near to the LORD our God day and night, so that He may uphold the cause of His servant and of His people Israel as each day requires,
60so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God. There is no other!
61So let your heart be fully devoted to the LORD our God, as it is this day, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments.”
62Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the LORD.
63And Solomon offered as peace offerings to the LORD 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the Israelites dedicated the house of the LORD.
64On that same day the king consecrated the middle of the courtyard in front of the house of the LORD, and there he offered the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings, since the bronze altar before the LORD was too small to contain all these offerings.
65So at that time Solomon and all Israel with him—a great assembly of people from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt—kept the feast before the LORD our God for seven days and seven more days—fourteen days in all.
66On the fifteenth day Solomon sent the people away. So they blessed the king and went home, joyful and glad in heart for all the good things that the LORD had done for His servant David and for His people Israel.
I Kings 9
1Now when Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and the royal palace, and had achieved all that he had desired to do,
2the LORD appeared to him a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon.
3And the LORD said to him: “I have heard your prayer and petition before Me. I have consecrated this temple you have built by putting My Name there forever; My eyes and My heart will be there for all time.
4And as for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and uprightness, doing all I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances,
5then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David when I said, ‘You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’
6But if indeed you or your sons turn away from following Me and do not keep the commandments and statutes I have set before you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods,
7then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples.
8And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and will hiss and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’
9And others will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—because of this, the LORD has brought all this disaster upon them.’”
10Now at the end of the twenty years during which Solomon built these two houses, the house of the LORD and the royal palace,
11King Solomon gave twenty towns in the land of Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, who had supplied him with cedar and cypress logs and gold for his every desire.
12So Hiram went out from Tyre to inspect the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them.
13“What are these towns you have given me, my brother?” asked Hiram, and he called them the Land of Cabul, as they are called to this day.
14And Hiram had sent the king 120 talents of gold.
15This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon imposed to build the house of the LORD, his own palace, the supporting terraces, and the wall of Jerusalem, as well as Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.
16Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and given it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.
17So Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth-horon,
18Baalath, and Tamar in the Wilderness of Judah,
19as well as all the store cities that Solomon had for his chariots and horses —whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout the land of his dominion.
20As for all the people who remained of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites (the people who were not Israelites)—
21their descendants who remained in the land, those whom the Israelites were unable to devote to destruction —Solomon conscripted these people to be forced laborers, as they are to this day.
22But Solomon did not consign any of the Israelites to slavery, because they were his men of war, his servants, his officers, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and cavalry.
23They were also the chief officers over Solomon’s projects: 550 supervisors over the people who did the work.
24As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace that Solomon had built for her, he built the supporting terraces.
25Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he had built for the LORD, burning incense with them before the LORD. So he completed the temple.
26King Solomon also assembled a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea.
27And Hiram sent his servants, men who knew the sea, to serve in the fleet with Solomon’s servants.
28They sailed to Ophir and imported gold from there—420 talents —and delivered it to Solomon.