1 Kings 6

6 ¹ In the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of our Father. ² The house that King Solomon built for our Father was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. ³ The portico in front of the main hall of the house was twenty cubits long, corresponding to the width of the house, and ten cubits deep in front of the house. ⁴ And for the house he made windows with recessed frames.

The Side Chambers

⁵ Against the wall of the house he built a structure all around, against the walls of the house all around, both the main hall and the inner sanctuary; and he made side chambers all around. ⁶ The lowest story was five cubits wide, the middle six cubits wide, and the third seven cubits wide; for around the outside of the house he made offsets in the wall, so that the supporting beams would not be inserted into the walls of the house. ⁷ When the house was built, it was built with stone dressed at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any iron tool was heard in the house while it was being built. ⁸ The entrance to the lowest side chamber was on the south side of the house; and they went up by a stairway to the middle story, and from the middle to the third. ⁹ So he built the house and finished it, and he roofed the house with beams and planks of cedar. ¹⁰ He built the side structure against the whole house, each story five cubits high, and it was joined to the house with timbers of cedar.

The Father's Promise to Solomon

¹¹ Then the word of our Father came to Solomon, saying:

¹² As for this house you are building: if you walk in my statutes and carry out my ordinances and keep all my commandments by walking in them, then I will fulfill toward you my promise, the promise I made to David your father. ¹³ And I will dwell among the people of Israel, and I will not forsake my people Israel.

Within the Father's House

¹⁴ So Solomon built the house and finished it. ¹⁵ He lined the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar; from the floor of the house to the rafters of the ceiling he overlaid them with wood on the inside, and he covered the floor of the house with boards of cypress. ¹⁶ He built the twenty cubits at the rear of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the walls, and he set this apart within as the inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. ¹⁷ The house, that is, the main hall in front of the inner sanctuary, was forty cubits long. ¹⁸ The cedar inside the house was carved with gourds and open flowers; everything was cedar, and no stone could be seen. ¹⁹ He prepared the inner sanctuary within the house, to set there the ark of the covenant of our Father. ²⁰ The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high, and he overlaid it with pure gold; he also overlaid the altar, which was of cedar. ²¹ So Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold, and he drew chains of gold across the front of the inner sanctuary, which he overlaid with gold. ²² The whole house he overlaid with gold, until the entire house was finished; also the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold.

The Cherubim Over the Ark

²³ In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high. ²⁴ Five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing; it was ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. ²⁵ The other cherub also measured ten cubits; both cherubim had the same measure and the same form. ²⁶ The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so also was the other. ²⁷ He placed the cherubim in the innermost part of the house, and the wings of the cherubim were spread out, so that the wing of one touched the one wall and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall, while their wings touched one another in the middle of the house. ²⁸ And he overlaid the cherubim with gold.

²⁹ On all the walls of the house all around he carved engraved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, in the inner and outer rooms. ³⁰ The floor of the house he overlaid with gold, in the inner and outer rooms.

The Doors of the House

³¹ For the entrance to the inner sanctuary he made doors of olive wood; the lintel and the doorposts were five-sided. ³² The two doors were of olive wood, and on them he carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers; he overlaid them with gold and spread the gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees. ³³ So also for the entrance of the main hall he made doorposts of olive wood, four-sided, ³⁴ and two doors of cypress wood; the two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding. ³⁵ He carved on them cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold evenly applied over the carved work.

The Inner Court

³⁶ He built the inner court with three courses of dressed stone and one course of cedar beams.

³⁷ In the fourth year the foundation of the house of our Father was laid, in the month of Ziv. ³⁸ And in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its details and according to all its plans. So he spent seven years building it.