1 Kings 7

1 And king Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tyre — [a] 2 the son of a widow, and he was from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze. He was filled with skill and understanding and knowledge to do every kind of work in bronze. And he was brought in to king Solomon, and he did all the work.

3 He cast the two pillars for the porch of the house. Each pillar stood twenty-seven feet high, and a line of twenty-one feet went around it; the metal of the pillar was three inches thick, and it was hollow inside. The second pillar was the same. [c] 4 And he made two capitals of cast bronze to set on the tops of the pillars. The height of the one capital was seven and a half feet, and the height of the second capital was seven and a half feet. 5 And he made two nets to cover the capitals of the pillars: a net for the one capital, and a net for the second capital. 6 And there was hanging work — two rows of bronze pomegranates worked into the netting, hanging work, row upon row. And he did the same for the second capital.

7 And he set up the pillars of the porch of the temple. He set up the one pillar and called its name Jachin, and he set up the second pillar and called its name Boaz. [d] 8 And on the tops of the pillars was lily work, facing the porch, six feet high. 9 And a beam lay across both the pillars, and above the sides was a capital, as thick as the beam. [e]

10 And he made the sea, fifteen feet from one rim to the other, perfectly round all the way about. It was seven and a half feet high, and a line of about fifty feet went around it. [f] 11 And underneath its rim, all the way around, were supports encircling it, fifteen feet around, holding the sea up. 12 And its rim was made like the rim of a cup, a lily bud, and it was three inches thick. [g] 13 And twelve oxen were under the sea: three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. All their hindquarters were turned inward, and the sea rested on them above. [h]

14 And he made ten bronze stands. Each stand was seven and a half feet long, six feet wide, and nine feet high. [i] 15 And this was the work of the stands: they had panel work, and panel work between the ledges. 16 And on their panels, between the ledges, were lions and oxen and cherubim, and it was the same on the ledges; and above and below the lions and the oxen were open spaces, work that hung down. 17 And there were four bronze wheels to each stand, and their fittings were bronze, and at their four parts were shoulder-pieces under the washing basins. 18 And there were axles in the wheels of the stand, and the height of one wheel was two and a quarter feet. [j] 19 And the work of the wheels was like the work of chariot wheels: their axles and their rims and all their fittings were cast.

20 The four shoulder-pieces were at the four corners of each stand, and its shoulders were part of the stand itself. 21 And on the top of the stand there was a rounded rise of nine inches all the way around; and on the top of the stand were the beginnings of its axles and its panels, and it opened out at the beginnings of its axles. 22 And its panels were cherubim and lions and palm trees, standing upright, each one set facing forward, inside and all around. 23 In this way he made all ten stands: one arrangement and one measure for them all.

24 And he made ten bronze basins, each basin holding about thirty-five gallons by measure; one basin stood on each of the ten stands. [k] 25 And he set the ten stands, five by the shoulder of the house on the right and five by the shoulder of the house on the left; and the sea he set by the shoulder of the house on the right, toward the east, on the south side.

26 And Hiram made the cauldrons and the fire-shovels and the bowls. And Hiram finished all the work that he made for king Solomon in the house of the Lord: 27 the two pillars, and the twisted work on the tops of the two pillars, and the two nets to cover both the twisted works of the carvings that were on the pillars; 28 the four hundred pomegranates for the two nets — two rows of pomegranates for each net — to cover both the twisted works on both pillars; 29 and the ten stands, and the ten basins on the stands; 30 and the one sea, and the twelve oxen under the sea; 31 and the cauldrons and the fire-shovels and the bowls and all the vessels that Hiram made for king Solomon for the house of the Lord; and the forty-eight pillars of the king’s house and of the house of the Lord. All the king’s work that Hiram made was of solid bronze. [l]

32 There was no weighing the bronze he made all these works from — there was so much of it. There was no end to the weight of the bronze. 33 In the country around the Jordan the king cast them, in the heavy clay of the ground between Succoth and Sira. [m]

34 And king Solomon put the vessels that he had made in the house of the Lord: the golden altar, and the golden table where the loaves of the offering lay, [n] 35 and the lampstands, five on the right and five on the left in front of the inner room, of refined gold; and the lamp-holders and the lamps and the oil-pourers, of gold; [o] 36 and the doorway pieces and the nails and the bowls and the dishes and the incense cups, of refined gold; and the frames of the doors of the innermost room, the most holy place, and the doors of the temple hall, of gold. 37 And all the work that Solomon did for the house of the Lord was completed. And Solomon brought in the holy things of David his father and all the holy things of Solomon — the silver and the gold and the vessels — and he put them into the treasuries of the house of the Lord.

38 And Solomon built his own house in thirteen years. 39 And he built the house of the forest of Lebanon: a hundred and fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high, with three rows of cedar pillars, and cedar shoulder-pieces on the pillars. [q] 40 And he panelled the house above, over the sides of the pillars; and the number of the pillars was forty-five, fifteen to a row; 41 and there were three beams, and space facing space in three rows; 42 and all the doorways and the spaces were square and framed with beams, and doorway faced door in three rows.

43 And the porch of the pillars was seventy-five feet long and forty-five feet wide, joined together, with a porch in front of them, and pillars and a thick beam in front of it at the porches. [r] 44 And there was the porch of the thrones, where he would give judgment — the porch of judgment. 45 And his own house, where he would live, had one court opening out from these, built in the same way as this work. And he built a house for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom Solomon had taken, like this porch.

46 All of these were of costly stones, carved at set distances, within and from the foundation up to the cornices, and outside as far as the great court, 47 founded on costly great stones — stones of fifteen feet and of twelve feet — 48 and above them costly stones, cut to the measure of unhewn stones, and cedar. [s] 49 Around the great court were three rows of unhewn stones and a row of carved cedar. 50 And Solomon finished his whole house.