1 Kings 7

¹ Solomon built his own house in thirteen years, and completed all of it.

² He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon: one hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high, on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams resting on the pillars.

³ It was roofed with cedar above, over the beams resting on the pillars—forty-five in all, fifteen in each row.

⁴ There were windows in three rows, window facing window, three times over.

⁵ All the doorways and doorframes were square, with window facing window, three times over.

⁶ He made the colonnade: fifty cubits long and thirty cubits wide. In front of it was another porch, with pillars and a canopy in front.

⁷ He made the throne hall, where he would judge—the Hall of Judgment—and covered it with cedar from floor to ceiling.

⁸ His residence, in the other courtyard behind the porch, was built in the same way. Solomon also built a house like this porch for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had married.

⁹ All these buildings were made of costly stones, cut to measure as dressed stones, sawn inside and out, from the foundation to the eaves, and outside as far as the great courtyard.

¹⁰ The foundation was made of costly stones, large stones—stones ten cubits long and stones eight cubits long.

¹¹ Above them were costly stones, cut to measure as dressed stones, along with cedar.

¹² The great courtyard all around had three rows of dressed stones and one row of cedar beams, like the inner courtyard of the house of the LORD and the porch of the house.

¹³ King Solomon sent for Hiram and brought him from Tyre.

¹⁴ He was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a bronze worker. He was full of wisdom, understanding, and skill for every kind of bronze work. He came to King Solomon and did all his work.

¹⁵ He cast two bronze pillars. Each pillar was eighteen cubits high, and a cord twelve cubits long went around each pillar.

¹⁶ He made two capitals of cast bronze to place on top of the pillars. One capital was five cubits high, and the other was five cubits high.

¹⁷ There were braided nets and chain-like garlands for the capitals on top of the pillars: seven for one capital and seven for the other.

¹⁸ He made the pillars with two rows of pomegranates around each net, covering the capitals on top with pomegranates. He did the same for the other capital.

¹⁹ The capitals on top of the pillars in the porch were shaped like lilies, four cubits high.

²⁰ On the capitals atop the two pillars, above the rounded part beside the net, there were two hundred pomegranates in rows all around each capital.

²¹ He set up the pillars at the porch of the sanctuary. He raised the pillar on the right and named it Jachin; he raised the pillar on the left and named it Boaz.

²² The tops of the pillars were shaped like lilies. That completed the work on the pillars.

²³ He made the cast bronze Sea, round in shape, ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. A cord thirty cubits long went around it.

²⁴ Below its rim, gourds encircled it, ten to a cubit, all around the Sea. The gourds were in two rows, cast in one piece with it.

²⁵ It stood on twelve oxen: three faced north, three west, three south, and three east. The Sea rested on them, and all their hindquarters faced inward.

²⁶ It was a handbreadth thick, and its rim was like the rim of a cup, shaped like a lily. It held two thousand baths.

²⁷ He made ten bronze stands. Each stand was four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three cubits high.

²⁸ This was how the stands were made: they had panels, and the panels were set between the crossbars.

²⁹ On the panels between the crossbars were lions, oxen, and cherubim. Above and below the lions and oxen, on the crossbars, were garlands in raised relief.

³⁰ Each stand had four bronze wheels and bronze axles, and its four feet had supports. Beneath the basin were cast supports, each beside a garland.

³¹ Its opening, inside the capital and above it, was one cubit wide. The opening was round, made like a pedestal, a cubit and a half wide. There were also engravings above the opening, but its panels were square, not round.

³² The four wheels were beneath the panels, and their axles were attached to the stand. Each wheel was a cubit and a half high.

³³ The wheels were made like chariot wheels; their axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were all cast.

³⁴ There were four supports at the four corners of each stand; the supports were part of the stand itself.

³⁵ At the top of each stand was a round ring, half a cubit high. Its fittings and panels at the top were part of the stand itself.

³⁶ On the plates of its fittings and panels he engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, wherever there was space, with garlands all around.

³⁷ That is how he made the ten stands: all cast in one piece, with the same measurements and the same shape.

³⁸ He made ten bronze basins. Each basin held forty baths and was four cubits across. There was one basin on each of the ten stands.

³⁹ He placed five stands along the right side of the house and five along the left. He placed the Sea on the right side of the house, toward the southeast.

⁴⁰ Hiram made the basins, shovels, and bowls. So Hiram finished all the work he was doing for King Solomon in the house of the LORD.

⁴¹ The two pillars; the two rounded capitals on top of the pillars; and the two nets covering the two rounded capitals on top of the pillars;

⁴² the four hundred pomegranates for the two nets, two rows of pomegranates for each net, covering the two rounded capitals on the pillars;

⁴³ the ten stands and the ten basins on the stands;

⁴⁴ the one Sea and the twelve oxen beneath it;

⁴⁵ the pots, shovels, and bowls. All these utensils that Hiram made for King Solomon for the house of the LORD were of polished bronze.

⁴⁶ The king had them cast in the plain of the Jordan, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan.

⁴⁷ Solomon left all the utensils unweighed because there were so many. The weight of the bronze was not determined.

⁴⁸ Solomon made all the furnishings in the house of the LORD: the gold altar and the gold table on which the Bread of the Presence was placed;

⁴⁹ the lampstands of refined gold, five on the right and five on the left, in front of the inner sanctuary; the flowers, lamps, and tongs were also of gold;

⁵⁰ the cups, wick trimmers, bowls, dishes, and fire pans were of refined gold; and the gold hinges for the doors of the inner house, the Most Holy Place, and for the doors of the main room, the sanctuary.

⁵¹ So all the work King Solomon did for the house of the LORD was completed. Solomon brought in the things David his father had dedicated—the silver, gold, and utensils—and placed them in the treasuries of the house of the LORD.

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