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The width of the rooms on the lowest story was seven and a half feet. The rooms of the middle story were nine feet wide, and the rooms of the third story were ten and a half feet wide, because he had built three receding ledges into the outside wall of the temple building all the way around, so that the floor beams of each story would not have to be inserted into the walls of the main building.

While the building was under construction, only stones that had been finished at the quarry were used in the building. No hammer or chisel or any other iron tool was heard in the building while it was under construction. The entrance into the lowest story[a] of the side rooms was on the south side[b] of the building. Winding stairs[c] went up to the middle floor, and also from the middle floor to the third floor.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Kings 6:8 The lowest story is the reading of the Greek Old Testament and the Targum. The Hebrew text reads the middle story, but the rest of the verse makes it clear that the entry was on the ground floor. Ezekiel 41:7 also states that the stairs went up from the lowest story to the top story through the middle story.
  2. 1 Kings 6:8 In this description, in Hebrew the south side is called the right side, and the north side is called the left side.
  3. 1 Kings 6:8 Or ladders. The precise meaning is uncertain.