2 Chronicles 1-4

2 Chronicles 1

¹Now Solomon son of David established himself securely over his kingdom, and the LORD his God was with him and highly exalted him.

²Then Solomon spoke to all Israel, to the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, to the judges, and to every leader in all Israel—the heads of the families.

³And Solomon and the whole assembly went to the high place at Gibeon because it was the location of God’s Tent of Meeting, which Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the wilderness.

⁴Now David had brought the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim to the place he had prepared for it, because he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem.

⁵But the bronze altar made by Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, was in Gibeon before the tabernacle of the LORD. So Solomon and the assembly inquired of Him there.

⁶Solomon offered sacrifices there before the LORD on the bronze altar at the Tent of Meeting, where he offered a thousand burnt offerings.

⁷That night God appeared to Solomon and said, “Ask, and I will give it to you!”

⁸Solomon replied to God: “You have shown much loving devotion to my father David, and You have made me king in his place.

⁹Now, O LORD God, let Your promise to my father David be fulfilled. For You have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth.

¹⁰Now grant me wisdom and knowledge, so that I may lead this people. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours?”

¹¹God said to Solomon, “Since this was in your heart instead of requesting riches or wealth or honor for yourself or death for your enemies—and since you have not even requested long life but have asked for wisdom and knowledge to govern My people over whom I have made you king—

¹²therefore wisdom and knowledge have been granted to you. And I will also give you riches and wealth and honor unlike anything given to the kings before you or after you.”

¹³So Solomon went to Jerusalem from the high place in Gibeon, from before the Tent of Meeting, and he reigned over Israel.

¹⁴Solomon accumulated 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses, which he stationed in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem.

¹⁵The king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as abundant as sycamore in the foothills.

¹⁶Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and Kue; the royal merchants purchased them from Kue.

¹⁷A chariot could be imported from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty. Likewise, they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Aram.

2 Chronicles 2

¹Now Solomon purposed to build a house for the Name of the LORD and a royal palace for himself.

²So he conscripted 70,000 porters, 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains, and 3,600 supervisors.

³Then Solomon sent word to Hiram king of Tyre: “Do for me as you did for my father David when you sent him cedars to build himself a house to live in.

⁴Behold, I am about to build a house for the Name of the LORD my God to dedicate to Him for burning fragrant incense before Him, for displaying the showbread continuously, and for making burnt offerings every morning and evening as well as on the Sabbaths, New Moons, and appointed feasts of the LORD our God. This is ordained for Israel forever.

⁵The house that I am building will be great, for our God is greater than all gods.

⁶But who is able to build a house for Him, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain Him? Who then am I, that I should build a house for Him, except as a place to burn sacrifices before Him?

⁷Send me, therefore, a craftsman skilled in engraving to work with gold and silver, with bronze and iron, and with purple, crimson, and blue yarn. He will work with my craftsmen in Judah and Jerusalem, whom my father David provided.

⁸Send me also cedar, cypress, and algum logs from Lebanon, for I know that your servants have skill to cut timber there. And indeed, my servants will work with yours

⁹to prepare for me timber in abundance, because the temple I am building will be great and wonderful.

¹⁰I will pay your servants, the woodcutters, 20,000 cors of ground wheat, 20,000 cors of barley, 20,000 baths of wine, and 20,000 baths of olive oil.”

¹¹Then Hiram king of Tyre wrote a letter in reply to Solomon: “Because the LORD loves His people, He has set you over them as king.”

¹²And Hiram added: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who made the heavens and the earth! He has given King David a wise son with insight and understanding, who will build a temple for the LORD and a royal palace for himself.

¹³So now I am sending you Huram-abi, a skillful man endowed with creativity.

¹⁴He is the son of a woman from the daughters of Dan, and his father is a man of Tyre. He is skilled in work with gold and silver, bronze and iron, stone and wood, purple, blue, and crimson yarn, and fine linen. He is experienced in every kind of engraving and can execute any design that is given him. He will work with your craftsmen and with those of my lord, your father David.

¹⁵Now let my lord send to his servants the wheat, barley, olive oil, and wine he promised.

