Solomon’s Temple Complex – 1 Kings 6-7

Joy: You’re listening to Season 2 of the Lifting Her Voice podcast.   This is Episode #104 and today we’ll read 1 Kings chapters 6 & 7 together.   Let’s become familiar with every detail of Solomon’s Temple Complex.  

Welcome

Welcome to the Lifting Her Voice podcast, Season 2!  I’m your host, Joy Miller, and I invite you to grab your Bible and join me – from the beginning – simply reading God’s word together.  We built some spiritual muscles in 2020 with just the New Testament.  But this year we’re going all out, cover-to-cover, Old Testament and New.  So, whether with your first cup in the morning, your commute to work, or as the last thing on your mind before sleep, God’s Word will equip you for every good work.  I’m really glad you’re here!

Preface

Just a quick note for these two chapters.  As you know by now, it is much easier for me to have a picture to understand what I’m reading whenever the Lord has specifications for a project.  If that is you too, I have put a link to a You Tube video in the Show Notes to representations of Solomon’s Temple, his palace and the surrounding complex.  With that, let’s dive in.

1 Kings Chapter 6

Building the Temple

Solomon began to build the temple for the Lord in the four hundred eightieth year after the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of his reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month. The temple that King Solomon built for the Lord was ninety feet long, thirty feet wide, and forty-five feet high. The portico in front of the temple sanctuary was thirty feet long extending across the temple’s width, and fifteen feet deep in front of the temple. He also made windows with beveled frames for the temple.

He then built a chambered structure along the temple wall, encircling the walls of the temple, that is, the sanctuary and the inner sanctuary. And he made side chambers all around. The lowest chamber was 7½ feet wide, the middle was 9 feet wide, and the third was 10½ feet wide. He also provided offset ledges for the temple all around the outside so that nothing would be inserted into the temple walls. The temple’s construction used finished stones cut at the quarry so that no hammer, chisel, or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.

The door for the lowest side chamber was on the right side of the temple. They went up a stairway to the middle chamber, and from the middle to the third. When he finished building the temple, he paneled it with boards and planks of cedar. He built the chambers along the entire temple, joined to the temple with cedar beams; each story was 7½ feet high.

The Lord Repeated His Promise to Solomon

The word of the Lord came to Solomon: “As for this temple you are building — if you walk in my statutes, observe my ordinances, and keep all my commands by walking in them, I will fulfill my promise to you, which I made to your father David. I will dwell among the Israelites and not abandon my people Israel.”

Solomon Prepared the Inside of the Temple

When Solomon finished building the temple, he paneled the interior temple walls with cedar boards; from the temple floor to the surface of the ceiling he overlaid the interior with wood. He also overlaid the floor with cypress boards. Then he lined thirty feet of the rear of the temple with cedar boards from the floor to the surface of the ceiling, and he built the interior as an inner sanctuary, the most holy place. The temple, that is, the sanctuary in front of the most holy place, was sixty feet long. The cedar paneling inside the temple was carved with ornamental gourds and flower blossoms. Everything was cedar; not a stone could be seen.

He prepared the inner sanctuary inside the temple to put the ark of the Lord’s covenant there. The interior of the sanctuary was thirty feet long, thirty feet wide, and thirty feet high; he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid the cedar altar. Next, Solomon overlaid the interior of the temple with pure gold, and he hung gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary and overlaid it with gold. So he added the gold overlay to the entire temple until everything was completely finished, including the entire altar that belongs to the inner sanctuary.

The Holy of Holies

In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim 15 feet high out of olive wood. One wing of the first cherub was 7½ feet long, and the other wing was 7½ feet long. The wingspan was 15 feet from tip to tip. The second cherub also was 15 feet; both cherubim had the same size and shape. The first cherub’s height was 15 feet and so was the second cherub’s. Then he put the cherubim inside the inner temple. Since their wings were spread out, the first one’s wing touched one wall while the second cherub’s wing touched the other wall, and in the middle of the temple their wings were touching wing to wing. He also overlaid the cherubim with gold.

