Solomon Builds the House of the LORD

6¹ In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year that Solomon was king of Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, the building of the Lord's house was started. ² The house which Solomon made for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. ³ The covered way before the Temple of the house was twenty cubits long, as wide as the house, and ten cubits wide in front of the house. ⁴ And for the house he made windows, with network across. ⁵ And against the walls all round, and against the walls of the Temple and of the inmost room, he put up wings, with side rooms all round: ⁶ The lowest line of them being five cubits wide, the middle six cubits wide and the third seven cubits; for there was a space all round the outside walls of the house so that the boards supporting the rooms did not have to be fixed in the walls of the house. ⁷ (And the stones used in the building of the house were squared at the place where they were cut out; there was no sound of hammer or axe or any iron instrument while they were building the house.) ⁸ The door to the lowest side rooms was in the right side of the house; and they went up by twisting steps into the middle rooms, and from the middle into the third. ⁹ So he put up the house and made it complete, roofing it with boards of cedar-wood. ¹⁰ And he put up the line of side rooms against the walls of the house, fifteen cubits high, resting against the house on boards of cedar-wood.

¹¹ (And the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying, ¹² About this house which you are building: if you will keep my laws and give effect to my decisions and be guided by my rules, I will give effect to my word which I gave to David your father. ¹³ And I will be ever among the children of Israel, and will not go away from my people. ¹⁴ So Solomon made the building of the house complete.)

¹⁵ The walls of the house were covered inside with cedar-wood boards; from the floor to the roof of the house they were covered inside with wood; and the floor was covered with boards of cypress-wood. ¹⁶ And at the back of the house a further space of twenty cubits was shut in with boards of cedar-wood, for the inmost room. ¹⁷ And the house, that is, the Temple, in front of the holy place was forty cubits long. ¹⁸ (All the inside of the house was cedar-wood, ornamented with designs of buds and flowers; no stonework was to be seen inside.) ¹⁹ And he made ready an inmost room in the middle of the house, in which to put the ark of the agreement of the Lord. ²⁰ And the inmost room was twenty cubits square and twenty cubits high, plated over with clear gold, and he made an altar of cedar-wood, plating it with gold. ²¹ Solomon had all the inside of the house covered with gold, and he put chains of gold across in front of the inmost room, which itself was covered with gold. ²² Plates of gold were put all through the house till it was covered completely (and the altar in the inmost room was all covered with gold). ²³ In the inmost room he made two winged beings of olive-wood, ten cubits high; ²⁴ With outstretched wings five cubits wide; the distance from the edge of one wing to the edge of the other was ten cubits. ²⁵ The two winged ones were ten cubits high, of the same size and form. ²⁶ The two of them were ten cubits high. ²⁷ These were placed inside the inner house, their outstretched wings touching the walls of the house, one touching one wall and one the other, while their other wings were touching in the middle. ²⁸ These winged ones were plated over with gold. ²⁹ And all the walls of the house inside and out were ornamented with forms of winged ones and palm-trees and open flowers. ³⁰ And the floor of the house was covered with gold, inside and out. ³¹ For the way into the inmost room he made doors of olive-wood, the arch and the door supports forming a five-sided opening. ³² On the olive-wood doors were cut designs of winged ones and palm-trees and open flowers, all of them, with the doors, plated with gold. ³³ Then he made pillars of olive-wood for the way into the Temple; the pillars were square: ³⁴ And two folding doors of cypress-wood, with two leaves. ³⁵ These were ornamented with designs of winged ones and palm-trees and open flowers, plated over with gold. ³⁶ And the inner space was walled with three lines of squared stones and a line of cedar-wood boards. ³⁷ In the fourth year the base of the house was put in its place, in the month Ziv. ³⁸ And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, the building of the house was complete in every detail, as it had been designed. So he was seven years building it.