¹⁶We will cut logs from Lebanon, as many as you need, and we will float them to you as rafts by sea down to Joppa. Then you can take them up to Jerusalem.”

¹⁷Solomon numbered all the foreign men in the land of Israel following the census his father David had conducted, and there were found to be 153,600 in all.

¹⁸Solomon made 70,000 of them porters, 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains, and 3,600 supervisors.

2 Chronicles 3

¹Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. This was the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

²Solomon began construction on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.

³The foundation that Solomon laid for the house of God was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide, according to the old standard.

⁴The portico at the front, extending across the width of the temple, was twenty cubits long and twenty cubits high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold.

⁵He paneled the main room with cypress, which he overlaid with fine gold and decorated with palm trees and chains.

⁶He adorned the temple with precious stones for beauty, and its gold was from Parvaim.

⁷He overlaid its beams, thresholds, walls, and doors with gold, and he carved cherubim on the walls.

⁸Then he made the Most Holy Place; its length corresponded to the width of the temple—twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. And he overlaid the inside with six hundred talents of fine gold.

⁹The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. He also overlaid the upper rooms with gold.

¹⁰In the Most Holy Place he made two cherubim of sculptured work, and he overlaid them with gold.

¹¹The total wingspan of the cherubim was twenty cubits. One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long and touched the wall of the temple, and its other wing was five cubits long and touched the wing of the other cherub.

¹²The wing of the second cherub also measured five cubits and touched the wall of the temple, while its other wing measured five cubits and touched the wing of the first cherub.

¹³So the total wingspan of these cherubim was twenty cubits. They stood on their feet, facing the main room.

¹⁴He made the veil of blue, purple, and crimson yarn and fine linen, with cherubim woven into it.

¹⁵In front of the temple he made two pillars, which together were thirty-five cubits high, each with a capital on top measuring five cubits.

¹⁶He made interwoven chains and put them on top of the pillars. He made a hundred pomegranates and fastened them into the chainwork.

¹⁷Then he set up the pillars in front of the temple, one on the south and one on the north. The pillar on the south he named Jachin, and the pillar on the north he named Boaz.

2 Chronicles 4

¹He made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and ten cubits high.

²He also made the Sea of cast metal. It was circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim, five cubits in height, and thirty cubits in circumference.

³Below the rim, figures of oxen encircled it, ten per cubit all the way around the Sea, cast in two rows as a part of the Sea.

⁴The Sea stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The Sea rested on them, with all their hindquarters toward the center.

⁵It was a handbreadth thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold three thousand baths.

⁶He also made ten basins for washing and placed five on the south side and five on the north. The parts of the burnt offering were rinsed in them, but the priests used the Sea for washing.

⁷He made ten gold lampstands according to their specifications and placed them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north.

⁸Additionally, he made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north. He also made a hundred gold bowls.

⁹He made the courtyard of the priests and the large court with its doors, and he overlaid the doors with bronze.

¹⁰He put the Sea on the south side, at the southeast corner.

¹¹Additionally, Huram made the pots, shovels, and sprinkling bowls. So Huram finished the work that he had undertaken for King Solomon in the house of God:

¹²the two pillars; the two bowl-shaped capitals atop the pillars; the two sets of network covering both bowls of the capitals atop the pillars;

¹³the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of network (two rows of pomegranates for each network covering both the bowl-shaped capitals atop the pillars);

¹⁴the stands; the basins on the stands;

¹⁵the Sea; the twelve oxen underneath the Sea;

¹⁶and the pots, shovels, meat forks, and all the other articles. All these objects that Huram-abi made for King Solomon for the house of the LORD were of polished bronze.

¹⁷The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zeredah.

¹⁸Solomon made all these articles in such great abundance that the weight of the bronze could not be determined.

¹⁹Solomon also made all the furnishings for the house of God: the golden altar; the tables on which was placed the Bread of the Presence;

²⁰the lampstands of pure gold and their lamps, to burn in front of the inner sanctuary as prescribed;

²¹the flowers, lamps, and tongs of gold—of purest gold;

²²the wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, ladles, and censers of pure gold; and the gold doors of the temple: the inner doors to the Most Holy Place as well as the doors of the main hall.