1 Kings 6:3-23

3The temple had an entrance room in front of its big hall. The entrance room was as wide as the temple, 9 metres wide. It came 4.5 metres out from the front of the temple itself.

4Solomon made narrow windows near the tops of the temple walls.

5Solomon built rooms around the outside of the temple walls. These rooms continued outside the big hall and the inside room. The side rooms were on three levels.

6The lowest level of rooms was 2.3 metres wide. The middle level was 2.7 metres wide and the top level was 3.2 metres wide. Each floor was built on wooden beams. The beams rested on stones in the temple walls, so that there were no holes that they cut into the walls.

7When they built the temple, they used stones that were the right shape. Workers had already cut the stones at the place where they came from. There was no sound of hammers, axes or any iron tools at the place of the temple.

8The door to the lowest level of rooms on the sides of the temple was on the south side of the temple. Stairs went up to the middle level and to the top level.

9Solomon finished building the temple. He made the roof with wooden beams and with cedar boards.

10He also built the rooms around the sides of the temple. Each room was 2.3 metres high. Cedar beams fixed the rooms to the temple building.

11Then the Lord gave this message to Solomon:

12‘I will make my home in this temple that you are building. I will do everything for you that I promised to your father David. But you must obey my laws, rules and commands.

13Then I will live among my people, the Israelites. I will never leave them.’

14So Solomon finished building the temple.

15He used cedar boards to cover the walls on the inside of the temple. The boards went from the floor of the temple up to its ceiling. He covered the floor of the temple with wood from pine trees.

16He built a wall across the inside of the temple to make a separate room. That wall was 9 metres from the back wall of the temple. The inside room was the Most Holy Place. The walls were covered with cedar boards from the floor to the ceiling.

17The big hall in front of the Most Holy Place was 18 metres long.

18The inside of the temple was covered with boards made of cedar wood. The workers cut pictures of fruits and flowers on the wood. The cedar boards completely covered the stone walls, so you could not see any stone.

19Solomon prepared the inside room to be the Most Holy Place where they would put the Lord's Covenant Box.

20The inside room was 9 metres long, 9 metres wide and 9 metres high. Solomon used pure gold to cover the walls of this room. He also covered the cedar altar with gold.

21Solomon covered all the walls inside the temple with gold. He also hung gold chains across the entrance to the Most Holy Place. He covered everything there with gold.

22So he covered everything inside the whole temple with gold. That included the altar that was inside the Most Holy Place.

23Solomon used olive wood to make models of two cherubs to stand in the Most Holy Place. Each cherub was 4.4 metres tall.