1 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year that Solomon was king of Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, the building of the Lord's house was started.
2 The house which Solomon made for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.
3 The covered way before the Temple of the house was twenty cubits long, as wide as the house, and ten cubits wide in front of the house.
4 And for the house he made windows, with network across.
5 And against the walls all round, and against the walls of the Temple and of the inmost room, he put up wings, with side rooms all round:
6 The lowest line of them being five cubits wide, the middle six cubits wide and the third seven cubits; for there was a space all round the outside walls of the house so that the boards supporting the rooms did not have to be fixed in the walls of the house.
7 (And the stones used in the building of the house were squared at the place where they were cut out; there was no sound of hammer or axe or any iron instrument while they were building the house.)
8 The door to the lowest side rooms was in the right side of the house; and they went up by twisting steps into the middle rooms, and from the middle into the third.
9 So he put up the house and made it complete, roofing it with boards of cedar-wood.
10 And he put up the line of side rooms against the walls of the house, fifteen cubits high, resting against the house on boards of cedar-wood.
11 (And the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying,
12 About this house which you are building: if you will keep my laws and give effect to my decisions and be guided by my rules, I will give effect to my word which I gave to David your father.
13 And I will be ever among the children of Israel, and will not go away from my people.
14 So Solomon made the building of the house complete.)
15 The walls of the house were covered inside with cedar-wood boards; from the floor to the roof of the house they were covered inside with wood; and the floor was covered with boards of cypress-wood.
16 And at the back of the house a further space of twenty cubits was shut in with boards of cedar-wood, for the inmost room.
17 And the house, that is, the Temple, in front of the holy place was forty cubits long.
18 (All the inside of the house was cedar-wood, ornamented with designs of buds and flowers; no stonework was to be seen inside.)
19 And he made ready an inmost room in the middle of the house, in which to put the ark of the agreement of the Lord.
20 And the inmost room was twenty cubits square and twenty cubits high, plated over with clear gold, and he made an altar of cedar-wood, plating it with gold.
21 Solomon had all the inside of the house covered with gold, and he put chains of gold across in front of the inmost room, which itself was covered with gold.
22 Plates of gold were put all through the house till it was covered completely (and the altar in the inmost room was all covered with gold).
23 In the inmost room he made two winged beings of olive-wood, ten cubits high;
24 With outstretched wings five cubits wide; the distance from the edge of one wing to the edge of the other was ten cubits.
25 The two winged ones were ten cubits high, of the same size and form.
26 The two of them were ten cubits high.
27 These were placed inside the inner house, their outstretched wings touching the walls of the house, one touching one wall and one the other, while their other wings were touching in the middle.
28 These winged ones were plated over with gold.
29 And all the walls of the house inside and out were ornamented with forms of winged ones and palm-trees and open flowers.
30 And the floor of the house was covered with gold, inside and out.
31 For the way into the inmost room he made doors of olive-wood, the arch and the door supports forming a five-sided opening.
32 On the olive-wood doors were cut designs of winged ones and palm-trees and open flowers, all of them, with the doors, plated with gold.
33 Then he made pillars of olive-wood for the way into the Temple; the pillars were square:
34 And two folding doors of cypress-wood, with two leaves.
35 These were ornamented with designs of winged ones and palm-trees and open flowers, plated over with gold.
36 And the inner space was walled with three lines of squared stones and a line of cedar-wood boards.
37 In the fourth year the base of the house was put in its place, in the month Ziv.
38 And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, the building of the house was complete in every detail, as it had been designed. So he was seven years building it.
1 Foi na primavera do quarto ano do reinado de Salomão que ele começou efectivamente a construção do templo; 480 anos depois do povo de Israel ter deixado a escravidão do Egipto.
