The LORD said to Solomon: “If you obey all my laws and commands, I will do for you what I promised your father David. I will live among the Israelites in this Temple, and I will never leave my people Israel.”
So Solomon finished building the Temple. The inside walls were covered from floor to ceiling with cedar boards. The floor was made from pine boards. A room thirty feet long was built in the back part of the Temple. This room, called the Most Holy Place, was separated from the rest of the Temple by cedar boards which reached from floor to ceiling. The main room, the one in front of the Most Holy Place, was sixty feet long. Everything inside the Temple was covered with cedar, which was carved with pictures of flowers and plants. A person could not see the stones of the wall, only the cedar.
Solomon prepared the inner room at the back of the Temple to keep the Ark of the Agreement with the LORD. This inner room was thirty feet long, thirty feet wide, and thirty feet high. He covered this room with pure gold, and he also covered the altar of cedar. He covered the inside of the Temple with pure gold, placing gold chains across the front of the inner room, which was also covered with gold. So all the inside of the Temple, as well as the altar of the Most Holy Place, was covered with gold.
Solomon made two creatures from olive wood and placed them in the Most Holy Place. Each creature was fifteen feet tall and had two wings. Each wing was seven and one-half feet long, so it was fifteen feet from the end of one wing to the end of the other. The creatures were the same size and shape; each was fifteen feet tall. These creatures were put beside each other in the Most Holy Place with their wings spread out. One creature’s wing touched one wall, and the other creature’s wing touched the other wall with their wings touching each other in the middle of the room. These two creatures were covered with gold.
All the walls around the Temple were carved with pictures of creatures with wings, as well as palm trees and flowers. This was true for both the main room and the inner room. The floors of both rooms were covered with gold.
Doors made from olive wood were placed at the entrance to the Most Holy Place. These doors had five-sided frames. Creatures with wings, as well as palm trees and flowers, were also carved on the two olive wood doors that were covered with gold. The creatures and the palm trees on the doors were covered with gold as well. At the entrance to the main room there was a square door frame made of olive wood. Two doors were made from pine. Each door had two parts so the doors folded. The doors were covered with pictures of creatures with wings, as well as palm trees and flowers. All of the carvings were covered with gold, which was evenly spread over them.
The inner courtyard was enclosed by walls, which were made of three rows of cut stones and one row of cedar boards.
Work began on the Temple in Ziv, the second month, during the fourth year Solomon was king over Israel. The Temple was finished during the eleventh year he was king, in the eighth month, the month of Bul. It was built exactly as it was planned. Solomon had spent seven years building it.
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