Solomon builds his palace
1Solomon built his palace and after 13 years everything was finished. 2He built the Palace_of_the_Forest_of_Lebanon from wood that was 100 cubits long and 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high. There were 4 rows of cedar pillars, and on top of the pillars were cedar poles. 3-4There were 3 rooms on top of each other and each room had 3 rows of windows, 3 rows on one side and 3 rows on the other side. Under the roof were 45 pillars, 15 pillars in a row in each room. 5All the doors and their frames were square. There were 3 doors on one side and 3 doors on the other side.
6Solomon built a porch of pillars. The porch was 50 cubits long and 30 cubits wide. At the front there was a room with pillars and a roof. 7He built a throne-hall. It was the courtroom where he sat when he judged people. They covered the walls of the hall with cedar wood from the floor to the roof.
8The house where Solomon lived was at the back of the throne-hall and it looked the same as the throne-hall. He also built a house for Pharaoh's daughter after he had married her. Her house also looked like the throne-hall. 9They used special stones to build all the walls, inside and outside, from the foundation to the top. The workers had to cut all the stones where they took them out and they had to be as big as the king said. 10They also used special stones that were very big to build the foundations. Some stones were 10 cubits long and some were 8 cubits long. 11The walls of the foundation were built with expensive stones and cedar wood. 12The wall around the courtyard was built with 3 rows of stones and a row of cedar wood, and so were the inner courtyard of the temple and the porch where people went into the temple.
Huram does the bronze work in the temple
13King Solomon asked Huram of Tyre to come and work for him. 14Huram was the son of a widow from the Naphtali tribe and his father came from the city of Tyre. Huram was a carpenter who could work with bronze. He was a very good worker who knew how to do a lot of things with bronze. He came to King Solomon and worked for him.
15Huram made 2 bronze pillars. Each pillar was 18 cubits high and 12 cubits around. 16He made 2 beautiful bronze tops for the pillars. Each top was 5 cubits high. 17He made small chains that hung from the tops. There were 7 chains on each top 18and 2 rows of bronze pomegranates. 19The tops of the pillars in the porch looked like flowers and they were 4 cubits high. 20The beautiful tops were placed on top of the pillars. Around every top next to the chains where the flowers were thicker, there were 200 pomegranates in rows. 21Huram put the pillars upright at the porch of the temple. He named the pillar on the southern side Jakin and the pillar on the northern side Boaz. 22He put the bronze flowers on top of the pillars and then the work on the pillars was finished.
The bronze water-tank
23Huram made a round water-tank from bronze. It was 10 cubits wide, 5 cubits high and 30 cubits around. 24Below and around the top of the water-tank were 2 rows of gourds. There were 10 gourds on each cubit. Huram made the gourds when he made the water-tank. 25The water-tank stood on the images of 12 bulls. The bulls looked to the outside. 3 looked to the north, 3 to looked to the west, 3 looked to the south and 3 looked to the east. 26The side of the water-tank was one handbreadth thick and the rim was like the rim of a cup and it looked like a flower. The water-tank could hold 2 000 baths.
27Huram made 10 bronze wagons. Each wagon was 4 cubits long, 4 cubits wide and 3 cubits high. 28-36He made the wagons like this: On the sides of the wagons he carved out lions and bulls and cherub-angels. Above and below the lions and the bulls he carved out flowers. He made 4 bronze wheels with axles for each wagon. The 4 wheels and the axles were under the sides of the wagons. Each wheel was one and a half cubit high. The wheels looked like the wheels of a war-chariot and they were all made of bronze. The axles were also made of bronze and they were tied under the 4 corners. On top of the wagons were boxes in which the basins could stand. There were flowers carved out onto the sides of the boxes. The boxes were one cubit high, and the hole where the basin had to come was one and a half cubits wide. Around the hole there was a band half a cubit high. The sides of the boxes were square, not round. There were handles on each corner. Huram carved out cherub-angels and lions and palm trees on the sides of the boxes and on the handles.
37This is how Huram made the wagons. The wagons all looked the same. 38Huram made a basin from bronze for each wagon. Each basin held 40 baths and the top was 4 cubits wide. 39Huram put the wagons in front of the temple, 5 wagons on the southern side and 5 wagons on the northern side. He put the water-tank on the south-eastern side of the temple.
40Then Huram made basins and shovels and bowls. He finished all this work at the temple for King Solomon: 41It was the 2 pillars and the beautiful tops of the pillars and the chains, 42the 400 bronze pomegranates in 2 rows on the chains in front of the pillars, 43the 10 wagons and 10 basins on the wagons, 44the water-tank and the 12 bulls under the water-tank, 45pots and shovels and basins and all the tools of the temple. Huram made everything from shining bronze for King Solomon. 46He melted it all in the clay at the Jordan River between the towns of Sukkoth and Zarethan. 47Solomon did not weigh the bronze because it was too much to weigh.
48Solomon made everything else that had to be in the temple: it was the golden altar, the golden table where they had to put sacrificial bread, 49the golden lamp-stands, 5 lamp-stands on the right hand side and 5 on the left hand side in front of the most_holy room, the flowers and the lamps and the tongs, 50the basins, the lamp-snuffers, the bowls, the pans for incense-offerings and pans to carry burning coals. Everything was made of pure gold, and so were the hinges of the doors for the most_holy room and the front rooms of the temple.
51When they had finished all the work at the temple, all the work that King Solomon said they must do, they brought the gifts that his father David had given to the Lord. They put them in the store rooms of the temple. They were silver and gold and other gifts.
