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Contemporary English Version

1 Kings 6:7

Solomon did not want the noise of hammers and axes to be heard at the place where the temple was being built. So he had the workers shape the blocks of stone at the quarry.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Hammer;   Iron;   Stones;   Temple;   Thompson Chain Reference - Hammers;   Solomon;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Iron;   Temple, the First;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Craft workers;   Temple;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Axe;   Hammer;   Knop;   Temple, Solomon's;   Wall;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Temple;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Architecture in the Biblical Period;   Ax, Ax Head;   Chisel;   Hammer;   Quarry;   Stone;   Tools;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Arts and Crafts;   Israel;   Jerusalem;   Palm Tree;   Quarry;   Solomon;   Temple;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Axe;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Jerusalem ;   Masons;   Oracle;   Temple, the;   37 Slow Slothful Idle;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Handicraft;   Temple;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Handicraft;   Temple;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Hammer;   Stone;   Tool;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Hebrew Monarchy, the;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Ax (Axe);   Hammer;   Iron (1);   Temple;   Tools;   Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia - Axe;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Shamir;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The temple’s construction used finished stones cut at the quarry so that no hammer, chisel, or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.
Hebrew Names Version
The house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready at the quarry; and there was neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.
King James Version
And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.
English Standard Version
When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built.
New Century Version
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.
New English Translation
As the temple was being built, only stones shaped at the quarry were used; the sound of hammers, pickaxes, or any other iron tool was not heard at the temple while it was being built.
Amplified Bible
While it was being built, the house was built of stone prepared and finished (precut) at the quarry, and no hammer, axe, or iron tool of any kind was heard in the house while it was under construction.
New American Standard Bible
The house, while it was being built, was built of stone finished at the quarry, and neither hammer, nor axe, nor any iron tool was heard in the house while it was being built.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And when the house was built, it was built of stone perfite, before it was brought, so that there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any toole of yron heard in the house, while it was in building.
Legacy Standard Bible
The house, while it was being built, was built of stone prepared at the quarry, and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any iron tool heard in the house while it was being built.
Complete Jewish Bible
For the house, when under construction, was built of stone prepared at the quarry; so that no hammer, chisel or iron tool of any kind was heard in the house while it was being built.
Darby Translation
And the house, when it was being built, was built of stone entirely made ready before it was brought thither; so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was being built.
Easy-to-Read Version
The stones were completely finished before they were brought into the Temple area, so there was no noise of hammers, axes, or any other iron tools in the Temple.
George Lamsa Translation
And the house, when it was building, was made of stones hewn before they were brought thither; so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was building.
Good News Translation
The stones with which the Temple was built had been prepared at the quarry, so that there was no noise made by hammers, axes, or any other iron tools as the Temple was being built.
Lexham English Bible
Now while the temple was being built, it was built with stones finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or stone shaping tool or any instrument of iron was heard in the temple as it was being built.
Literal Translation
And when it was being built, the house was built of finished stone made ready beforehand. And there was not heard in the house a hammer or an axe, or any iron tool, while it was being built.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And whan ye house was buylded, it was buylded of whole and outbroken stones, so yt there was herde nether hammer ner axe, ner eny other instrument of yron, whan the house was a buyldinge.
American Standard Version
And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready at the quarry; and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.
Bible in Basic English
(And the stones used in the building of the house were squared at the place where they were cut out; there was no sound of hammer or axe or any iron instrument while they were building the house.)
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And the house was built of stone, made perfect alredye before it was brought thyther: so that there was neither hammer nor axe, either any toole of iron heard in the house while it was in buylding.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
For the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready at the quarry; and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.--
King James Version (1611)
And the house when it was in building, was built of stone, made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe, nor any toole of yron heard in the house, while it was in building.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And the house was built in the construction of it with rough hewn stones: and there was not heard in the house in the building of it hammer or axe, or any iron tool.
English Revised Version
And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready at the quarry: and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.
Berean Standard Bible
The temple was constructed using finished stones cut at the quarry, so that no hammer, chisel, or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Forsothe whanne the hows was bildid, it was bildid of `stoonys hewid and perfit; and an hamer, and ax, and al thing maad of yrun, weren not herd in the hows, while it was in bildyng.
Young's Literal Translation
And the house, in its being built, of perfect stone brought [thither] hath been built, and hammer, and the axe -- any instrument of iron -- was not heard in the house, in its being built.
Update Bible Version
And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready at the quarry; and there was neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was being built.
Webster's Bible Translation
And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither; so that there was neither hammer nor ax [nor] any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.
World English Bible
The house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready at the quarry; and there was neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.
New King James Version
And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.
New Living Translation
The stones used in the construction of the Temple were finished at the quarry, so there was no sound of hammer, ax, or any other iron tool at the building site.
New Life Bible
The house was built of stone that was cut at the place where it was taken from the ground. There was no noise of a hammer or an ax or any iron object heard in the house while it was being built.
New Revised Standard
The house was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of iron was heard in the temple while it was being built.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Now, the house, when it was in building, with whole quarry-stones, was built, - neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tools of iron, was heard in the house, when it was in building.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And the house, when it was in building, was built of stones, hewed and made ready: so that there was neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house when it was in building.
Revised Standard Version
When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry; so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the temple, while it was being built.
THE MESSAGE
The stone blocks for the building of The Temple were all dressed at the quarry so that the building site itself was reverently quiet—no noise from hammers and chisels and other iron tools.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
The house, while it was being built, was built of stone prepared at the quarry, and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any iron tool heard in the house while it was being built.

