1 Kings 6:1–14

¹In the four hundred and eightieth^a year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv,^b the second month, he began to build the house of the LORD.

²The house that King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.^{c 3}The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple was twenty cubits^d long, extending across the width of the temple and projecting out ten cubits^e in front of the temple.

⁴He also had narrow windows framed high in the temple.

⁵Against the walls of the temple and the inner sanctuary, Solomon built a chambered structure around the temple, in which he constructed the side rooms. ⁶The bottom floor was five cubits wide,^f the middle floor six cubits,^g and the third floor seven cubits.^h He also placed offset ledges around the outside of the temple, so that nothing would be inserted into its walls.

⁷The temple was constructed using finished stones cut at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any other iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.

⁸The entrance to the bottomⁱ floor was on the south side of the temple. A stairway led up to the middle level, and from there to the third floor.

⁹So Solomon built the temple and finished it, roofing it with beams and planks of cedar. ¹⁰He built chambers all along the temple, each five cubits high and attached to the temple with beams of cedar.

¹¹Then the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying: ¹²“As for this temple you are building, if you walk in My statutes, carry out My ordinances, and keep all My commandments by walking in them, I will fulfill through you the promise I made to your father David. ¹³And I will dwell among the Israelites and will not abandon My people Israel.”

¹⁴So Solomon built the temple and finished it.