He carved all the surrounding temple walls with carved engravings — cherubim, palm trees, and flower blossoms — in the inner and outer sanctuaries. He overlaid the temple floor with gold in both the inner and the outer sanctuaries.

For the entrance of the inner sanctuary, he made olive wood doors. The pillars of the doorposts were five-sided. The two doors were made of olive wood. He carved cherubim, palm trees, and flower blossoms on them and overlaid them with gold, hammering gold over the cherubim and palm trees. In the same way, he made four-sided olive wood doorposts for the sanctuary entrance. The two doors were made of cypress wood; the first door had two folding sides, and the second door had two folding panels. He carved cherubim, palm trees, and flower blossoms on them and overlaid them with gold applied evenly over the carving. He built the inner courtyard with three rows of dressed stone and a row of trimmed cedar beams.

Seven Years to Build

The foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid in Solomon’s fourth year in the month of Ziv. In his eleventh year in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the temple was completed in every detail and according to every specification. So he built it in seven years.

1 Kings Chapter 7

Solomon’s Palace Complex

Solomon completed his entire palace complex after thirteen years of construction. He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon. It was one hundred fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams on top of the pillars. It was paneled above with cedar at the top of the chambers that rested on forty-five pillars, fifteen per row. There were three rows of window frames, facing each other in three tiers.

All the doors and doorposts had rectangular frames, the openings facing each other in three tiers. He made the hall of pillars seventy-five feet long and forty-five feet wide. A portico was in front of the pillars, and a canopy with pillars was in front of them. He made the Hall of the Throne where he would judge — the Hall of Judgment. It was paneled with cedar from the floor to the rafters. Solomon’s own palace where he would live, in the other courtyard behind the hall, was of similar construction.

And he made a house like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, his wife.

Costly Stones

All of these buildings were of costly stones, cut to size and sawed with saws on the inner and outer surfaces, from foundation to coping and from the outside to the great courtyard. The foundation was made of large, costly stones twelve and fifteen feet long.

Above were also costly stones, cut to size, as well as cedar wood. Around the great courtyard, as well as the inner courtyard of the Lord’s temple and the portico of the temple, were three rows of dressed stone and a row of trimmed cedar beams.

King Solomon had Hiram brought from Tyre. He was a widow’s son from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a bronze craftsman. Hiram had great skill, understanding, and knowledge to do every kind of bronze work. So he came to King Solomon and carried out all his work.

The Bronze Pillars

He cast two bronze pillars, each 27 feet high and 18 feet in circumference. He also made two capitals of cast bronze to set on top of the pillars; 7½ feet was the height of the first capital, and 7½ feet was also the height of the second capital. The capitals on top of the pillars had gratings of latticework, wreaths made of chainwork — seven for the first capital and seven for the second.

He made the pillars with two encircling rows of pomegranates on the one grating to cover the capital on top; he did the same for the second capital. And the capitals on top of the pillars in the portico were shaped like lilies, six feet high. The capitals on the two pillars were also immediately above the rounded surface next to the grating, and two hundred pomegranates were in rows encircling each capital. He set up the pillars at the portico of the sanctuary: he set up the right pillar and named it Jachin; then he set up the left pillar and named it Boaz. The tops of the pillars were shaped like lilies. Then the work of the pillars was completed.

The Basin

He made the cast metal basin, 15 feet from brim to brim, perfectly round. It was 7½ feet high and 45 feet in circumference. Ornamental gourds encircled it below the brim, ten every half yard, completely encircling the basin. The gourds were cast in two rows when the basin was cast. It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The basin was on top of them and all their hindquarters were toward the center. The basin was three inches thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup or of a lily blossom. It held eleven thousand gallons.

