To The Word – Day 144

₁Solomon, the son of King David, took firm control of the kingdom of Israel, and the LORD his God blessed him and made him very powerful.

₂King Solomon gave an order to all the officers in charge of units of a thousand men and of a hundred men, all the government officials, all the heads of families, and all the rest of the people, ₃commanding them to go with him to the place of worship at Gibeon. They went there because that was where the Tent of the LORD's presence was located, which Moses, the LORD's servant, had made in the wilderness. ₄(The Covenant Box, however, was in Jerusalem, kept in a tent which King David had set up when he brought the Box from Kiriath Jearim.) ₅The bronze altar which had been made by Bezalel, the son of Uri and grandson of Hur, was also in Gibeon in front of the Tent of the LORD's presence. King Solomon and all the people worshipped the LORD there. ₆In front of the Tent the king worshipped the LORD by offering sacrifices on the bronze altar; he had a thousand animals killed and burnt whole on it.

₇That night God appeared to Solomon and asked, “What would you like me to give you?”

₈Solomon answered, “You always showed great love for my father David, and now you have let me succeed him as king. ₉O LORD God, fulfil the promise you made to my father. You have made me king over a people who are so many that they cannot be counted, ₁₀so give me the wisdom and knowledge I need to rule over them. Otherwise, how would I ever be able to rule this great people of yours?”

₁₁God replied to Solomon, “You have made the right choice. Instead of asking for wealth or treasure or fame or the death of your enemies or even for long life for yourself, you have asked for wisdom and knowledge so that you can rule my people, over whom I have made you king. ₁₂I will give you wisdom and knowledge. And in addition, I will give you more wealth, treasure, and fame than any king has ever had before or will ever have again.”

₁₃So Solomon left the place of worship at Gibeon, where the Tent of the LORD's presence was, and returned to Jerusalem. There he ruled over Israel. ₁₄He built up a force of 1,400 chariots and 12,000 cavalry horses. Some of them he kept in Jerusalem, and the rest he stationed in various other cities. ₁₅During his reign silver and gold became as common in Jerusalem as stone, and cedar was as plentiful as ordinary sycomore. ₁₆The king's agents controlled the export of horses from Musri and Cilicia, ₁₇and the export of chariots from Egypt. They supplied the Hittite and Syrian kings with horses and chariots, selling chariots for 600 pieces of silver each and horses for 150 each.

₁King Solomon decided to build a temple where the LORD would be worshipped, and also to build a palace for himself. ₂He put 70,000 men to work transporting materials, and 80,000 to work quarrying stone. There were 3,600 others responsible for supervising the work.

₃Solomon sent a message to King Hiram of Tyre: “Do business with me as you did with my father, King David, when you sold him cedar logs for building his palace. ₄I am building a temple to honour the LORD my God. It will be a holy place where my people and I will worship him by burning incense of fragrant spices, where we will present offerings of sacred bread to him continuously, and where we will offer burnt offerings every morning and evening, as well as on Sabbaths, New Moon Festivals, and other holy days honouring the LORD our God. He has commanded Israel to do this for ever. ₅I intend to build a great temple, because our God is greater than any other god. ₆Yet no one can really build a temple for God, because even all the vastness of heaven cannot contain him. How then can I build a temple that would be anything more than a place to burn incense to God? ₇Now send me a man with skill in engraving, in working gold, silver, bronze, and iron, and in making blue, purple and red cloth. He will work with the craftsmen of Judah and Jerusalem whom my father David selected. ₈I know how skilful your woodmen are, so send me cedar, cypress, and juniper logs from Lebanon. I am ready to send my men to assist yours ₉in preparing large quantities of timber, because this temple I intend to build will be large and magnificent. ₁₀As provisions for your workmen, I will send you 2,000 tonnes of wheat, 2,000 tonnes of barley, 400,000 litres of wine, and 400,000 litres of olive oil.”

₁₁King Hiram sent Solomon a letter in reply. He wrote, “Because the LORD loves his people, he has made you their king. ₁₂Praise the LORD God of Israel, Creator of heaven and earth! He has given King David a wise son, full of understanding and skill, who now plans to build a temple for the LORD and a palace for himself. ₁₃I am sending you a wise and skilful master craftsman named Huram. ₁₄His mother was a member of the tribe of Dan and his father was a native of Tyre. He knows how to make things out of gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood. He can work with blue, purple, and red cloth, and with linen. He can do all sorts of engraving and can follow any design suggested to him. Let him work with your skilled workers and with those who worked for your father, King David. ₁₅So now send us the wheat, barley, wine, and olive oil that you promised. ₁₆In the mountains of Lebanon we will cut down all the cedars you need, bind them together in rafts, and float them by sea as far as Joppa. From there you can take them to Jerusalem.”

₁₇King Solomon took a census of all the foreigners living in the land of Israel, similar to the census his father David had taken. There were 153,600 resident foreigners. ₁₈He assigned 70,000 of them to transport materials and 80,000 to cut stones in the mountains, and appointed 3,600 supervisors to make sure the work was done.

