1 Kings 6:1-10

The Building of the Temple

¹Now it came about in the four hundred and eightieth year after the sons of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, that is, the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord. ²And the house which King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits in its length, and twenty cubits in its width, and its height was thirty cubits. ³The porch in front of the main room of the house was twenty cubits in length, corresponding to the width of the house, and its width along the front of the house was ten cubits. ⁴Also for the house he made windows with artistic frames. ⁵Against the wall of the house he built stories encompassing the walls of the house around both the main room and the inner sanctuary; so he made side chambers all around. ⁶The lowest story was five cubits wide, the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide; for on the outside he made offsets in the wall of the house all around so that the beams would not be inserted into the walls of the house.

⁷The 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.

⁸The doorway for the lowest side chamber was on the right side of the house; and they would go up by a winding staircase to the middle story, and from the middle to the third. ⁹So he built the house and finished it; and he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar. ¹⁰He also built the stories against the whole house, each five cubits high; and they were attached to the house with timbers of cedar.