Solomon Will Build a Temple and a Palace

Now Solomon decided to build a house for the name of the Lord, and a royal palace for himself.

The Temple Construction in Jerusalem

Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

Dimensions and Materials of the Temple

Now these are the foundations which Solomon laid for building the house of God. The length in cubits, according to the old standard, was sixty cubits, and the width, twenty cubits.

He erected the pillars in front of the temple, one on the right and the other on the left, and named the one on the right Jachin and the one on the left Boaz.

Furnishings of the Temple

Then he made a bronze altar, twenty cubits in length, twenty cubits in width, and ten cubits in height.

Then he made the ten golden lampstands in the way prescribed for them, and he set them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left.

He also made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. And he made a hundred golden bowls.

The Ark Is Brought into the Temple

So all the work that Solomon performed for the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought in the things that his father David had dedicated, the silver, the gold, and all the utensils, and he put them in the treasuries of the house of God.

The Glory of God Fills the Temple

When the priests came out from the holy place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, without regard to divisions),

Solomon’s Dedication of the Temple

Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that He would dwell in the thick darkness.

Temple Repaired

So the king commanded, and they made a chest and set it outside by the gate of the house of the Lord.

Pride Is Uzziah’s Undoing

But when he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly, and he was untrue to the Lord his God, for he entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.

He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Uzziah had done; however he did not enter the temple of the Lord. But the people continued acting corruptly.

So the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and they brought every unclean thing which they found in the temple of the Lord out to the courtyard of the house of the Lord. Then the Levites received it to carry out to the Kidron Valley.

Hezekiah Restores Temple Worship

Then King Hezekiah got up early and assembled the princes of the city, and went up to the house of the Lord.

And the Lord sent an angel who destroyed every warrior, commander, and officer in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned in shame to his own land. And when he had entered the temple of his god, some of his own sons killed him there with the sword.

Josiah Repairs the Temple

Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, Maaseiah an official of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the secretary, to repair the house of the Lord his God.

Josiah Dies in Battle

After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, Neco king of Egypt came up to wage war at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to engage him.

Nebuchadnezzar also brought some of the articles of the house of the Lord to Babylon, and he put them in his temple in Babylon.