1Solomon spent thirteen years building his own palace, and he finished all of it.
2He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon. It was 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high, built on four rows of cedar pillars with cedar beams on top of the pillars.
3Cedarwood covered the top of the forty-five beams that rested on the pillars, arranged in fifteen beams per row.
4There were three rows of beams, and the windows faced each other in three tiers.
5All the doors and doorposts were made with square beams, and windows faced each other in three tiers.
6He built the Entrance Hall of Pillars. It was 75 feet long and 45 feet wide, with a porch in front of it, and pillars and a threshold at the front.
7He also made the Hall of the Throne, where he would judge, also known as the Hall of Judgment. It was covered with cedar from floor to ceiling.
8His own house, where he would live, had a similar design to the other courtyard inside the entrance hall. He also built a house for Pharaoh's daughter (whom Solomon had married), which was similar to this entrance hall.
9All these buildings were made from expensive, cut stones, measured and cut with saws, both inside and out. This applied from the foundation all the way up to the top, and also on the outside facing the large courtyard.
10The foundation was made of expensive, large stones, some ten cubits and others eight cubits in size.
11Above these large foundation stones were expensive, cut stones, accurately measured, and cedar wood.
12The large outer courtyard had three layers of cut stone and one layer of cedar beams. It was built like the inner courtyard of Yahweh's house and the temple's entrance hall.
13King Solomon sent for Hiram from Tyre.
14Hiram was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man from Tyre who worked with bronze. Hiram was very wise, understanding, and skilled at all kinds of bronze work. He came to King Solomon and completed all the work assigned to him.
15For example, he made two bronze pillars, each eighteen cubits high, and each was twelve cubits around.
16He made two melted bronze capitals to put on top of the pillars. Each capital was five cubits high.
17There were nets of checker-work and chains of twisted rope for the capitals on top of the pillars. There were seven for one capital and seven for the other.
18So he made the pillars, and each capital had two rows of decorative netting around it to cover the capitals at the top of the pillars. He did the same for the other capital.
19The capitals on top of the pillars at the entrance hall were designed with lily patterns and were four cubits high.
20There were also capitals above the two pillars, near the rounded part that was next to the netting. Around the other capital, there were two hundred pomegranates arranged in rows.
21He set up the pillars in front of the temple's entrance hall. He set up the right pillar and named it Jachin. He set up the left pillar and named it Boaz.
22On top of the pillars were lily designs, and that's how the work on the pillars was completed.
23The king made a large metal basin, circular in shape, ten cubits across from rim to rim, and five cubits high. A rope thirty cubits long could go around it.
24Below the rim, all around the basin, were decorations shaped like buds. There were two rows of these buds, cast in one piece with the basin, extending for ten cubits around its circumference.
25The basin rested on twelve statues of oxen. Three oxen faced north, three faced west, three faced south, and three faced east. The large basin rested on top of them, with their hindquarters facing inward.
26The sides of the basin were a hand's width thick. Its brim was shaped like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold two thousand baths of liquid.
27He also made ten movable bronze stands. Each stand was four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three cubits high.
28The stands were made with framed panels.
29On the panels between the frames were carvings of lions, oxen, and cherubim. Above these, on the upper frame, was a pedestal, and below the lions and oxen were decorative hanging wreaths.
30Each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles. Each stand also had four supports under the basin, with wreaths on the side of each support.
31The opening at the top of the stand, above the pedestal, was one cubit. This opening was round, shaped like a pedestal, one and a half cubits deep. Its surfaces also had engravings, and its panels were square, not round.
32The four wheels were positioned under the panels, and the axles of the wheels were connected to the stand itself. Each wheel was a cubit and a half high.
33The wheels were made like chariot wheels. Their axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were all made of cast metal.
34There were four supports at the four corners of each stand, and these supports were part of the stand itself.
35At the top of each stand was a round band, half a cubit high. The supports and panels on the top of the stand were all made from the same casting.
36On the plates of its supports and on its panels, Hiram engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, each in its own space, with wreaths all around the design.
37He made the ten stands in this way: all were cast in the same mold, with the same size and shape.
38He also made ten bronze basins. Each basin could hold forty baths of liquid and was four cubits across. There was one basin for each of the ten stands.
39He placed five of the stands on the right side of the temple and five on the left side. He placed the large basin on the right side of the temple, on the east, toward the south.
40Hiram made the basins, the shovels, and the other bowls. So Hiram finished all the work he did for King Solomon on Yahweh's temple:
41the two pillars; the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars; the two networks to cover the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars;
42the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks (two rows of pomegranates for each network) to cover the two bowl-shaped capitals on the pillars.
43the ten stands and the ten basins on the stands;
44the one large basin and the twelve oxen underneath it;
45the pots, shovels, and basins. All these items, which Hiram made for King Solomon for Yahweh’s temple, were made of polished bronze.
46The king had them cast in the Jordan plain, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan.
47Solomon did not weigh any of these items because there were so many of them; the total weight of the bronze could not be determined.
48Solomon also made all the items for Yahweh’s temple: the golden altar and the gold table for the showbread;
49the lampstands of pure gold, five on the right side and five on the left, in front of the inner sanctuary; and the gold flowers, lamps, and tongs;
50the cups, wick trimmers, basins, spoons, and firepans, all of pure gold; and the gold hinges for the doors of the inner temple (the Most Holy Place) and for the doors of the main temple.
51So all the work King Solomon did for Yahweh’s temple was finished. Solomon brought in the silver, gold, and other items that his father David had dedicated, and he placed them in the treasuries of Yahweh’s temple.