Reflections on 1 Kings 7

1 Kings 07 (Contemporary English Version)

1. Solomon's palace took thirteen years to build.
   
2. Forest Hall was the largest room in the palace. It was one hundred fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high, and was lined with cedar from Lebanon. It had four rows of cedar pillars, fifteen in a row, and they held up forty-five cedar beams. The ceiling was covered with cedar.
   
3. (SEE 7:2)
   
4. Three rows of windows on each side faced each other,
   
5. and there were three doors on each side near the front of the hall.
   
6. Pillar Hall was seventy-five feet long and forty-five feet wide. A covered porch supported by pillars went all the way across the front of the hall.
   
7. Solomon's throne was in Justice Hall, where he judged cases. This hall was completely lined with cedar.
   
8. The section of the palace where Solomon lived was behind Justice Hall and looked exactly like it. He had a similar place built for his wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt.
   
9. From the foundation all the way to the top, these buildings and the courtyard were made out of the best stones carefully cut to size, then smoothed on every side with saws.
   
10. The foundation stones were huge, good stones--some of them fifteen feet long and others twelve feet long.
    
11. The cedar beams and other stones that had been cut to size were on top of these foundation stones.
    
12. The walls around the palace courtyard were made out of three layers of cut stones with one layer of cedar beams, just like the front porch and the inner courtyard of the temple.
    
13. Hiram was a skilled bronze worker from the city of Tyre. His father was now dead, but he also had been a bronze worker from Tyre, and his mother was from the tribe of Naphtali. King Solomon asked Hiram to come to Jerusalem and make the bronze furnishings to use for worship in the LORD's temple, and he agreed to do it.
    
14. (SEE 7:13)
    
15. Hiram made two bronze columns twenty-seven feet tall and about six feet across.
    
16. For the top of each column, he also made a bronze cap seven and a half feet high.
    
17. The caps were decorated with seven rows of designs that looked like chains,
    
18. with two rows of designs that looked like pomegranates.
    
19. The caps for the columns of the porch were six feet high and were shaped like lilies.
    
20. The chain designs on the caps were right above the rounded tops of the two columns, and there were two hundred pomegranates in rows around each cap.
    
21. Hiram placed the two columns on each side of the main door of the temple. The column on the south side was called Jachin, and the one on the north was called Boaz.
    
22. The lily-shaped caps were on top of the columns. This completed the work on the columns.
    
23. Hiram also made a large bowl called the Sea. It was seven and a half feet deep, about fifteen feet across, and forty-five feet around.
    
24. Two rows of bronze gourds were around the outer edge of the bowl, ten gourds to every eighteen inches.
    
25. The bowl itself sat on top of twelve bronze bulls with three bulls facing outward in each of four directions.
    
26. The sides of the bowl were four inches thick, and its rim was like a cup that curved outward like flower petals. The bowl held about eleven thousand gallons.
    
27. Hiram made ten movable bronze stands, each one four and a half feet high, six feet long, and six feet wide.
    
28. The sides were made with panels attached to frames decorated with flower designs. The panels themselves were decorated with figures of lions, bulls, and winged creatures.
    
29. (SEE 7:28)
    
30. Each stand had four bronze wheels and axles and a round frame twenty-seven inches across, held up by four supports eighteen inches high. A small bowl rested in the frame. The supports were decorated with flower designs, and the frame with carvings. The side panels of the stands were square,
    
31. (SEE 7:30)
    
32. and the wheels and axles were underneath them. The wheels were about twenty-seven inches high
    
33. and looked like chariot wheels. The axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were made out of bronze.
    
34. Around the top of each stand was a nine-inch strip, and there were four braces attached to the corners of each stand. The panels and the supports were attached to the stands,
    
35. (SEE 7:34)
    
36. and the stands were decorated with flower designs and figures of lions, palm trees, and winged creatures.
    
37. Hiram made the ten bronze stands from the same mold, so they were exactly the same size and shape.
    
38. Hiram also made ten small bronze bowls, one for each stand. The bowls were six feet across and could hold about two hundred thirty gallons.
    
39. He put five stands on the south side of the temple, five stands on the north side, and the large bowl at the southeast corner of the temple.
    
40. Hiram made pans for hot ashes, and also shovels and sprinkling bowls. This is a list of the bronze items that Hiram made for the LORD's temple:
    
41. two columns; two bowl-shaped caps for the tops of the columns; two chain designs on the caps;
    
42. four hundred pomegranates for the chain designs;
    
43. ten movable stands; ten small bowls for the stands;
    
44. a large bowl; twelve bulls that held up the bowl;
    
45. pans for hot ashes, and also shovels and sprinkling bowls. Hiram made these bronze things for Solomon
    
46. near the Jordan River between Succoth and Zarethan by pouring melted bronze into clay molds.
    
47. There were so many bronze things that Solomon never bothered to weigh them, and no one ever knew how much bronze was used.
    
48. Solomon gave orders to make the following temple furnishings out of gold: the altar; the table that held the sacred loaves of bread;
    
49. ten lampstands that went in front of the most holy place; flower designs; lamps and tongs;
    
50. cups, lamp snuffers, and small sprinkling bowls; dishes for incense; fire pans; and the hinges for the doors to the most holy place and the main room of the temple.
    
51. After the LORD's temple was finished, Solomon put into its storage rooms everything that his father David had dedicated to the LORD, including the gold and the silver.
    

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Solomon undertook building of the temple of the Lord and a palace for himself as a joint project. Completion of the temple took 7 years and of the palace, 13 years. 2 Chronicles 8:1 says that, "At the end of 20 years during which Solomon had built the LORD's temple and his own palace . . ." We can gather from this that construction of the temple took place followed by construction of the palace. Consecutively rather than simultaneously.

Accounts of chapter 7 in 1 Kings give the feel of the two happening at the same time. However, it would appear that the making of temple furniture overlapped into construction of the palace. Hiram, a master craftsman of bronze, a man of Jewish lineage, and a resident of Tyre, was brought to Jerusalem to build the temple furniture. Verse 13 of chapter 7 picks up with the account of Solomon bringing Hiram to Jerusalem to undertake the bronze work and suddenly the attention is turned back to the temple.

Once the temple was completed, Solomon "brought in the consecrated things of his father David--the silver, the gold, and the utensils--and put them in the treasuries of the LORD's temple." (7:51) David had made elaborate preparations for the temple. So although he was unable to build it, we was able to participate in its building. Unfortunately, he was unable to see the outcome.