1 Kings 6:1-18

Solomon began to build the Temple four hundred eighty years after the people of Israel had left Egypt. This was during the fourth year of King Solomon’s rule over Israel. It was the second month, the month of Ziv. The Temple was ninety feet long, thirty feet wide, and forty-five feet high. The porch in front of the main room of the Temple was fifteen feet deep and thirty feet wide. This room ran along the front of the Temple itself. Its width was equal to that of the Temple. The Temple also had windows that opened and closed. Solomon also built some side rooms against the walls of the main room and the inner room of the Temple. He built rooms all around. The rooms on the bottom floor were seven and one-half feet wide. Those on the middle floor were nine feet wide, and the rooms above them were ten and one-half feet wide. The Temple wall that formed the side of each room was thinner than the wall in the room below. These rooms were pushed against the Temple wall, but they did not have their main beams built into this wall. The stones were prepared at the same place where they were cut from the ground. Since these stones were the only ones used to build the Temple, there was no noise of hammers, axes, or any other iron tools at the Temple. The entrance to the lower rooms beside the Temple was on the south side. From there, stairs went up to the second-floor rooms. And from there, stairs went on to the third-floor rooms. Solomon put a roof made from beams and cedar boards on the Temple. So he finished building the Temple as well as the bottom floor that was beside the Temple. This bottom floor was seven and one-half feet high and was attached to the Temple by cedar beams. 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.