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1 Kings 7: Solomon’s Temple and Palace – Clear & Engaging Audio Bible Reading | The Magnificence of Solomon’s Building Projects
Immerse yourself in the Bible’s rich history with this clear and engaging audio recording of 1 Kings 7. This chapter describes the magnificence of King Solomon’s temple and palace building projects, including their impressive dimensions and lavish decoration. Follow along as the Scriptures come alive, and learn about the ingenuity, wealth, and artistic skill of Solomon’s reign. Perfect for study, reflection, or meditation.
1 KINGS 7 (NIV)
1 It took Solomon thirteen years, however, to complete the construction of his
palace.
2 He built the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon a hundred cubits long,
fifty wide and thirty high, with four rows of cedar columns supporting trimmed
cedar beams.
3 It was roofed with cedar above the beams that rested on the
columns—forty-five beams, fifteen to a row.
4 Its windows were placed high in
sets of three, facing each other.
5 All the doorways had rectangular frames;
they were in the front part in sets of three, facing each other.
6 He made a colonnade fifty cubits long and thirty wide. In front of it was a
portico, and in front of that were pillars and an overhanging roof.
7 He built the throne hall, the Hall of Justice, where he was to judge, and he
covered it with cedar from floor to ceiling.
8 And the palace in which he was
to live, set farther back, was similar in design. Solomon also made a palace
like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had married.
9 All these structures, from the outside to the great courtyard and from
foundation to eaves, were made of blocks of high-grade stone cut to size and
smoothed on their inner and outer faces.
10 The foundations were laid with
large stones of good quality, some measuring ten cubits and some eight.
11
Above were high-grade stones, cut to size, and cedar beams.
12 The great
courtyard was surrounded by a wall of three courses of dressed stone and one
course of trimmed cedar beams, as was the inner courtyard of the temple of the
Lord with its portico.
13 King Solomon sent to Tyre and brought Huram,
14 whose mother was a widow
from the tribe of Naphtali and whose father was from Tyre and a skilled
craftsman in bronze. Huram was filled with wisdom, with understanding and with
knowledge to do all kinds of bronze work. He came to King Solomon and did all
the work assigned to him.
15 He cast two bronze pillars, each eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in
circumference.
16 He also made two capitals of cast bronze to set on the tops
of the pillars; each capital was five cubits high.
17 A network of interwoven
chains adorned the capitals on top of the pillars, seven for each capital.
18
He made pomegranates in two rows encircling each network to decorate the
capitals on top of the pillars. He did the same for each capital.
19 The
capitals on top of the pillars in the portico were in the shape of lilies,
four cubits high.
20 On the capitals of both pillars, above the bowl-shaped
part next to the network, were the two hundred pomegranates in rows all
around.
21 He erected the pillars at the portico of the temple. The pillar to
the south he named Jakin and the one to the north Boaz.
22 The capitals on top
were in the shape of lilies. And so the work on the pillars was completed.
23 He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from
rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure
around it.
24 Below the rim, gourds encircled it—ten to a cubit. The gourds
were cast in two rows in one piece with the Sea.
25 The Sea stood on twelve bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three
facing south and three facing east. The Sea rested on top of them, and their
hindquarters were toward the center.
26 It was a handbreadth in thickness, and
its rim was like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held two thousand
baths.
27 He also made ten movable stands of bronze; each was four cubits long, four
wide and three high.
28 This is how the stands were made: They had side panels
attached to uprights.
29 On the panels between the uprights were lions, bulls
and cherubim—and on the uprights as well. Above and below the lions and bulls
were wreaths of hammered work.
30 Each stand had four bronze wheels with
bronze axles, and each had a basin resting on four supports, cast with wreaths
on each side.
31 On the inside of the stand there was an opening that had a
circular frame one cubit deep. This opening was round, and with its basework
it measured a cubit and a half. Around its opening there was engraving. The
panels of the stands were square, not round.
32 The four wheels were under the
panels, and the axles of the wheels were attached to the stand. The diameter
of each wheel was a cubit and a half.
33 The wheels were made like chariot
wheels; the axles, rims, spokes and hubs were all of cast metal.
34 Each stand had four handles, one on each corner, projecting from the stand.
35 At the top of the stand there was a circular band half a cubit deep. The
supports and panels were attached to the top of the stand.
36 He engraved
cherubim, lions and palm trees on the surfaces of the supports and on the
panels, in every available space, with wreaths all around.
37 This is the way
he made the ten stands. They were all cast in the same molds and were
identical in size and shape.
38 He then made ten bronze basins, each holding forty baths and measuring four
cubits across, one basin to go on each of the ten stands.
39 He placed five of
the stands on the south side of the temple and five on the north. He placed
the Sea on the south side, at the southeast corner of the temple.
40 He also
made the pots and shovels and sprinkling bowls.
So Huram finished all the work he had undertaken for King Solomon in the
temple of the Lord:
41 the two pillars;
the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars;
the two sets of network decorating the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the
pillars;
42 the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of network (two rows of
pomegranates for each network decorating the bowl-shaped capitals on top of
the pillars);
43 the ten stands with their ten basins;
44 the Sea and the twelve bulls under it;
45 the pots, shovels and sprinkling bowls.
All these objects that Huram made for King Solomon for the temple of the Lord
were of burnished bronze.
46 The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain
of the Jordan between Sukkoth and Zarethan.
47 Solomon left all these things
unweighed, because there were so many; the weight of the bronze was not
determined.
48 Solomon also made all the furnishings that were in the Lord’s temple:
the golden altar;
the golden table on which was the bread of the Presence;
49 the lampstands of pure gold (five on the right and five on the left, in
front of the inner sanctuary);
the gold floral work and lamps and tongs;
50 the pure gold basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes and censers;
and the gold sockets for the doors of the innermost room, the Most Holy Place,
and also for the doors of the main hall of the temple.
51 When all the work King Solomon had done for the temple of the Lord was
finished, he brought in the things his father David had dedicated—the silver
and gold and the furnishings—and he placed them in the treasuries of the
Lord’s temple.