Contextual Overview

1 Solomon's workers started building the temple during Ziv, the second month of the year. It had been four years since Solomon became king of Israel, and four hundred eighty years since the people of Israel left Egypt. 2 The inside of the Lord 's temple was ninety feet long, thirty feet wide, and forty-five feet high. 3 A fifteen-foot porch went all the way across the front of the temple. 4 The windows were narrow on the outside but wide on the inside. 5Along the sides and back of the temple, there were three levels of storage rooms. The rooms on the bottom level were seven and a half feet wide, the rooms on the middle level were nine feet wide, and those on the top level were ten and a half feet wide. There were ledges on the outside of the temple that supported the beams of the storage rooms, so that nothing was built into the temple walls. 7 Solomon did not want the noise of hammers and axes to be heard at the place where the temple was being built. So he had the workers shape the blocks of stone at the quarry. 8 The entrance to the bottom storage rooms was on the south side of the building, and stairs to the other rooms were also there. 9 The roof of the temple was made out of beams and cedar boards. The workers finished building the outside of the temple. 10 Storage rooms seven and a half feet high were all around the temple, and they were attached to the temple by cedar beams.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

built of stone: 1 Kings 5:17, 1 Kings 5:18, Deuteronomy 27:5, Deuteronomy 27:6, Proverbs 24:27, Romans 9:23, 2 Corinthians 5:5, Colossians 1:12, 1 Peter 2:5

neither hammer: Isaiah 42:2, Acts 9:31, James 1:20, James 3:17, James 3:18

Reciprocal: 1 Chronicles 22:2 - masons 2 Chronicles 8:16 - General Ephesians 2:21 - fitly

Cross-References

Genesis 6:1
More and more people were born, until finally they spread all over the earth. Some of their daughters were so beautiful that supernatural beings came down and married the ones they wanted.
Genesis 6:3
Then the Lord said, "I won't let my life-giving breath remain in anyone forever. No one will live for more than one hundred twenty years."
Genesis 6:4
The children of the supernatural beings who had married these women became famous heroes and warriors. They were called Nephilim and lived on the earth at that time and even later.
Genesis 6:22
Noah did everything the Lord told him to do.
Psalms 37:20
Wicked people are enemies of the Lord and will vanish like smoke from a field on fire.
Proverbs 10:27
If you respect the Lord , you will live longer; if you keep doing wrong, your life will be cut short.
Proverbs 16:4
The Lord has a reason for everything he does, and he lets evil people live only to be punished.
Hosea 4:3
And so your land is a desert. Every living creature is dying— people and wild animals, birds and fish.
Zephaniah 1:3
people and animals, birds and fish. Everyone who is evil will crash to the ground, and I will wipe out the entire human race.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the house, when it was in building,.... And all the while it was building:

was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither; being hewn or squared by the builders and stonesquarers of Solomon and Hiram, 1 Kings 5:18; wherefore the builders had nothing more to do than to lay them in their proper places in the building; it was built with these stones quite up to the ceiling, as Josephus says t; and these so admirably polished, and so artificially joined together, that not the least sign of an axe, or of any working tool, could be discerned in them:

so that there was neither hammer, nor axe, [nor] any tool of iron, heard in the house while it was in building; the first of these observations shows, that none are to be laid in the spiritual building of the church, but such as are first hewed and squared by the Spirit, grace, and word of God: or who have an experience of the grace of God, are sound in the faith, and of becoming lives and good conduct; and the other denotes, that such as are therein, whether ministers or members, should do all they do for the edification of the church in a quiet and peaceable manner, without clamour, contention, fights, and tumults.

t Antiqu. l. 8. c. 3. sect. 2.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The spirit of the command (marginal references), was followed. Thus the fabric rose without noise.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Kings 6:7. The house - was built of stone — It appears that every stone was hewn and squared, and its place in the building ascertained, before it came to Jerusalem: the timbers were fitted in like manner. This greatly lessened the trouble and expense of carriage. On this account, that all was prepared at Mount Lebanon, there was neither hammer, axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the building; nothing except mallets to drive the tenons into the mortises, and drive in the pins to fasten them, was necessary: therefore there was no noise. But why is this so particularly marked? Is it not because the temple was a type of the kingdom of God; and the souls of men are to be prepared here for that place of blessedness? There, there is no preaching, exhortations, repentance, ears, cries, nor prayers; the stones must be all squared and fitted here for their place in the New Jerusalem, and, being living stones, must be built up a holy temple for a habitation of God through the Spirit.


 
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