2 O templo tinha trinta metros de comprimento, dez de largura e quinze de altura.
3 A fachada principal tinha um pórtico de dez metros de comprimento e cinco de fundo.
4 Tinha janelas com grades.
5 Fez também edificar compartimentos em todo o comprimento de ambos os lados do templo, contra as paredes exteriores. Estes quartos eram da altura de três andares, sendo o do primeiro piso de dois metros e meio de largura, o segundo piso de três metros e o de cima, três e meio. Os compartimentos estavam ligados à parede do templo por vigas que se prendiam a blocos no exterior da parede, portanto as vigas não estavam inseridas mesmo na parede.
7 As pedras usadas na construção do templo foram assentes sem o ruído de martelo nem de qualquer outro instrumento semelhante.
8 Para o andar inferior dos compartimentos laterais entrava-se pelo lado direito do templo, e havia umas escadas em caracol até ao segundo andar; um outro lanço de escadas levava até ao último piso, o terceiro.
9 Acabada a edificação, Salomão mandou revesti-la toda, incluindo as traves e os pilares, com cedro.
10 Tal como se disse, havia de cada lado da construção, encostado às paredes laterais, um anexo de quartos, ligado ao edifício com vigas de cedro. Cada andar desse anexo media dois metros e meio de altura.
11 Então o Senhor deu a Salomão a seguinte mensagem respeitante ao templo que estava a construir: Se andares de acordo com a minha palavra e seguires os meus mandamentos e instruções, farei o que disse ao teu pai David: Viverei no meio do povo de Israel e nunca os desampararei.
14 Por fim o templo ficou acabado. Todo o interior foi revestido de cedro, do chão ao tecto; o sobrado foi feito com pranchas de cipreste. Igual revestimento sofreu a câmara interior, no fundo do templo - o lugar santíssimo - também do chão ao tecto, com tábuas de cedro; só que estas tiveram de ser cortadas à medida do compartimento, portanto, tábuas de dez metros; para o resto do templo - para além do lugar santíssimo - empregaram-se tábuas de vinte metros. Por todo o edifício, o revestimento de cedro que cobria a pedra das paredes tinha incrustados botões de flores e flores abertas.
19 O compartimento interior era onde estava a arca da aliança do Senhor. Este santuário interior tinha dez metros de comprimento, dez metros de largura e dez metros de altura. As paredes e o tecto eram cobertos de ouro puro. Salomão fez um altar de cedro para esta sala. Depois mandou revestir o resto do interior do templo com ouro puro, incluindo o altar de cedro; fez também umas cadeias de ouro para proteger a entrada do lugar santíssimo.
23 Para o interior deste, fez as estátuas de dois querubins de madeira de oliveira, cada uma delas com cinco metros de altura. Foram postos lado a lado de tal forma que com as asas abertas, as do lado exterior tocassem em ambas as paredes laterais, e as do interior se tocassem uma à outra, no centro da peça; cada asa media portanto dois metros e meio e cada querubim, com as asas abertas atingia o dobro dessa medida - os dois anjos eram pois de medidas iguais. Estavam recobertos de ouro.
29 Havia figuras de querubins, palmeiras, flores abertas incrustradas nas paredes do templo e do santuário interior; o chão de ambos os lugares também estava revestido de ouro.
31 A entrada para o lugar santíssimo eram portas com cinco lados, de madeira de oliveira, tinham também querubins desenhados, palmeiras e flores abertas; e tudo recoberto de ouro.
33 Mandou igualmente fazer ombreiras de madeira de oliveira para a entrada do templo.
34 Colocaram-se duas portas duplas, feitas de madeira de cipreste; cada porta dobrava-se sobre si mesma. Também estas portas tinham os mesmos desenhos - querubins, palmeiras, flores abertas - todas revestidas cuidadosamente de ouro.
36 As paredes do átrio interior tinham três fiadas de pedras lavradas intercaladas com uma de vigas de cedro.
37 Os alicerces do templo foram postos no mês de Maio do quarto ano do reinado de Salomão, e todo o edifício ficou inteiramente completo, com todos os seus acabamentos, em Novembro do décimo primeiro ano do seu reinado. Levou portanto sete anos a construir.