11 And Solomon, the son of David, made himself strong in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him, and made him very great. 2 And Solomon sent word to all Israel, to the captains of thousands and of hundreds and to the judges and to every chief in all Israel, heads of their families. 3 Then Solomon, and all the men of Israel with him, went to the high place at Gibeon, because the Tent of meeting of God, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, had made in the waste land, was there. 4 But the ark of God had been moved by David from Kiriath-jearim to the place which he had made ready for it, for he had put up a tent for it at Jerusalem. 5 And the altar of brass which Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, was there before the Tent of the Lord; and Solomon and all the people went to give worship there. 6 And Solomon went up there to the brass altar before the Lord at the Tent of meeting, offering on it a thousand burned offerings. 7 In that night God came to Solomon in a vision, and said to him, Say what I am to give you. 8 And Solomon said to God, Great was your mercy to David my father, and you have made me king in his place. 9 Now, O Lord God, let your word to David my father come true; for you have made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in number. 10 Give me now wisdom and knowledge, so that I may go out and come in before this people: for who is able to be the judge of this great people of yours? 11 And God said to Solomon, Because this was in your heart, and you did not make request for money, property, or honour, or for the destruction of your haters, or for long life; but you have made request for wisdom and knowledge for yourself, so that you may be the judge of my people over whom I have made you king: 12 Wisdom and knowledge are given to you; and I will give you wealth and honour, such as no king has had before you or ever will have after you.
13 So Solomon went back from the high place at Gibeon, from before the Tent of meeting, to Jerusalem; and he was king over Israel.
14 And Solomon got together war-carriages and horsemen; he had one thousand, four hundred carriages and twelve thousand horsemen, which he kept, some in the carriage-towns and some with the king at Jerusalem. 15 And the king made silver and gold as common as stones in Jerusalem, and cedar like the sycamore-trees of the lowland in number. 16 And Solomon's horses came out of Egypt; the king's traders got them from Kue at a price. 17 A war-carriage might be got from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty: they got them at the same rate for all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram.
21 Now it was Solomon's purpose to put up a house for the name of the Lord and a house for himself as king. 2 And Solomon had seventy thousand men numbered for transport, and eighty thousand for cutting stone in the mountains, and three thousand, six hundred as overseers. 3 And Solomon sent to Huram, king of Tyre, saying, As you did for my father David, sending him cedar-trees for the building of his house, 4 See! I am building a house for the name of the Lord my God, to be made holy to him, where perfumes of sweet spices will be burned before him, and the holy bread will be placed at all times, and burned offerings will be offered morning and evening, on the Sabbaths and at the new moons, and on the regular feasts of the Lord our God. This is a law for ever to Israel. 5 And the house which I am building is to be great, for our God is greater than all gods. 6 But who may have strength enough to make a house for him, seeing that the heaven and the heaven of heavens are not wide enough to be his resting-place? who am I then to make a house for him? But I am building it only for the burning of perfume before him. 7 So now send me an expert worker in gold and silver and brass and iron? in purple and red and blue, and in the cutting of all sorts of ornament, to be with the expert workmen who are here in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom my father David got together. 8 And send me cedar-trees, cypress-trees and sandal-wood from Lebanon, for, to my knowledge, your servants are expert wood-cutters in Lebanon; and my servants will be with yours, 9 To get trees for me in great numbers, for the house which I am building is to be great and a wonder. 10 And I will give as food to your servants, the wood-cutters, twenty thousand measures of grain, and twenty thousand measures of barley and twenty thousand measures of wine and twenty thousand measures of oil.
11 Then Huram, king of Tyre, sent Solomon an answer in writing, saying, Because of his love for his people the Lord has made you king over them. 12 And Huram said, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, maker of heaven and earth, who has given to David the king a wise son, full of wisdom and good sense, to be the builder of a house for the Lord and a house for himself as king. 13 And now I am sending you a wise and expert man, Huram who is as my father, 14 The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, whose father was a man of Tyre, an expert worker in gold and silver and brass and iron, in stone and wood, in purple and blue and fair linen and red, trained in the cutting of every sort of ornament and the invention of every sort of design; let him be given a place among your expert workmen and those of my lord, your father David. 15 So now let my lord send to his servants the grain and the oil and the wine as my lord has said; 16 And we will have wood cut from Lebanon, as much as you have need of, and will send it to you on flat boats by sea to Joppa, and from there you may take it up to Jerusalem. 17 Then Solomon took the number of all the men from strange lands who were living in Israel, as his father David had done; there were a hundred and fifty-three thousand, six hundred. 18 Seventy thousand he put to the work of transport, eighty thousand to cutting stone in the mountains, and three thousand, six hundred as overseers to put the people to work.
