And Solomon the son of David strengthened himself concerning his kingdom, and Yahweh his God [was] with him and made him exceedingly great.

And Solomon spoke to all Israel, to the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and to the judges, and to all the leaders for all Israel, the heads of the {families}.

And Solomon and the whole assembly with him went to the high place that [was] at Gibeon, for the tent of assembly of God that Moses the servant of Yahweh had made in the desert was there.

And the bronze altar that Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made [was] there before the tabernacle of Yahweh. And Solomon and the assembly sought it out.

And Solomon went up there to the bronze altar before Yahweh, which [was] at the tent of assembly, and he offered upon it a thousand burnt offerings.

On that night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, "Ask what I shall give to you."

Then Solomon said to God, "You yourself have shown steadfast loyal love to David my father and have made me king in his place.

Now, give to me wisdom and knowledge that I may go out and come in before this people, for who can judge this, your great people?"

Then God said to Solomon, "Because this was with your heart and you did not ask for wealth, possessions, honor, and the lives of your enemies, and also did not ask for {long life}, but have asked for wisdom and knowledge that you might judge my people over whom I have made you king,

wisdom and knowledge is given to you. And I will [also] give to you wealth, possessions, and honor, the like of which was not had by the kings who [were] before you, nor will there be the like after you."

So Solomon went from the high place which [was] at Gibeon [to] Jerusalem before the tent of assembly. And he reigned over Israel.

And Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen. And he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, and he placed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.

And the king made silver and gold in Jerusalem like the stones. And he made cedar as abundant as the sycamore fig trees that [were] in the Shephelah.

And Solomon's horses [were] imported from Egypt and from Kue. The traders of the king received [them] from Kue at a price.

They went up and exported a chariot from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver and a horse for one hundred and fifty [shekels]. And [these were] {likewise exported} to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram.

And Solomon planned to build a house for the name of Yahweh and a {royal palace for himself}.

And Solomon assigned seventy thousand men {to bear burdens} and eighty thousand {quarriers} in the hill country, and three thousand six hundred [men] to supervise them.

And Solomon sent [word] to Huram king of Tyre, saying, "As you have dealt with David my father and sent cedar to him to build for himself a house in which to live, [please deal with me].

Look, I am building a house for the name of Yahweh my God to dedicate to him, to offer sweet spices of incense before him, and [for] the regular rows [of bread], and burnt offerings for mornings, evenings, Sabbaths, and new moon festivals, and for appointed feasts of Yahweh our God which [are] everlasting for Israel.

And the house that I am building [will be] great, for our God [is] greater than all gods.

Now who indeed has adequate strength to build a house for him? For the heavens and {the highest heavens} are not able to contain him. Now who [am] I that I would build a house for him, except to burn incense before him?

So then, send to me skilled men to work with gold, silver, bronze, and iron, and with purple, crimson, and blue fabric, knowledgeable in engraving, with the skilled men who [are] with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father has established.

Send me trees of cedar, cypress, and algum from Lebanon, for I myself know that your servants [are] knowledgeable in cutting the trees of Lebanon. Now see, my servants [will be] with your servants

to prepare trees in abundance for me, for the house that I am building [will be] great and wonderful.

Now see, I will provide twenty thousand dry measures of crushed wheat, twenty thousand dry measures of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil to the woodcarvers and those who cut timber."

Then Huram king of Tyre answered in a letter, and he sent [word] to Solomon: "Because Yahweh loves his people, he has made you king over them."

Then Huram said, "Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who has made the heavens and the earth, who has given to King David a wise son knowing discretion and understanding, who will build for Yahweh a house and a royal palace for himself.

So now I have sent a skilled man, knowledgeable [and with] understanding: my master Huram,

a son of a woman from the daughters of Dan, and his father [was] a man of Tyre, knowledgeable for working with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and with purple, blue, and crimson fabric, and with fine linen, for engraving any engraving and devising any plan that is given to him, with your skilled men and the skilled men of my lord David your father.

Now as for the wheat, barley, oil, and wine that my lord mentioned, let him send [that] to his servants.

And we ourselves will cut trees from Lebanon according to all your need, and we will bring them to you on rafts over the sea to Joppa, so that you may bring them up to Jerusalem."