Solomon's Other Buildings

7¹ Solomon was thirteen years building a house for himself till it was complete. ² And he made the house of the Woods of Lebanon, which was a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high, resting on four lines of cedar-wood pillars with cedar-wood supports on the pillars. ³ And it was covered with cedar over the forty-five supports which were on the pillars, fifteen in a line. ⁴ There were three lines of window-frames, window facing window in every line. ⁵ And all the doors and windows had square frames, with the windows facing one another in three lines. ⁶ And he made a covered room of pillars, fifty cubits long and thirty cubits wide, and ... with steps before it. ⁷ Then he made a covered room for his high seat when he gave decisions; this was the covered room of judging; it was covered with cedar-wood from floor to roof. ⁸ And the house for his living-place, the other open square in the covered room, was made in the same way. And then he made a house like it for Pharaoh's daughter, whom Solomon had taken as his wife. ⁹ All these buildings were made, inside and out, from base to crowning stone, and outside to the great walled square, of highly priced stone, cut to different sizes with cutting-instruments. ¹⁰ And the base was of great masses of highly priced stone, some ten cubits and some eight cubits square. ¹¹ Overhead were highly priced stones cut to measure, and cedar-wood. ¹² The great outer square all round was walled with three lines of squared stones and a line of cedar-wood boards, round about the open square inside the house of the Lord and the covered room of the king's house.

Solomon Employs Hiram of Tyre

¹³ Then King Solomon sent and got Hiram from Tyre. ¹⁴ He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass; he was full of wisdom and knowledge and an expert worker in brass. He came to King Solomon and did all his work for him. ¹⁵ He it was who made the two brass pillars; the first pillar was eighteen cubits high, and a line of twelve cubits went round it; and the second was the same. ¹⁶ And he made the two crowns to be put on the tops of the pillars, of brass made soft in the fire; the crowns were five cubits high. ¹⁷ There were nets of open-work for the crowns on the tops of the pillars, a net of open-work for one and a net of open-work for the other. ¹⁸ And he made ornaments of apples; and two lines of apples all round over the network, covering the crowns of the pillars, the two crowns in the same way. ¹⁹ The crowns on the tops of the pillars were ornamented with a design of flowers, and were four cubits across. ²⁰ And there were crowns on the two pillars near the round part by the network, and there were two hundred apples in lines round every crown. ²¹ He put up the pillars at the doorway of the Temple, naming the one on the right Jachin, and that on the left Boaz. ²² The tops of the pillars had a design of flowers; and the work of making the pillars was complete.

The Furnishings for the Temple

²³ And he made a great metal water-vessel ten cubits across from edge to edge, five cubits high and thirty cubits round. ²⁴ And under the edge of it, circling it all round for ten cubits, were two lines of flower buds, made together with it from liquid metal. ²⁵ It was supported on twelve oxen, with their back parts turned to the middle of it, three of them facing to the north, three to the west, three to the south, and three to the east; the vessel was resting on top of them. ²⁶ It was as thick as a man's open hand, and was curved like the edge of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it would take two thousand baths. ²⁷ And he made ten wheeled bases of brass; every one four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three cubits high. ²⁸ And the bases were made in this way; their sides were square, fixed in a framework; ²⁹ And on the square sides between the frames were lions, oxen, and winged ones; and the same on the frame; and over and under the lions and the oxen and the winged ones were steps. ³⁰ Every base had four wheels of brass, turning on brass rods, and their four angles had angle-plates under them; the angle-plates under the base were of metal, and there were ornaments at the side of every one. ³¹ The mouth of it inside the angle-plate was one cubit across; it was round like a pillar, a cubit and a half across; it had designs cut on it; the sides were square, not round. ³² The four wheels were under the frames, and the rods on which the wheels were fixed were in the base; the wheels were a cubit and a half high. ³³ The wheels were made like carriage-wheels, the rods on which they were fixed, the parts forming their edges, their rods and the middle points of them, were all formed out of liquid metal. ³⁴ And there were four angle-plates at the four angles of every base, forming part of the structure of the base. ³⁵ And at the top of the base there was a round vessel, half a cubit high; ³⁶ In the spaces of the flat sides and on the frames of them, he made designs of winged ones, lions, and palm-trees, with ornamented edges all round. ³⁷ All the ten bases were made in this way, after the same design, of the same size and form. ³⁸ And he made ten brass washing-vessels, everyone taking forty baths, and measuring four cubits; one vessel was placed on every one of the ten bases. ³⁹ And he put the bases by the house, five on the right side and five on the left; and he put the great water-vessel on the right side of the house, to the east, facing south. ⁴⁰ And Hiram made the pots and spades and the basins. So Hiram came to the end of all the work he did for King Solomon in the house of the Lord: ⁴¹ The two pillars and the two cups of the crowns which were on the tops of the two pillars; and the network covering the two cups of the crowns on the tops of the pillars, ⁴² And the four hundred apples for the network, two lines of apples for every network, covering the two cups of the crowns on the pillars; ⁴³ And the ten bases, with the ten washing-vessels on them; ⁴⁴ And the great water-vessel, with the twelve oxen under it; ⁴⁵ And the pots and the spades and the basins; all the vessels which Hiram made for King Solomon, for the house of the Lord, were of polished brass. ⁴⁶ He made them of liquid metal in the lowland of Jordan, at the way across the river, at Adama, between Succoth and Zarethan. ⁴⁷ The weight of all these vessels was not measured, because there was such a number of them; it was not possible to get the weight of the brass.

