And it came to pass 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 of Ziv, which [is] the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.
The vestibule in front of the sanctuary of the house [was] twenty cubits long across the width of the house, [and] the width of [the vestibule extended] ten cubits from the front of the house.
Against the wall of the temple he built chambers all around, [against] the walls of the temple, all around the sanctuary and the inner sanctuary. Thus he made side chambers all around it.
The lowest chamber [was] five cubits wide, the middle [was] six cubits wide, and the third [was] seven cubits wide; for he made narrow ledges around the outside of the temple, so that [the support beams] would not be fastened into the walls of the temple.
And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel [or] any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.
The doorway for the middle story [was] on the right side of the temple. They went up by stairs to the middle [story,] and from the middle to the third.
"[Concerning] this temple which you are building, if you walk in My statutes, execute My judgments, keep all My commandments, and walk in them, then I will perform My word with you, which I spoke to your father David.
And he built the inside walls of the temple with cedar boards; from the floor of the temple to the ceiling he paneled the inside with wood; and he covered the floor of the temple with planks of cypress.
Then he built the twenty-cubit room at the rear of the temple, from floor to ceiling, with cedar boards; he built [it] inside as the inner sanctuary, as the Most Holy [Place.]
The inner sanctuary [was] twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. He overlaid it with pure gold, and overlaid the altar of cedar.
So Solomon overlaid the inside of the temple with pure gold. He stretched gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, and overlaid it with gold.
The whole temple he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the temple; also he overlaid with gold the entire altar that [was] by the inner sanctuary.
Then he set the cherubim inside the inner room; and they stretched out the wings of the cherubim so that the wing of the one touched [one] wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall. And their wings touched each other in the middle of the room.
Then he carved all the walls of the temple all around, both the inner and outer [sanctuaries,] with carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers.
The two doors [were of] olive wood; and he carved on them figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid [them] with gold; and he spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees.
And in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its details and according to all its plans. So he was seven years in building it.