Study Desk

Now Solomon formed a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her to the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the LORD, and the wall around Jerusalem.

"And it happened on the third day after I gave birth, that this woman also gave birth to a child, and we were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, only the two of us in the house.

Ben-geber in Ramoth-gilead (the villages of Jair, the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead were his: the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars were his);

"Now then, issue orders that they cut cedars from Lebanon for me, and my servants will be with your servants; and I will give you wages for your servants in accordance with all that you say, for you yourself know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians."

Then the king issued orders, and they quarried large stones, valuable stones, to lay the foundation of the house with cut stones.

Also for the house he made windows with artistic frames.

So he built the house and finished it; and he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar.

He also built the stories against the whole house, each five cubits high; and they were attached to the house with timbers of cedar.

"As for this house which you are building, if you will walk in My statutes and execute My ordinances and keep all My commandments by walking in them, then I will fulfill My word with you which I spoke to David your father.

He built the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar; from the floor of the house to the ceiling he paneled the walls on the inside with wood, and he paneled the floor of the house with boards of juniper.

He also built twenty cubits on the rear part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the ceiling; he built them for it on the inside as an inner sanctuary, as the Most Holy Place.

The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits in length, twenty cubits in width, and twenty cubits in height; and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also paneled the altar with cedar.

So Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold. And he extended chains of gold across the front of the inner sanctuary, and he overlaid it with gold.

He overlaid the entire house with gold, until all the house was finished. Also the entire altar which was by the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold.

He also overlaid the cherubim with gold.

Then he carved all the surrounding walls of the house with engravings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, for the inner and outer sanctuaries.

And he overlaid the floor of the house with gold, for the inner and outer sanctuaries.

So he made two doors of olive wood, and he carved on them carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold; and he overlaid the cherubim and the palm trees with gold.

He carved on it cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers; and he overlaid them with gold plated on the carved work.

And he built the inner courtyard with three rows of cut stone and a row of cedar beams.