⁴⁸ And Solomon had all the vessels made for use in the house of the Lord: the altar of gold and the gold table on which the holy bread was placed; ⁴⁹ And the supports for the lights, five on the right side and five on the left before the inmost room, of clear gold; and the flowers and the lights and all the instruments of gold; ⁵⁰ And the cups and the scissors and the basins and the spoons and the fire-trays, all of gold; and the pins on which the doors were turned, the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and the doors of the Temple, all of gold. ⁵¹ So all the work King Solomon had done in the house of the Lord was complete. Then Solomon took the holy things which David his father had given, the silver and the gold and all the vessels, and put them in the store-houses of the house of the Lord.

The Question about the Resurrection

²⁷ And some of the Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no coming back from the dead; and they said to him, ²⁸ Master, Moses said that if a man's brother comes to his end, having a wife, but no children, his brother is to take the wife, and get a family for his brother. ²⁹ Now there were seven brothers, and the first had a wife and came to his end, having no children; ³⁰ And the second; ³¹ And the third took her; and in the same way, all the seven, without having any children, came to their end. ³² And last of all, the woman came to her end. ³³ When they come back from the dead, whose wife will she be? for all the seven had her. ³⁴ And Jesus said to them, The sons of this world are married and have wives; ³⁵ But those to whom is given the reward of the world to come, and to come back from the dead, have no wives, and are not married; ³⁶ And death has no more power over them, for they are equal to the angels, and are sons of God, being of those who will come back from the dead. ³⁷ But even Moses made it clear that the dead come back to life, saying, in the story of the burning thorn-tree, The Lord, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. ³⁸ Now he is not the God of the dead but of the living: for all men are living to him.

³⁹ And some of the scribes, in answer to this, said, Master, you have said well. ⁴⁰ And they had fear of putting any more questions to him.

The Question about David's Son

⁴¹ And he said to them, Why do they say that the Christ is the son of David? ⁴² For David himself says in the book of Psalms, The Lord said to my Lord, Take your seat at my right hand, ⁴³ Till I put under your feet all those who are against you. ⁴⁴ David then gives him the name of Lord, so how is it possible for him to be his son?

Jesus Denounces the Scribes

⁴⁵ And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, ⁴⁶ Keep away from the scribes, whose pleasure it is to go about in long robes, and to have words of respect said to them in the market-places, and to take the chief seats in the Synagogues and the first places at feasts; ⁴⁷ Who take the property of widows and before the eyes of men make long prayers; they will get a greater punishment.