2 Chronicles 3-4

New American Bible (Revised Edition)

Chapter 3

Building of the Temple. ^1 (A)Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah,^[a] which had been shown to David his father, in the place David had prepared, the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ² He began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign. ³ These were the specifications laid down by Solomon for building the house of God: the length was sixty cubits according to the old measure, and the width was twenty cubits;^{(B) 4} the front porch along the width of the house was also twenty cubits, and it was twenty cubits high.^[b] He covered its interior with pure gold.^{(C) 5} The nave he overlaid with cypress wood and overlaid that with fine gold, embossing on it palms and chains.^{(D) 6} He also covered the house with precious stones for splendor; the gold was from Parvaim. ⁷ The house, its beams and thresholds, as well as its walls and its doors, he overlaid with gold, and he engraved cherubim upon the walls. ⁸ He also made the room of the holy of holies. Its length corresponded to the width of the house, twenty cubits, and its width was also twenty cubits. He overlaid it with fine gold to the amount of six hundred talents.^{(E) 9} The weight of the nails was fifty gold shekels. The upper chambers he likewise overlaid with gold.

^10 (F)For the room of the holy of holies he made two cherubim of carved workmanship, which were then covered with gold. ¹¹ The wings of the cherubim spanned twenty cubits: one wing of each cherub, five cubits in length, extended to a wall of the house, while the other wing, also five cubits in length, touched the corresponding wing of the other cherub. ¹² The wing of the cherub, five cubits, touched the wall of the house, and the other wing, five cubits, was joined to the wing of the other cherub. ¹³ The combined wingspread of the two cherubim was thus twenty cubits. They stood upon their own feet, facing toward the nave. ¹⁴ He made the veil^[c] of violet, purple, crimson, and fine linen, and had cherubim embroidered upon it.^(G)

^15 (H)In front of the house he set two columns thirty-five cubits high; the capital of each was five cubits. ¹⁶ He devised chains in the form of a collar with which he encircled the capitals of the columns, and he made a hundred pomegranates which he set on the chains. ¹⁷ He set up the columns to correspond with the nave, one for the right side and the other for the left, and he called the one to the right Jachin and the one to the left Boaz.

Chapter 4

¹ Then he made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high.^{(I) 2 (J)}He also made the molten sea. It was made with a circular rim, and measured ten cubits across, five in height, and thirty in circumference. ³ Under the brim a ring of figures of oxen^[d] encircled it for ten cubits, all the way around the compass of the sea; there were two rows of oxen cast in one mold with the sea. ⁴ This rested on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east, with their haunches all toward the center; upon them was set the sea. ⁵ It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim resembled that of a cup, being lily-shaped. It had a capacity of three thousand baths.^[e]

⁶ Then he made ten basins for washing, placing five of them to the right and five to the left. In these the victims for the burnt offerings were washed; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.^(K)

⁷ He made the menorahs of gold, ten of them as was prescribed, and placed them in the nave, five to the right and five to the left.^{(L) 8} He made ten tables and had them set in the nave, five to the right and five to the left; and he made a hundred golden bowls.^{(M) 9} He made the court of the priests and the great courtyard^(N) and the gates of the courtyard; the gates he covered with bronze. ¹⁰ The sea he placed off to the southeast from the south side of the house.^(O)

^11 (P)When Huram had made the pots, shovels, and bowls, he finished all his work for King Solomon in the house of God: ¹² two columns; two nodes for the capitals on top of the columns; and two pieces of netting covering the two nodes for the capitals on top of the columns; ¹³ four hundred pomegranates in double rows on both pieces of netting that covered the two nodes of the capitals on top of the columns. ¹⁴ He made the stands, and the basins on the stands; ¹⁵ one sea, and the twelve oxen under it; ¹⁶ pots, shovels, forks, and all the articles Huram-abi made for King Solomon for the house of the Lord; they were of burnished bronze. ¹⁷ The king had them cast in the neighborhood of the Jordan, between Succoth and Zeredah, in thick clay molds. ¹⁸ Solomon made all these vessels, so many in number that the weight of the bronze could not be determined.

¹⁹ Solomon made all the articles that were for the house of God: the golden altar, the tables on which the showbread lay, ²⁰ the menorahs and their lamps of pure gold which were to burn as prescribed before the inner sanctuary, ²¹ flowers, lamps, and gold tongs (this was of purest gold), ²² snuffers, bowls, cups, and firepans of pure gold. As for the entrance to the house, its inner doors to the holy of holies, as well as the doors to the nave of the temple, were of gold.