Bible Gateway passage: 1 Kings 6:14-37 - New International Version (2024)

¹⁴So Solomon^(A) built the temple and completed^(B) it. ¹⁵He lined its interior walls with cedar boards, paneling them from the floor of the temple to the ceiling,^(C) and covered the floor of the temple with planks of juniper.^{(D) 16}He partitioned off twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling to form within the temple an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.^{(E) 17}The main hall in front of this room was forty cubits^[a] long. ¹⁸The inside of the temple was cedar,^(F) carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; no stone was to be seen.

¹⁹He prepared the inner sanctuary^(G) within the temple to set the ark of the covenant^(H) of the Lord there. ²⁰The inner sanctuary^(I) was twenty cubits long, twenty wide and twenty high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold, and he also overlaid the altar of cedar.^{(J) 21}Solomon covered the inside of the temple with pure gold, and he extended gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, which was overlaid with gold. ²²So he overlaid the whole interior with gold. He also overlaid with gold the altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary.

²³For the inner sanctuary he made a pair of cherubim^(K) out of olive wood, each ten cubits high. ²⁴One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long, and the other wing five cubits—ten cubits from wing tip to wing tip. ²⁵The second cherub also measured ten cubits, for the two cherubim were identical in size and shape. ²⁶The height of each cherub was ten cubits. ²⁷He placed the cherubim^(L) inside the innermost room of the temple, with their wings spread out. The wing of one cherub touched one wall, while the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. ²⁸He overlaid the cherubim with gold.

²⁹On the walls^(M) all around the temple, in both the inner and outer rooms, he carved cherubim,^(N) palm trees and open flowers. ³⁰He also covered the floors of both the inner and outer rooms of the temple with gold.

³¹For the entrance to the inner sanctuary he made doors out of olive wood that were one fifth of the width of the sanctuary. ³²And on the two olive-wood doors^(O) he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid the cherubim and palm trees with hammered gold. ³³In the same way, for the entrance to the main hall he made doorframes out of olive wood that were one fourth of the width of the hall. ³⁴He also made two doors out of juniper wood, each having two leaves that turned in sockets. ³⁵He carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers on them and overlaid them with gold hammered evenly over the carvings.

³⁶And he built the inner courtyard^(P) of three courses^(Q) of dressed stone and one course of trimmed cedar beams.

³⁷The foundation of the temple of the Lord was laid in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv.

Footnotes

1. 1 Kings 6:17 That is, about 60 feet or about 18 meters

Cross references

1. 1 Kings 6:14 : Ac 7:47
2. 1 Kings 6:14 : 1Ch 28:20; 2Ch 5:1
3. 1 Kings 6:15 : 1Ki 7:7
4. 1 Kings 6:15 : Eze 41:15-16
5. 1 Kings 6:16 : S Ex 26:33
6. 1 Kings 6:18 : ver 29; Ps 74:6; Eze 41:18
7. 1 Kings 6:19 : 1Ki 8:6
8. 1 Kings 6:19 : S Ex 25:10; S 1Sa 3:3
9. 1 Kings 6:20 : Eze 41:3-4
10. 1 Kings 6:20 : S Ex 30:1
11. 1 Kings 6:23 : S Ex 37:1-9
12. 1 Kings 6:27 : S Ge 3:24; S Ex 25:18
13. 1 Kings 6:29 : S ver 18
14. 1 Kings 6:29 : ver 32, 35; Eze 41:18, 25
15. 1 Kings 6:32 : Eze 41:23
16. 1 Kings 6:36 : 2Ch 4:9
17. 1 Kings 6:36 : 1Ki 7:12; Ezr 6:4