The Bronze Water Carts

Then he made ten bronze water carts. Each water cart was 6 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 4½ feet high. This was the design of the carts: They had frames; the frames were between the cross-pieces, and on the frames between the cross-pieces were lions, oxen, and cherubim. On the cross-pieces there was a pedestal above, and below the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging work. Each cart had four bronze wheels with bronze axles. Underneath the four corners of the basin were cast supports, each next to a wreath. And the water cart’s opening inside the crown on top was eighteen inches wide. The opening was round, made as a pedestal twenty-seven inches wide. On it were carvings, but their frames were square, not round.

There were four wheels under the frames, and the wheel axles were part of the water cart; each wheel was twenty-seven inches tall. The wheels’ design was similar to that of chariot wheels: their axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were all of cast metal. Four supports were at the four corners of each water cart; each support was one piece with the water cart. At the top of the cart was a band nine inches high encircling it; also, at the top of the cart, its braces and its frames were one piece with it. He engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees on the plates of its braces and on its frames, wherever each had space, with encircling wreaths. In this way he made the ten water carts using the same casting, dimensions, and shape for all of them.

Bronze Basins and Other Utensils

Then he made ten bronze basins — each basin held 220 gallons and each was six feet wide — one basin for each of the ten water carts. He set five water carts on the right side of the temple and five on the left side. He put the basin near the right side of the temple toward the southeast. Then Hiram made the basins, the shovels, and the sprinkling basins.

Completion of the Bronze Works

So Hiram finished all the work that he was doing for King Solomon on the Lord’s temple:

two pillars; bowls for the capitals that were on top of the two pillars; the two gratings for covering both bowls of the capitals that were on top of the pillars; the four hundred pomegranates for the two gratings (two rows of pomegranates for each grating covering both capitals’ bowls on top of the pillars); the ten water carts; the ten basins on the water carts; the basin; the twelve oxen underneath the basin; and the pots, shovels, and sprinkling basins.

All the utensils that Hiram made for King Solomon at the Lord’s temple were made of burnished bronze. The king had them cast in clay molds in the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Zarethan. Solomon left all the utensils unweighed because there were so many; the weight of the bronze was not determined.

Completion of the Gold Furnishings

Solomon also made all the equipment in the Lord’s temple: the gold altar; the gold table that the Bread of the Presence was placed on; the pure gold lampstands in front of the inner sanctuary, five on the right and five on the left; the gold flowers, lamps, and tongs; the pure gold ceremonial bowls, wick trimmers, sprinkling basins, ladles, and firepans; and the gold hinges for the doors of the inner temple (that is, the most holy place) and for the doors of the temple sanctuary.

So all the work King Solomon did in the Lord’s temple was completed. Then Solomon brought in the consecrated things of his father David — the silver, the gold, and the utensils — and put them in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple.

Close

In one of my searches, I came upon the impressive figure of over 604 trillion dollars for the Temple, just considering the gold and silver.  I didn’t do the math so take this number in your stride, but suffice it to say, this was a pretty impressive edifice.  I’m sad to tell you that you won’t find the temple today.  It was totally destroyed; the gold was stripped off and the building burned.  But that is another reading for another day.  

Isn’t it cool how God gifts us for everything He calls us to do?  I mean, even if David hadn’t had blood on his hands, he was an outdoors-y guy.  His wife (well…wives) would have had to remind him to wipe his feet and you could hear her screaming, “Don’t bring that dead thing in here!”  Solomon on the other hand seem a bit more genteel.  He had an artist’s eye.  I bet he knew before one timber was in place exactly what the Temple was gonna look like.  If I could afford him, I would have hired Solomon as my interior decorator.  Then again, knowing me, I probably would have been more comfortable in David’s house.  How about you?  Share your style at Lifting Her Voice.com, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

See You Tomorrow!

Thank you for joining me here today.  I pray that by spending time in His Word every day, you will by changed.  Visit me at Lifting Her Voice.com with your comments and questions.  And don’t forget to visit the Blog page while you’re there.  If you like the podcast, it would be great if you’d give it a five-star review and share it with everyone you know.  Don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.  See you tomorrow!

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Christian Standard Bible(r), Copyright (c) 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible(r) and CSB(r) are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.