31 Then Solomon made a start at building the house of the Lord on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, where the Lord had been seen by his father David, in the place which David had made ready in the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 2 The building was started in the second month in the fourth year of his rule. 3 And Solomon put the base of the house of God in position; by the older measure it was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. 4 And the covered way in front of the house was twenty cubits long, as wide as the house, and a hundred and twenty cubits high, all plated inside with the best gold. 5 And the greater house was roofed with cypress-wood, plated with the best gold and ornamented with designs of palm-trees and chains. 6 And the house was made beautiful with stones of great value, and the gold was gold of Parvaim. 7 All the house was plated with gold, the supports, the steps, the walls and the doors; and the walls were ornamented with designs of winged ones. 8 And he made the most holy place; it was twenty cubits long, and twenty cubits wide, like the greater house, and was plated all over with the best gold; six hundred talents were used for it. 9 And fifty shekels weight of gold was used for the nails. He had all the higher rooms plated with gold.
10 And in the most holy place he made images of two winged beings, covering them with gold. 11 Their outstretched wings were twenty cubits across; one wing, five cubits long, touching the wall of the house, and the other, of the same size, meeting the wing of the other winged one. 12 And in the same way, the wings of the other, five cubits long, were stretched out, one touching the wall and the other meeting the wing of the first winged one. 13 Their outstretched wings were twenty cubits across; they were placed upright on their feet, facing the inner part of the house. 14 And he made the veil of blue and purple and red, of the best linen, worked with winged ones.
15 And in front of the house he made two pillars, thirty-five cubits high, with crowns on the tops of them, five cubits high. 16 And he made chains, like neck ornaments, and put them on the tops of the pillars, and a hundred apples on the chains. 17 He put up the pillars in front of the Temple, one on the right side and one on the left, naming the one on the right Jachin and that on the left Boaz.
41 Then he made a brass altar, twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high. 2 And he made the great water-vessel of metal, round in form, measuring ten cubits across from edge to edge; it was five cubits high and thirty cubits round. 3 And under it was a design of flowers all round it, ten to a cubit, circling the water-vessel in two lines; they were made from liquid metal at the same time as the water-vessel. 4 It was supported on twelve oxen, three facing to the north, three to the west, three to the south, and three to the east, the water-vessel resting on top of them; their back parts were all turned to the middle of it. 5 It was as thick as a man's open hand, and the edge of it was curved like the edge of a cup, like a lily flower; it would take three thousand baths. 6 And he made ten washing-vessels, putting five on the right side and five on the left; such things as were used in making the burned offering were washed in them; but the great water-vessel was to be used by the priests for washing themselves. 7 And he made the ten gold supports for the lights, as directions had been given for them, and he put them in the Temple, five on the right side and five on the left. 8 He made ten tables, and put them in the Temple, five on the right side and five on the left. And he made a hundred gold basins. 9 Then he made the open space for the priests, and the great open space and its doors, plating the doors with brass. 10 He put the great water-vessel on the right side of the house to the east, facing south.
11 And Huram made all the pots and the spades and the basins. So he came to the end of all the work he did for King Solomon in the house of God: 12 The two pillars, and the two crowns on the tops of the pillars, and the network covering the two cups of the crowns on the tops of the pillars; 13 And the four hundred apples for the network, two lines of apples for the network covering the two cups of the crowns on the pillars. 14 And he made the ten bases and the ten washing-vessels which were on the bases; 15 The great water-vessel with the twelve oxen under it. 16 All the pots and the spades and the meat-hooks and their vessels, which Huram, who was as his father, made for King Solomon for the house of the Lord, were of polished brass. 17 The king made them of liquid metal in the lowland of Jordan, in the soft earth between Succoth and Zeredah. 18 So Solomon made all these vessels, a very great store of them, and the weight of the brass used was not measured. 19 And Solomon made all the vessels used in the house of God, the gold altar and the tables on which the holy bread was placed, 20 And the supports for the lights with their lights, to be burning in the regular way in front of the inmost room, of the best gold; 21 The flowers and the vessels for the lights and the instruments used for them, were all of gold; it was the best gold. 22 The scissors and the basins and the spoons and the fire-trays, of the best gold; and the inner doors of the house, opening into the most holy place, and the doors of the Temple, were all of gold.