Then Solomon counted all the resident alien men who [were] in the land of Israel after the census that David his father had taken of them. And there were found one hundred and fifty-three thousand.

And he appointed from them seventy thousand {to bear burdens}, eighty thousand {to quarry} in the hill country, and three thousand six hundred overseers to make the people work.

And he began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign.

Now these [were] the measurements of Solomon for building the house of God: the length in cubits by the former measurement [was] sixty cubits, and the width [was] twenty cubits.

{The length of the portico that [was] in front was the same as the front of the width of the house}: twenty cubits. And its height [was] one hundred and twenty cubits. And he overlaid it on the inside with pure gold.

And the great house [itself] he covered with cypress wood, then he overlaid it with pure gold. And he put on it palm tree [images] and [ornate] chains.

And he overlaid the house with gold--the beams, the thresholds, the walls, and the doors. And he carved cherubim upon the walls.

Then he made {the most holy place}. Its length {was equal to} the width of the house: twenty cubits. And its breadth [was] twenty cubits. And he overlaid it with six hundred talents of fine gold.

And the weight for the nails [was] fifty shekels of gold. And he overlaid its upper rooms with gold.

And he made two sculpted wood cherubim in {the most holy place}, and he overlaid them with gold.

The length of the [outstretched] wings of the cherubim [were] twenty cubits; one wing of five cubits touched the wall of the house, and the other wing of five cubits [was] touching the [outstretched] wing of the other cherub.

And the wing of five cubits of the other cherub [was] touching the wall of the house, and its other wing five cubits long touching the wing of the first cherub.

The wings of these cherubim extended twenty cubits, and they were standing on their feet, their faces toward the house.

And he made the curtain of blue and purple and crimson and fine linen, and put cherubim on it.

And at the front of the house he made two columns, thirty-five cubits high, and the capital on their top was five cubits.

And he made [decorative] chains in the inner sanctuary and put [them] on top of the columns. And he made one hundred pomegranate [ornaments], and put them on the chains.

And he erected the columns in front of the temple, one on the south and one on the north. He called the name of the southern one Jakin, and the name of the northern one Boaz.

And he made an altar of bronze, twenty cubits [was] its length, and twenty cubits [was] its width, and ten cubits [was] its height.

Then he made the sea of molten metal, from brim to brim [it was] ten cubits, completely round. And [it was] five cubits in height, and {its circumference measured} thirty cubits.

[It was] standing upon twelve oxen, three facing north, and three facing west, and three facing south, and three facing east. The sea [was set] upon them from above, and all their hindquarters [faced] {inward}.

And its thickness [was] a handbreadth, and its brim [was] like the working of the lip of a cup, the blossom of a lily. And it held three thousand baths.

And he made ten basins. And he set five on the south and five on the north in which to wash; they washed off the work of the burnt offering in them, but the sea [was] for the priests to wash therein.

And he made ten golden lampstands according to their custom, and he set [them] in the temple, five on the south and five on the north.

And he made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the south and five on the north. And he made a hundred drinking bowls of gold.

And he made the courtyard of the priests and the great outer courtyard and the doors for the outer court. And he overlaid their doors with bronze.

And he set the sea at the southeast [corner of the temple].

And Huram made the pots, the shovels, and the drinking bowls. So Hiram finished making the work that he made on the house of God for King Solomon:

the two columns, the bowls, and the two capitals on top of the columns, and the two latticeworks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that [were] on top of the columns,

and the four hundred pomegranates for the two latticeworks, two rows of pomegranates for the latticework, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that [were] before the columns.

And he made the water carts, and he made the basins on the water carts,

and the one sea and the twelve oxen underneath it.

And Huram-abi made for King Solomon the pots, the shovels, the three-pronged meat forks, and all the utensils of polished bronze for the house of Yahweh.

The king cast them in the plain of the Jordan, in the clay soil between Succoth and Zeredah.

the lampstands, and the lamps for burning according to the custom before the inner sanctuary, of solid gold;

and the blossoms, the lamps, and the tongs that [were] of solid gold;

and the snuffers, the drinking bowls, the dishes, and the firepans, of solid gold; and the entrance to the house, the inner doors to {the most holy place}, and the doors to the house of the temple [were] of gold.

