Solomon completed his entire palace-complex after 13 years of construction.
He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon. It was 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams on top of the pillars.
It was paneled above with cedar at the top of the chambers that [rested] on 45 pillars, fifteen per row.
There were three rows of window frames, facing each other in three tiers.
All the doors and doorposts had rectangular frames, the openings facing each other in three tiers.
He made the hall of pillars 75 feet long and 45 feet wide. A portico was in front of the pillars, and a canopy with pillars were in front of them.
He made the Hall of the Throne where he would judge-- the Hall of Judgment. It was paneled with cedar from the floor to the rafters.
Solomon's own palace where he would live, in the other courtyard behind the hall, was of similar construction. And he made a house like this hall for Pharaoh's daughter, his wife.
All of these [buildings] were of costly stones, cut to size and sawed with saws on the inner and outer surfaces, from foundation to coping and from the outside to the great courtyard.
The foundation was made of large, costly stones 12 and 15 feet long.
Above were also costly stones, cut to size, as well as cedar wood.
Around the great courtyard, as well as the inner courtyard of the LORD's temple and the portico of the temple, were three rows of dressed stone and a row of trimmed cedar beams.
King Solomon had Hiram brought from Tyre.
He was a widow's son from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a bronze craftsman. Hiram had great skill, understanding, and knowledge to do every kind of bronze work. So he came to King Solomon and carried out all his work.
He cast two [hollow] bronze pillars: each 27 feet high and 18 feet in circumference.
He also made two capitals of cast bronze to set on top of the pillars; seven and a half feet was the height of the first capital, and seven and a half feet was also the height of the second capital.
The capitals on top of the pillars had gratings of latticework, wreaths made of chainwork-- seven for the first capital and seven for the second.
He made the pillars with two encircling rows of pomegranates on the one grating to cover the capital on top; he did the same for the second capital.
And the capitals on top of the pillars in the portico were shaped like lilies, six feet [high].
The capitals on the two pillars were also immediately above the rounded surface next to the grating, and 200 pomegranates were in rows encircling each capital.
He set up the pillars at the portico of the sanctuary: he set up the right pillar and named it Jachin; then he set up the left pillar and named it Boaz.
The tops of the pillars were shaped like lilies. Then the work of the pillars was completed.
He made the cast [metal] reservoir, 15 feet from brim to brim, perfectly round. It was seven and a half feet high and 45 feet in circumference.
[Ornamental] gourds encircled it below the brim, 10 every half yard, completely encircling the reservoir. The gourds were cast in two rows when the reservoir was cast.
It stood on 12 oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The reservoir was on top of them and all their hindquarters were toward the center.
The reservoir was three inches thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup or of a lily blossom. It held 11,000 gallons.
Then he made 10 bronze water carts. Each water cart was six feet long, six feet wide, and four and a half feet high.
This was the design of the carts: They had frames; the frames were between the cross-pieces,
and on the frames between the cross-pieces were lions, oxen, and cherubim. On the cross-pieces there was a pedestal above, and below the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging work.
Each cart had four bronze wheels with bronze axles. Underneath the four corners of the basin were cast supports, each next to a wreath.
And the water cart's opening inside the crown on top was 18 inches wide. The opening was round, made as a pedestal 27 inches wide. On it were carvings, but their frames were square, not round.
There were four wheels under the frames, and the wheel axles were part of the water cart; each wheel was 27 inches tall.
The wheels' design was similar to that of chariot wheels: their axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were all of cast metal.
Four supports were at the four corners of each water cart; each support was one piece with the water cart.
At the top of the cart was a band nine inches high encircling it; also, at the top of the cart, its braces and its frames were one piece with it.
He engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees on the plates of its braces and on its frames, wherever each had space, with encircling wreaths.
In this way he made the 10 water carts using the same casting, dimensions, and shape for all of them.
Then he made 10 bronze basins-- each basin holding 220 gallons and each was six feet wide-- one basin for each of the 10 water carts.
He set five water carts on the right side of the temple and five on the left side. He put the reservoir near the right side of the temple toward the southeast.
Then Hiram made the basins, the shovels, and the sprinkling basins. So Hiram finished all the work that he was doing for King Solomon on the LORD's temple:
two pillars; bowls for the capitals that were on top of the two pillars; the two gratings for covering both bowls of the capitals that were on top of the pillars;
the 400 pomegranates for the two gratings (two rows of pomegranates for each grating covering both capitals' bowls on top of the pillars);
the 10 water carts; the 10 basins on the water carts;
the reservoir; the 12 oxen underneath the reservoir;
and the pots, shovels, and sprinkling basins. All the utensils that Hiram made for King Solomon at the LORD's temple [were made] of burnished bronze.
The king had them cast in clay molds in the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Zarethan.
Solomon left all the utensils unweighed because there were so many; the weight of the bronze was not determined.
