Immerse: Chronicles Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 65
2C
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C hronicles – E Z R A – N E H E M I A H
53
Solomon took a census of all foreigners in the land of Israel, like the
census his father had taken, and he counted 153,600. He assigned 70,000
of them as common laborers, 80,000 as quarry workers in the hill country,
and 3,600 as foremen.
So Solomon began to build the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on
Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David, his father. The
Temple was built on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebus ite, the site
that David had selected. The construction began in midspring, during the
fourth year of Solomon’s reign.
These are the dimensions Solomon used for the foundation of the
Temple of God (using the old standard of measurement). It was 90 feet
long and 30 feet wide. The entry room at the front of the Temple was
30 feet wide, running across the entire width of the Temple, and 30 feet
high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold.
He paneled the main room of the Temple with cypress wood, overlaid
it with fine gold, and decorated it with carvings of palm trees and chains.
He decorated the walls of the Temple with beautiful jewels and with gold
from the land of Parvaim. He overlaid the beams, thresholds, walls, and
doors throughout the Temple with gold, and he carved figures of cherubim on the walls.
He made the Most Holy Place 30 feet wide, corresponding to the width
of the Temple, and 30 feet deep. He overlaid its interior with 23 tons of
fine gold. The gold nails that were used weighed 20 ounces each. He also
overlaid the walls of the upper rooms with gold.
He made two figures shaped like cherubim, overlaid them with gold,
and placed them in the Most Holy Place. The total wingspan of the two
cherubim standing side by side was 30 feet. One wing of the first figure
was 71/2 feet long, and it touched the Temple wall. The other wing, also
71/2 feet long, touched one of the wings of the second figure. In the same
way, the second figure had one wing 71/2 feet long that touched the opposite wall. The other wing, also 71/2 feet long, touched the wing of the first
figure. So the wingspan of the two cherubim side by side was 30 feet. They
stood on their feet and faced out toward the main room of the Temple.
Across the entrance of the Most Holy Place he hung a curtain made of
fine linen, decorated with blue, purple, and scarlet thread and embroidered with figures of cherubim.
For the front of the Temple, he made two pillars that were 27 feet tall,
each topped by a capital extending upward another 71/2 feet. He made a
network of interwoven chains and used them to decorate the tops of the
pillars. He also made 100 decorative pomegranates and attached them to
the chains. Then he set up the two pillars at the entrance of the Temple,
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