When all the work that Solomon did for the house of Yahweh was finished, Solomon brought the holy objects of David his father: the silver, the gold, and all the objects he had put into the storehouses of the house of God.

Then Solomon assembled all the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the {families} for the {Israelites}, to Jerusalem in order to bring up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh from the city of David, which [is] Zion.

And all the men of Israel assembled before the king at the feast that [is in] the seventh month.

And all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites took up the ark.

And they brought up the ark, the tent of assembly, and all the holy objects that [were] in the tent; the Levitical priests brought them up.

And King Solomon and the whole community of Israel that was assembled before him [were] before the ark, sacrificing sheep and cattle that could not be counted nor numbered for abundance.

Then the priests brought up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to its place in the inner sanctuary of the house, into {the most holy place}, underneath the wings of the cherubim.

The cherubim were spreading [their] wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim were covering the ark and over its poles [from] above.

But the poles were [so] long that the ends of the poles from the ark were seen from before the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from the outside. And they are there until this day.

There was nothing in the ark but the two stone tablets that Moses had put [inside] at Horeb [on] which Yahweh had {made} a covenant with the {Israelites} when they went out from Egypt.

And when the priests came out of the sanctuary (for all the priests who were present sanctified themselves without keeping their divisions)

and all the Levitical singers--Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, their sons, their brothers, dressed [in] fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and stringed instruments--[they] were standing to the east of the altar. And with them outside [were] one hundred and twenty priests [who were] trumpet blowers.

And it was the primary [duty] of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard [with] one voice, to praise and give thanks to Yahweh. And when a sound from the trumpets, cymbals, and other instruments of song was raised to Yahweh--for he [is] good, because his loyal love [is] everlasting--then the house, the house of Yahweh, was filled with a cloud.

And the priests were not able to stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of Yahweh filled the house of God.

Then the king turned around and blessed all the assembly of Israel, and all the assembly of Israel were standing.

And he said, "Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth with David my father, and with his hands he has fulfilled [it], saying,

But I have chosen my name to be there in Jerusalem, and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.'

Now Yahweh has fulfilled his word that he spoke. I have risen in the place of David my father and am seated on the throne of Israel as Yahweh has spoken. I have built the house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

And I have there the ark [in] which [is] the covenant of Yahweh that he {made} with the {Israelites}."

Then Solomon stood before the altar of Yahweh before all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands.

(For Solomon had made a platform of bronze five cubits long and five cubits wide and three cubits high, and placed it in the midst of the outer court.) And he stood upon it, then knelt down on his knees before the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands to heaven.

And he said, "O Yahweh, God of Israel, there is none like you, a God in the heavens and on the earth, keeping the covenant and loyal love with your servants who walk before you with all their heart,

that you have kept for your servant David my father what you spoke to him. You spoke with your mouth, and by your hand you have fulfilled [it] on this day.

And now, O Yahweh, God of Israel, keep for your servant David, my father, what you have spoken to him, saying, '{You shall not lack} a man to sit on the throne of Israel before me, if only your sons keep their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.'

And now, O Yahweh, God of Israel, let your word that you have spoken to your servant David be confirmed.

"But will God indeed dwell with humankind upon the earth? Look, the heavens and {the highest heavens} cannot contain you! Surely then this house that I have built [will not contain you!]

But turn to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O Yahweh my God, to hearken to the pleading and to the prayer that your servant is praying before you,

that your eyes may be open day and night to this house, to the place that you have promised to place your name there, that you may hear the prayer that your servant has prayed to this place.

And listen to the pleas of your servant and your people Israel when they pray toward this place, that you yourself might hear from the place of your dwelling, from the heavens, that you might hear and forgive.

"If a man sins against his neighbor and {makes him swear an oath} and comes [with] an oath before your altar in this house,

then may you yourself hear from the heavens and act and judge your servants, to repay the guilty by bringing his way upon his head and to vindicate the righteous by giving to him according to his righteousness.

"And if your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against you and they repent and confess your name and pray and plead before you in this house,

then may you yourself hear from the heavens and forgive the sin of your people Israel and again bring them back to the land that you gave to them and to their ancestors.