Solomon also made all the equipment in the LORD's temple: the gold altar; the gold table that the bread of the Presence was placed on;
the pure gold lampstands in front of the inner sanctuary, five on the right and five on the left; the gold flowers, lamps, and tongs;
the pure gold ceremonial bowls, wick trimmers, sprinkling basins, ladles, and firepans; and the gold hinges for the doors of the inner temple (that is, the most holy place) and for the doors of the temple sanctuary.
So all the work King Solomon did in the LORD's temple was completed. Then Solomon brought in the consecrated things of his father David-- the silver, the gold, and the utensils-- and put them in the treasuries of the LORD's temple.
At that time Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, all the tribal heads and the ancestral leaders of the Israelites before him at Jerusalem in order to bring the ark of the LORD's covenant from Zion, the city of David.
So all the men of Israel were assembled in the presence of King Solomon in the seventh month, the month of Ethanim at the festival.
All the elders of Israel came, and the priests picked up the ark.
The priests and the Levites brought the ark of the LORD, the tent of meeting, and the holy utensils that were in the tent.
King Solomon and the entire congregation of Israel, who had gathered around him and were with him in front of the ark, were sacrificing sheep and cattle that could not be counted or numbered, because there were so many.
The priests brought the ark of the LORD's covenant to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the most holy place beneath the wings of the cherubim.
For the cherubim were spreading their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim covered the ark and its poles from above.
The poles were so long that their ends were seen from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary, but they were not seen from outside [the sanctuary]; they are there to this day.
Nothing was in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had put there at Horeb,where the LORD made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt.
When the priests came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the LORD's temple,
and because of the cloud, the priests were not able to continue ministering, for the glory of the LORD filled the temple.
Then Solomon said: The LORD said that He would dwell in thick darkness,
but I have indeed built an exalted temple for You, a place for Your dwelling forever.
The king turned around and blessed the entire congregation of Israel while they were standing.
He said: May the LORD God of Israel be praised! He spoke directly to my father David, and He has fulfilled [the promise] by His power. He said,
"Since the day I brought My people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city to build a temple in among any of the tribes of Israel, so that My name would be there. But I have chosen David to rule My people Israel."
It was in the desire of my father David to build a temple for the name of the LORD God of Israel.
But the LORD said to my father David, "Since it was your desire to build a temple for My name, you have done well to have this desire.
Yet you are not the one to build it; instead, your son, your own offspring, will build it for My name."
The LORD has fulfilled what He promised. I have taken the place of my father David, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised. I have built the temple for the name of the LORD God of Israel.
I have provided a place there for the ark, where the LORD's covenant is that He made with our ancestors when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.
Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the entire congregation of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven.
He said: LORD God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven above or on earth below, keeping the gracious covenant with Your servants who walk before You with their whole heart.
You have kept what You promised to Your servant, my father David. You spoke directly [to him] and You fulfilled [Your promise] by Your power as it is today.
Therefore, LORD God of Israel, keep what You promised to Your servant, my father David: You will never fail to have a man to sit before Me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons guard their walk before Me as you have walked before Me.
Now LORD God of Israel, please confirm what You promised to Your servant, my father David.
But will God indeed live on earth? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.
Listen to Your servant's prayer and his petition, LORD my God, so that You may hear the cry and the prayer that Your servant prays before You today,
so that Your eyes may watch over this temple night and day, toward the place where You said: My name will be there, and so that You may hear the prayer that Your servant prays toward this place.
Hear the petition of Your servant and Your people Israel, which they pray toward this place. May You hear in Your dwelling place in heaven. May You hear and forgive.
When a man sins against his neighbor and is forced to take an oath, and he comes to take an oath before Your altar in this temple,
may You hear in heaven and act. May You judge Your servants, condemning the wicked by bringing what he has done on his own head and providing justice for the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.
When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy, because they have sinned against You, and they return to You and praise Your name, and they pray and plead with You for mercy in this temple,
may You hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel. May You restore them to the land You gave their ancestors.
When the skies are shut and there is no rain, because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and praise Your name, and they turn from their sins because You are afflicting them,
may You hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and Your people Israel, so that You may teach them the good way they should walk in. May You send rain on Your land that You gave Your people for an inheritance.
When there is famine on the earth, when there is pestilence, when there is blight, mildew, locust, or grasshopper, when their enemy besieges them in the region of their fortified cities, [when there is] any plague or illness,
whatever prayer or petition anyone from Your people Israel might have-- each man knowing his own afflictions and spreading out his hands toward this temple--
may You hear in heaven, Your dwelling place, and may You forgive, act, and repay the man, according to all his ways, since You know his heart, for You alone know every human heart,
so that they may fear You all the days they live on the land You gave our ancestors.
Even for the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of Your name--
for they will hear of Your great name, mighty hand, and outstretched arm, and will come and pray toward this temple--
may You hear in heaven, Your dwelling place, and do according to all the foreigner asks You for. Then all the people on earth will know Your name, to fear You as Your people Israel do and know that this temple I have built is called by Your name.
When Your people go out to fight against their enemies, wherever You send them, and they pray to the LORD in the direction of the city You have chosen and the temple I have built for Your name,
may You hear their prayer and petition in heaven and uphold their cause.
