Building of the Temple. 1a Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah,* which had been shown to David his father, in the place David had prepared, the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 2He began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign. 3These were the specifications laid down by Solomon for building the house of God: the length was sixty cubits according to the old measure, and the width was twenty cubits;b 4the front porch along the width of the house was also twenty cubits, and it was twenty cubits high.* He covered its interior with pure gold.c 5The nave he overlaid with cypress wood and overlaid that with fine gold, embossing on it palms and chains.d 6He also covered the house with precious stones for splendor; the gold was from Parvaim. 7The house, its beams and thresholds, as well as its walls and its doors, he overlaid with gold, and he engraved cherubim upon the walls. 8He also made the room of the holy of holies. Its length corresponded to the width of the house, twenty cubits, and its width was also twenty cubits. He overlaid it with fine gold to the amount of six hundred talents.e 9The weight of the nails was fifty gold shekels. The upper chambers he likewise overlaid with gold.

10f For the room of the holy of holies he made two cherubim of carved workmanship, which were then covered with gold. 11The wings of the cherubim spanned twenty cubits: one wing of each cherub, five cubits in length, extended to a wall of the house, while the other wing, also five cubits in length, touched the corresponding wing of the other cherub. 12The wing of the cherub, five cubits, touched the wall of the house, and the other wing, five cubits, was joined to the wing of the other cherub. 13The combined wingspread of the two cherubim was thus twenty cubits. They stood upon their own feet, facing toward the nave. 14He made the veil* of violet, purple, crimson, and fine linen, and had cherubim embroidered upon it.g

15h In front of the house he set two columns thirty-five cubits high; the capital of each was five cubits. 16He devised chains in the form of a collar with which he encircled the capitals of the columns, and he made a hundred pomegranates which he set on the chains. 17He set up the columns to correspond with the nave, one for the right side and the other for the left, and he called the one to the right Jachin and the one to the left Boaz.