Then David the king stood up on his feet, and said, “Hear me, my brothers, and my people! As for me, it was in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, and for the footstool of our God; and I had prepared for the building. I Chronicles 28:2
“We will go into his dwelling place. We will worship at his footstool. Arise, Yahweh, into your resting place; you, and the ark of your strength. Let your priests be clothed with righteousness. Let your saints shout for joy!” Psalms 132:7-9
How has the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger! He has cast the beauty of Israel down from heaven to the earth, and hasn’t remembered his footstool in the day of his anger. Lamentations 2:1
Yahweh reigns! Let the peoples tremble. He sits enthroned among the cherubim. Let the earth be moved. Yahweh is great in Zion. He is high above all the peoples. Let them praise your great and awesome name. He is Holy! The King’s strength also loves justice. You do establish equity. You execute justice and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt Yahweh our God. Worship at his footstool. He is Holy! Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel among those who call on his name; they called on Yahweh, and he answered them. He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud. They kept his testimonies, the statute that he gave them. You answered them, Yahweh our God. You are a God who forgave them, although you took vengeance for their doings. Exalt Yahweh, our God. Worship at his holy hill, for Yahweh, our God, is holy! Psalm 99
Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the place of his father, and Hiram had always loved David. Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, “You know that David my father could not build a house for the name of Yahweh his God because of the wars which were around him on every side, until Yahweh put his enemies under the soles of his feet. But now Yahweh my God has given me rest on every side. There is no enemy and no evil occurrence. Behold, I intend to build a house for the name of Yahweh my God, as Yahweh spoke to David my father, saying, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place shall build the house for my name.’ Now therefore command that cedar trees be cut for me out of Lebanon. My servants will be with your servants; and I will give you wages for your servants according to all that you say. For you know that there is nobody among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.” When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly, and said, “Blessed is Yahweh today, who has given to David a wise son to rule over this great people.” Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, “I have heard the message which you have sent to me. I will do all your desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning cypress timber. My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea. I will make them into rafts to go by sea to the place that you specify to me, and will cause them to be broken up there, and you will receive them. You will accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household.” So Hiram gave Solomon cedar timber and cypress timber according to all his desire. Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand cors of wheat for food to his household, and twenty cors of pure oil. Solomon gave this to Hiram year by year.
Yahweh gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty together. King Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men. He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses; for a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home; and Adoniram was over the men subject to forced labor. Solomon had seventy thousand who bore burdens, and eighty thousand who were stone cutters in the mountains; besides Solomon’s chief officers who were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, who ruled over the people who labored in the work. The king commanded, and they cut out large stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with worked stone. Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites cut them, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the house. I Kings 5
In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build Yahweh’s house. The house which king Solomon built for Yahweh had a length of sixty cubits, and its width twenty, and its height thirty cubits. The porch in front of the temple of the house had a length of twenty cubits, which was along the width of the house. Ten cubits was its width in front of the house. He made windows of fixed lattice work for the house. Against the wall of the house, he built floors all around, against the walls of the house all around, both of the temple and of the inner sanctuary; and he made side rooms all around. The lowest floor was five cubits wide, and the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide; for on the outside he made offsets in the wall of the house all around, that the beams should not be inserted into the walls of the house. The house, when it was under construction, was built of stone prepared at the quarry; and no hammer or ax or any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was under construction. The door for the middle side rooms was in the right side of the house. They went up by winding stairs into the middle floor, and out of the middle into the third. So he built the house, and finished it; and he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar. He built the floors all along the house, each five cubits high; and they rested on the house with timber of cedar. Yahweh’s word came to Solomon, saying, “Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in my statutes, and execute my ordinances, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father. I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.” So Solomon built the house, and finished it. He built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar: from the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood; and he covered the floor of the house with cypress boards. He built twenty cubits on the back part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the ceiling. He built them for it within, for an inner sanctuary, even for the most holy place. In front of the temple sanctuary was forty cubits. There was cedar on the house within, carved with buds and open flowers. All was cedar. No stone was visible. He prepared an inner sanctuary in the middle of the house within, to set the ark of Yahweh’s covenant there. Within the inner sanctuary was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in width, and twenty cubits in its height; and he overlaid it with pure gold; and he covered the altar with cedar. So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold. He drew chains of gold across before the inner sanctuary, and he overlaid it with gold. He overlaid the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. He also overlaid the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary with gold. In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high. Five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub. From the tip of one wing to the tip of the other was ten cubits. The other cherub was ten cubits. Both the cherubim were of one measure and one form. One cherub was ten cubits high, and so was the other cherub. He set the cherubim within the inner house. The wings of the cherubim were stretched out, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the middle of the house. He overlaid the cherubim with gold. He carved all the walls of the house around with carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, inside and outside. He overlaid the floor of the house with gold, inside and outside. For the entrance of the inner sanctuary, he made doors of olive wood. The lintel and door posts were a fifth part of the wall. So he made two doors of olive wood; and he carved on them carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold. He spread the gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees. He also did so for the entrance of the temple door posts of olive wood, out of a fourth part of the wall; and two doors of cypress wood. The two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding. He carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers; and he overlaid them with gold fitted on the engraved work. He built the inner court with three courses of cut stone and a course of cedar beams. The foundation of Yahweh’s house was laid in the fourth year, in the month Ziv. In the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished throughout all its parts, and according to all its specifications. So he spent seven years building it. I Kings 6