When they sin against You-- for there is no one who does not sin-- and You are angry with them and hand them over to the enemy, and their captors deport them to the enemy's country-- whether distant or nearby--
and when they come to their senses in the land where they were deported and repent and petition You in their captors' land: "We have sinned and done wrong; we have been wicked,"
and when they return to You with their whole mind and heart in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and when they pray to You in the direction of their land that You gave their ancestors, the city You have chosen, and the temple I have built for Your name,
may You hear in heaven, Your dwelling place, their prayer and petition and uphold their cause.
May You forgive Your people who sinned against You and all their rebellions against You, and may You give them compassion in the eyes of their captors, so that they may be compassionate to them.
For they are Your people and Your inheritance; You brought them out of Egypt, out of the middle of an iron furnace.
May Your eyes be open to Your servant's petition and to the petition of Your people Israel, listening to them whenever they call to You.
For You, Lord God, have set them apart as Your inheritance from all the people on earth, as You spoke through Your servant Moses when You brought their ancestors out of Egypt.
When Solomon finished praying this entire prayer and petition to the LORD, he got up from kneeling before the altar of the LORD, with his hands spread out toward heaven,
and he stood and blessed the whole congregation of Israel with a loud voice:
"May the LORD be praised! He has given rest to His people Israel according to all He has said. Not one of all the good promises He made through His servant Moses has failed.
May the LORD our God be with us as He was with our ancestors. May He not abandon us or leave us.
May He incline our hearts toward Him to walk in all His ways and to keep His commands, ordinances, and judgments, which He commanded our ancestors.
May my words I have made my petition with before the LORD be near the LORD our God day and night, so that He may uphold His servant's cause and the cause of His people Israel, as each day requires,
and so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God. There is no other!
Let your heart be completely devoted to the LORD our God to walk in His ordinances and to keep His commands, as it is today."
The king and all Israel with him were offering sacrifices in the LORD's presence.
Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the LORD: 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep. In this manner the king and all the Israelites dedicated the LORD's temple.
On the same day, the king consecrated the middle of the courtyard that was in front of the LORD's temple because that was where he offered the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat of the fellowship offerings since the bronze altar before the LORD was too small to accommodate the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat of the fellowship offerings.
Solomon and all Israel with him-- a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt-- observed the festival at that time in the presence of the LORD our God, seven days, and seven [more] days-- 14 days.
On the fifteenth day he sent the people away. So they blessed the king and went home to their tents rejoicing and with joyful hearts for all the goodness that the LORD had done for His servant David and for His people Israel.
When Solomon finished building the temple of the LORD, the royal palace, and all that Solomon desired to do,
the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time just as He had appeared to him at Gibeon.
The LORD said to him: I have heard your prayer and petition you have made before Me. I have consecrated this temple you have built, to put My name there forever; My eyes and My heart will be there at all times.
As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances,
I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David: You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.
If you or your sons turn away from following Me and do not keep My commands-- My statutes that I have set before you-- and if you go and serve other gods and worship them,
I will cut off Israel from the land I gave them, and I will reject the temple I have sanctified for My name. Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.
Though this temple is [now] exalted, every passerby will be appalled and will hiss. They will say: Why did the LORD do this to this land and this temple?
Then they will say: Because they abandoned the LORD their God who brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt. They clung to other gods and worshiped and served them. Because of this, the LORD brought all this ruin on them.
At the end of 20 years during which Solomon had built the two houses, the LORD's temple and the royal palace--
Hiram king of Tyre having supplied him with cedar and cypress logs and gold for his every wish-- King Solomon gave Hiram 20 towns in the land of Galilee.
So Hiram went out from Tyre to look over the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them.
So he said, "What are these towns you've given me, my brother?" So he called them the Land of Cabul, as they are [still called] today.
Now Hiram had sent the king 9,000 pounds of gold.
This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon had imposed to build the LORD's temple, his own palace, the supporting terraces, the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.
Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He then burned it down, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and gave it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife.
Then Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth-horon,
Baalath, Tamar in the Wilderness of Judah,
all the storage cities that belonged to Solomon, the chariot cities, the cavalry cities, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, or anywhere else in the land of his dominion.
As for all the peoples who remained of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not Israelites--
their descendants who remained in the land after them, those whom the Israelites were unable to annihilate-- Solomon imposed forced labor on them; [it is this way] until today.
But Solomon did not consign the Israelites to slavery; they were soldiers, his servants, his commanders, his captains, and commanders of his chariots and his cavalry.
These were the deputies who were over Solomon's work: 550 who ruled over the people doing the work.
Pharaoh's daughter moved from the city of David to the house that Solomon had built for her; he then built the terraces.
Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built for the LORD, and he burned incense with them in the LORD's presence. So he completed the temple.
King Solomon put together a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom.
With the fleet, Hiram sent his servants, experienced seamen, along with Solomon's servants.
They went to Ophir and acquired gold there-- 16 tons-- and delivered it to Solomon.