1 Kings 7

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

Solomon's palace

¹ Solomon was building his own house for thirteen years, and he finished all his house. ² He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon; its length was a hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits and its height thirty cubits, on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams on the pillars. ³ It was covered with cedar above, over the beams that rested on the pillars, forty-five of them, fifteen in each row. ⁴ There were window frames in three rows, and window faced window in three tiers. ⁵ All the doorways and doorposts had square frames, and window faced window in three tiers.

⁶ He made the porch of pillars; its length was fifty cubits and its width thirty cubits. There was a porch in front of them, with pillars and a canopy in front of them. ⁷ He made the porch of the throne where he was to judge, the porch of judgment; it was covered with cedar from floor to floor. ⁸ His own house where he was to live, in the other court further in from the porch, was of the same workmanship. He also made a house like this porch for Pharaoh's daughter, whom Solomon had taken as his wife. ⁹ All these were of costly stones, cut to measure and sawed with saws on the inside and on the outside, from the foundation to the coping, and on the outside up to the great court. ¹⁰ The foundation was of costly stones, great stones, stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits. ¹¹ Above were costly stones, cut to measure, and cedar. ¹² The great court had all around three courses of dressed stone and a course of cedar beams, as did the inner court of the house of Yahweh and the porch of the house.

Hiram the bronze worker

¹³ King Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tyre. ¹⁴ He was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze. He was filled with wisdom, understanding and knowledge to do every work in bronze. He came to King Solomon and did all his work.

The two bronze pillars

¹⁵ He cast the two pillars of bronze; eighteen cubits was the height of one pillar, and a line of twelve cubits went around the other pillar. ¹⁶ He made two capitals of cast bronze to set on the tops of the pillars; the height of one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other capital was five cubits. ¹⁷ There were nets of checker work and wreaths of chain work for the capitals on top of the pillars, seven for one capital and seven for the other capital. ¹⁸ He made the pillars, and two rows all around on the one network to cover the capitals that were on top of the pomegranates; and he did the same for the other capital. ¹⁹ The capitals that were on top of the pillars in the porch were of lily work, four cubits. ²⁰ The capitals on the two pillars also had pomegranates above, close to the rounded bulge that was beside the network; there were two hundred pomegranates in rows all around, on the other capital as well. ²¹ He set up the pillars at the porch of the temple. He set up the right pillar and called its name Jachin, and he set up the left pillar and called its name Boaz. ²² On top of the pillars was lily work. So the work of the pillars was finished.

The Sea and the ten stands

²³ Then he made the Sea of cast metal, ten cubits from brim to brim, round all around; its height was five cubits, and a line of thirty cubits measured around it. ²⁴ Under its brim all around were gourds encircling it, ten to a cubit, going all around the Sea; the gourds were in two rows, cast with it when it was cast. ²⁵ It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south and three facing east; the Sea rested on them, and all their hindquarters were turned inward. ²⁶ Its thickness was a handbreadth, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held two thousand baths.

²⁷ He also made the ten stands of bronze; each stand was four cubits long, four cubits wide and three cubits high. ²⁸ This was how the stands were made: they had panels, and the panels were set between the frames. ²⁹ On the panels that were between the frames were lions, oxen and cherubim; and on the frames likewise. Above and below the lions and the oxen were wreaths of hanging work. ³⁰ Each stand had four bronze wheels with axles of bronze, and its four feet had supports. The supports were cast beneath the laver, with wreaths at the side of each. ³¹ Its opening within the crown and above it was a cubit; its opening was round, made like a pedestal, a cubit and a half. On its opening also there were engravings, and their panels were square, not round. ³² The four wheels were underneath the panels, and the axles of the wheels were joined to the stand; the height of each wheel was a cubit and a half. ³³ The wheels were made like a chariot wheel; their axles, their rims, their spokes and their hubs were all cast. ³⁴ There were four supports at the four corners of each stand; its supports were of one piece with the stand. ³⁵ At the top of the stand there was a round band half a cubit high; and on the top of the stand its stays and its panels were of one piece with it. ³⁶ On the surfaces of its stays and on its panels he engraved cherubim, lions and palm trees, as each had space, with wreaths all around. ³⁷ In this way he made the ten stands; all of them had one casting, one measure and one shape. ³⁸ He made ten lavers of bronze; each laver held forty baths, and each laver measured four cubits; there was one laver on each of the ten stands. ³⁹ He put five stands on the right side of the house and five on the left side of the house; and he set the Sea on the right side of the house, toward the southeast.

