1 Kings 6:4-20

New International Version

⁴ He made narrow windows^(A) high up in the temple walls. ⁵ Against the walls of the main hall and inner sanctuary he built a structure around the building, in which there were side rooms.^{(B) 6} The lowest floor was five cubits^[a] wide, the middle floor six cubits^[b] and the third floor seven.^[c] He made offset ledges around the outside of the temple so that nothing would be inserted into the temple walls.

⁷ In building the temple, only blocks dressed^(C) at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool^(D) was heard at the temple site while it was being built.

⁸ The entrance to the lowest^[d] floor was on the south side of the temple; a stairway led up to the middle level and from there to the third. ⁹ So he built the temple and completed it, roofing it with beams and cedar^(E) planks. ¹⁰ And he built the side rooms all along the temple. The height of each was five cubits, and they were attached to the temple by beams of cedar.

¹¹ The word of the Lord came^(F) to Solomon: ¹² “As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, observe my laws and keep all my commands^(G) and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise^(H) I gave to David your father. ¹³ And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon^(I) my people Israel.”

¹⁴ So Solomon^(J) built the temple and completed^(K) it. ¹⁵ He lined its interior walls with cedar boards, paneling them from the floor of the temple to the ceiling,^(L) and covered the floor of the temple with planks of juniper.^{(M) 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.^{(N) 17} The main hall in front of this room was forty cubits^[e] long. ¹⁸ The inside of the temple was cedar,^(O) carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; no stone was to be seen.

¹⁹ He prepared the inner sanctuary^(P) within the temple to set the ark of the covenant^(Q) of the Lord there. ²⁰ The inner sanctuary^(R) was twenty cubits long, twenty wide and twenty high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold, and he also overlaid the altar of cedar.^(S)