Solomon Builds His Royal Palace

Chapter 7.

But Solomon spent thirteen years building his own palace, until he had finished all of it. He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon: about 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, 45 feet high, on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams atop them. Above, it was roofed with cedar over the chambers that rested on the pillars, forty-five in all, fifteen to a row. There were window frames in three rows, with window facing window in three tiers. All the doorways and doorposts had rectangular frames, with window facing window in three tiers. He made the Hall of Pillars, about seventy-five feet long and forty-five wide, with a porch in front, pillars, and a canopy before them. He made the Hall of the Throne, where he judged — the Hall of Justice — paneled in cedar from floor to ceiling. His residence, in the other courtyard behind the hall, matched that workmanship. Solomon also built a similar house for Pharaoh's daughter, whom he had married. All these were costly stones, cut to measure and sawed inside and outside, from foundation to coping, and outward to the great courtyard. The foundation was costly stones, huge stones, some about fifteen feet long, some about twelve feet long. Above were costly stones, cut to size, and cedar timber. The great courtyard, all around, had three rows of dressed stone and a row of cut cedar beams, like the inner courtyard of our Father's house and its portico.

Bronze for the Father's House

King Solomon sent to Tyre and brought back Hiram, His mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali; his father, a Tyrian craftsman in bronze. Hiram was full of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge to do all bronze work. He came to King Solomon and did all the king's work. He cast two bronze pillars, each twenty-seven feet high, with an eighteen-foot cord around it. He made two cast-bronze capitals to top the pillars, each about seven and a half feet high. Latticework nets and chain-wreaths adorned each pillar's capital — seven on one, seven on the other. He made the pillars, two rows of pomegranates around each network, covering the capitals on top—same for both capitals. Capitals atop the pillars in the porch were shaped like lilies, about six feet high. On both pillars' capitals, above the curve beside the network, were two hundred pomegranates in rows around each capital. He set up the pillars at the temple porch, naming the south one Jachin and the north one Boaz. ^a On top of the pillars was the lily design. So the work of the pillars was finished.

He made the Sea of cast metal, round, about fifteen feet from rim to rim, about seven and a half feet high; a forty-five-foot line circled it. Below the rim, gourds encircled it, ten per foot and a half, all around the Sea; cast in two rows, one piece with it. The Sea stood on twelve oxen: three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, three facing east, hindquarters inward. It was three inches thick; its rim, like a cup's, flared like a lily blossom. It held twelve thousand gallons.

He made ten bronze stands, each six feet long, six feet wide, four and a half feet high. This was how the stands were made: they had panels set between the uprights. On the panels between the uprights were lions, oxen, and cherubim, with hammered wreaths above and below them. Each stand had four bronze wheels and bronze axles; its four legs had supports cast beneath the basin, with wreaths beside each one. Its opening was inside the crown, rising a cubit above it, round, shaped like a pedestal, a cubit and a half wide, carved around it; its panels were square, not round. Four wheels sat beneath the panels; their axles were joined to the stand—each wheel about twenty-seven inches high. The wheels were made like chariot wheels: axles, rims, spokes, hubs—all cast metal. Each stand had four handles, one at each corner, projecting from the stand itself. At the top of each stand was a round rim nine inches deep; at its top, the supports and panels were one piece with it. On the supports' surfaces and panels he engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, wherever there was space, with wreaths all around. That is how he made the ten stands: one casting, one size, one shape for all.

He made ten bronze basins, each holding about 240 gallons and about six feet across—one for each of the ten stands. He put five stands on the temple's south side, five on the north, and the Sea at its southeast corner.

Hiram made the pots, shovels, and bowls. He finished all the work he did for King Solomon on the house of our Father: the two pillars; the two bowl-shaped capitals atop the pillars; the two networks covering the two bowl-shaped capitals atop the pillars; 400 pomegranates for the two lattices, two rows each, covering the two bowl-shaped capitals atop the pillars. the ten stands with their ten basins; the one Sea with the twelve oxen beneath it; The pots, shovels, and bowls—all these objects Hiram made for King Solomon, for the house of our Father—were polished bronze. The king cast them in clay molds in the Jordan plain, between Succoth and Zarethan. Solomon left all the objects unweighed—there were so many—the bronze's weight was never determined.

Solomon made all the furnishings for the house of our Father: the golden altar and the golden table holding the bread of the Presence. The lampstands—five on the south, five on the north, before the inner sanctuary—of pure gold; the flowers, lamps, and tongs, of gold. Basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes, and firepans of pure gold; gold sockets for the doors of the innermost room, the Most Holy Place, and for the doors of the main hall of the temple.

When King Solomon finished all the work for the house of our Father, he brought in what his father David had dedicated — the silver, gold, and furnishings — and put them in the storerooms of the house of our Father.

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1 Kings 7

Solomon Builds His Royal Palace

Bronze for the Father's House

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