The furnishings of the house of Yahweh

⁴⁰ Hiram made the lavers, the shovels and the basins. So Hiram finished doing all the work that he did for King Solomon on the house of Yahweh: ⁴¹ the two pillars, and the two bowls of the capitals that were on top of the pillars, and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on top of the pillars; ⁴² and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars; ⁴³ and the ten stands, and the ten lavers on the stands; ⁴⁴ and the one Sea, and the twelve oxen under the Sea; ⁴⁵ and the pots, the shovels and the basins. All these utensils that Hiram made for King Solomon for the house of Yahweh were of burnished bronze. ⁴⁶ In the plain of the Jordan the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan. ⁴⁷ Solomon left all the utensils unweighed, because they were so very many; the weight of the bronze was never found out.

⁴⁸ Solomon also made all the utensils that were in the house of Yahweh: the golden altar, and the table of gold on which was the bread of the Presence; ⁴⁹ the lampstands of pure gold, five on the right side and five on the left, before the inner sanctuary; and the flowers, the lamps and the snuffers, of gold; ⁵⁰ and the cups, the wick trimmers, the basins, the dishes and the firepans, of pure gold; and the hinges of gold for the doors of the inner house, the Most Holy Place, and for the doors of the house, the temple. ⁵¹ So all the work that King Solomon did on the house of Yahweh was completed. And Solomon brought in the holy things of David his father, the silver, the gold and the utensils, and he put them in the treasuries of the house of Yahweh.

Notes

• 7:1 The temple took seven years (6:38); Solomon's own house took thirteen, and the two building notices stand side by side. Some readers see a quiet contrast here, while others note that the palace complex was simply much larger, as the next verses show; the text itself makes no comment. Together they make the twenty years of 9:10.
• 7:2 The hall was named for its rows of cedar pillars, which stood like the trees of a forest of Lebanon. Later it held Solomon's golden shields and vessels (10:17, 21), and Isaiah calls it "the house of the forest" when he speaks of Jerusalem's weapons (Isaiah 22:8). A cubit was about half a meter (some 45 centimeters).
• 7:14 This Hiram is a craftsman, not Hiram the king of Tyre (5:1). He is described in the words used of Bezalel, who built the tabernacle: "in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge" (Exodus 31:3), so the temple's furnishings are made as the tabernacle's were, by one whom Elohim has gifted. 2 Chronicles 2:14 calls his mother a woman "of the daughters of Dan"; she may have been of Danite descent and living in Naphtali, or a widow of Naphtali by her first marriage.
• 7:18 The Hebrew of this verse is hard to follow, and the TRB translates it as it stands. Some Hebrew manuscripts and many translators exchange two words, so that it reads, "He made the pomegranates, two rows all around on the one network, to cover the capitals that were on top of the pillars," which agrees with verses 20 and 42.
• 7:21 Jachin (yakhin) means "He will establish," from the verb kun that Yahweh used in His promise to David: "I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever" (2 Samuel 7:13). Boaz is usually understood as "in Him is strength," though its sense is less certain. Many read the two names together as a standing witness at the temple's door that Yahweh would establish David's house in strength.
• 7:23 "The Sea" (ha-yam) was a great bronze basin standing in the court; 2 Chronicles 4:6 says it was "for the priests to wash in," so it served the purpose of the laver of the tabernacle on a far greater scale (Exodus 30:18-21). The measurements are given in round numbers. At about twenty-two liters to a bath, its two thousand baths (verse 26) would be some forty-four thousand liters; 2 Chronicles 4:5 gives three thousand baths, and the size of the bath is not known for certain.

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