₁King David, Solomon's father, had already prepared a place for the Temple. It was in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared to David, the place which Araunah the Jebusite had used as a threshing place. King Solomon began the construction ₂in the second month of the fourth year that he was king. ₃The Temple which King Solomon built was 27 metres long and nine metres wide. ₄The entrance room was the full width of the Temple, nine metres, and was 54 metres high. The inside of the room was overlaid with pure gold. ₅The main room was panelled with cedar and overlaid with fine gold, in which were worked designs of palm trees and chain patterns. ₆The king decorated the Temple with beautiful precious stones and with gold imported from the land of Parvaim. ₇He used the gold to overlay the temple walls, the rafters, the thresholds, and the doors. On the walls the workers carved designs of winged creatures. ₈The inner room, called the Most Holy Place, was nine metres long and nine metres wide, which was the full width of the Temple. Over twenty tonnes of gold were used to cover the walls of the Most Holy Place; ₉570 grammes of gold were used for making nails, and the walls of the upper rooms were also covered with gold.

₁₀The king also ordered his workers to make two winged creatures out of metal, cover them with gold, and place them in the Most Holy Place, _11-13where they stood side by side facing the entrance. Each had two wings, each wing 2.2 metres long, which were spread out so that they touched each other in the centre of the room and reached the wall on either side of the room, stretching across the full width of about nine metres. ₁₄A curtain for the Most Holy Place was made of linen and of other material, which was dyed blue, purple, and red, with designs of the winged creatures worked into it.

₁₅The king made two columns, each one 15.5 metres tall, and placed them in front of the Temple. Each one had a capital 2.2 metres tall. ₁₆The tops of the columns were decorated with a design of interwoven chains and 100 bronze pomegranates. ₁₇The columns were set at the sides of the temple entrance: the one on the south side was named Jachin, and the one on the north side was named Boaz.

₁King Solomon had a bronze altar made, which was nine metres square and 4.5 metres high. ₂He also made a round tank of bronze, 2.2 metres deep, 4.5 metres in diameter, and 13.2 metres in circumference. ₃All round the outer edge of the rim of the tank were two rows of decorations, one above the other. The decorations were in the shape of bulls, which had been cast all in one piece with the rest of the tank. ₄The tank rested on the backs of twelve bronze bulls that faced outwards, three facing in each direction. ₅The sides of the tank were 75 millimetres thick. Its rim was like the rim of a cup, curving outwards like the petals of a flower. The tank held about 60,000 litres. ₆They also made ten basins, five to be placed on the south side of the Temple and five on the north side. They were to be used to rinse the parts of the animals that were burnt as sacrifices. The water in the large tank was for the priests to use for washing.

_7-8They made ten gold lampstands according to the usual pattern, and ten tables, and placed them in the main room of the Temple, five lampstands and five tables on each side. They also made a hundred gold bowls.

₉They made an inner courtyard for the priests, and also an outer courtyard. The doors in the gates between the courtyards were covered with bronze. ₁₀The tank was placed near the south-east corner of the Temple.

_11-16Huram also made pots, shovels, and bowls. He completed all the objects that he had promised King Solomon he would make for the Temple:

₁₇The king had them all made in the foundry between Sukkoth and Zeredah in the Jordan Valley. ₁₈So many objects were made that no one determined the total weight of the bronze used.

₁₉King Solomon also had gold furnishings made for the Temple: the altar and the tables for the bread offered to God; ₂₀the lampstands and the lamps of fine gold that were to burn in front of the Most Holy Place, according to plan; ₂₁the flower decorations, the lamps, and the tongs; ₂₂the lamp snuffers, the bowls, the dishes for incense, and the pans used for carrying live coals. All these objects were made of pure gold. The outer doors of the Temple and the doors to the Most Holy Place were overlaid with gold.

₁When King Solomon finished all the work on the Temple, he placed in the temple storerooms all the things that his father David had dedicated to the LORD — the silver, gold, and other articles.

₂Then King Solomon summoned all the leaders of the tribes and clans of Israel to assemble in Jerusalem, in order to take the LORD's Covenant Box from Zion, David's City, to the Temple. ₃They all assembled at the time of the Festival of Shelters. ₄When all the leaders had gathered, then the Levites lifted the Covenant Box ₅and carried it to the Temple. The priests and the Levites also moved the Tent of the LORD's presence and all its equipment to the Temple. ₆King Solomon and all the people of Israel assembled in front of the Covenant Box and sacrificed a large number of sheep and cattle — too many to count. ₇Then the priests carried the Covenant Box of the LORD into the Temple and put it in the Most Holy Place, beneath the winged creatures. ₈Their outstretched wings covered the Box and the carrying poles. ₉The ends of the poles could be seen by anyone standing directly in front of the Most Holy Place, but from nowhere else. (The poles are still there today.) ₁₀There was nothing inside the Covenant Box except the two stone tablets which Moses had placed there at Mount Sinai, when the LORD made a covenant with the people of Israel as they were coming from Egypt.

_11-14All the priests present, regardless of the group to which they belonged, had consecrated themselves. And all the Levite musicians — Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, and the members of their clans — were wearing linen clothing. The Levites stood near the east side of the altar with cymbals and harps, and with them were 120 priests playing trumpets. The singers were accompanied in perfect harmony by trumpets, cymbals, and other instruments, as they praised the LORD, singing:

As the priests were leaving the Temple, it was suddenly filled with a cloud shining with the dazzling light of the LORD's presence, and they could not continue the service of worship.