Solomon begins to build the temple in Jerusalem
1 Then Solomon began to build the Lord's temple in Jerusalem. He built it on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had shown himself to his father David. David had prepared a place for the temple there, at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 2 Solomon began to build the temple on the second day of the second month of the fourth year that he ruled Israel as king.
3:1Moriah was also the name of the place where God had asked Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. See Genesis 22:2. 3:2Solomon used his workers to build the temple. He did not build it himself.
3 The foundation for God's temple was 27 metres long and 9 metres wide. (They measured it in cubits.)
3:3A cubit was about 44 centimetres (18 inches).
4 There was an entrance room at the front of the temple's big hall. It was as wide as the temple, 9 metres wide. It was 9 metres high. Solomon's workers covered the inside of the entrance room with pure gold.
5 They covered the walls inside the big hall with boards of cypress wood. Then they covered the boards with pure gold. They drew pictures of palm trees and chains on the walls. 6 They used valuable stones to make the temple beautiful. The gold that they used came from Parvaim. 7 They used gold to cover all parts of the temple: the beams for its roof, the entrances, the walls and the doors. They cut pictures of cherubs on the walls.
