King James Version · The united kingdom
1 Kings 6
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And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the were come out of the land of , in the fourth year of ’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the . And the house which king built for , the length thereof was threescore , and the breadth thereof twenty , and the height thereof thirty . And the porch before of the house, twenty was the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; and ten was the breadth thereof before the house. And for the house he made windows of narrow lights. And against the wall of the house he built chambers round about, against the walls of the house round about, both of and of the oracle: and he made chambers round about: 6The nethermost chamber was five broad, and the middle was six broad, and the third was seven broad: for without in the wall of the house he made narrowed rests round about, that the beams should not be fastened in the walls of the house. And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building. The door for the middle chamber was in the right side of the house: and they went up with winding stairs into the middle chamber, and out of the middle into the third. So he built the house, and finished it; and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar. 10And then he built chambers against all the house, five high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar. 11And to , saying, Concerning this house which thou art in building, if thou wilt walk in , and execute my judgments, and keep all my to walk in them; then will I perform my word with thee, which I spake unto thy : And I will among the , and will not forsake my people Israel. So built the house, and finished it. And he built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar, both the floor of the house, and the walls of the cieling: and he covered them on the inside with wood, and covered the floor of the house with planks of fir. And he built twenty on the sides of the house, both the floor and the walls with boards of cedar: he even built them for it within, even for the oracle, even for the most place. 17And the house, that is, before it, was forty long. And the cedar of the house within was carved with knops and open flowers: all was cedar; there was no stone seen. And the oracle he prepared in the house within, to set there the of . And the oracle in the forepart was twenty in length, and twenty in breadth, and twenty in the height thereof: and he overlaid it with pure gold; and so covered the which was of cedar. So overlaid the house within with pure gold: and he made a partition by the chains of gold before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold. And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the house: also the whole that was by the oracle he overlaid with gold. And within the oracle he made two cherubims of olive tree, each ten high. 24And five was the one of the , and five the other of the : from the uttermost part of the one unto the uttermost part of the other were ten . 25And the other was ten : both the cherubims were of one measure and one size. 26The height of the one was ten , and so was it of the other . And he set the cherubims within the inner house: and they stretched forth the of the cherubims, so that the of the one touched the one wall, and the of the other touched the other wall; and their touched one another in the midst of the house. 28And he overlaid the cherubims with gold. And he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers, within and without. And the floor of the house he overlaid with gold, within and without. And for the entering of the oracle he made doors of olive tree: the lintel and side posts were a fifth part of the wall. The two doors also were of olive tree; and he carved upon them carvings of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold, and spread gold upon the cherubims, and upon the palm trees. 33So also made he for the door of posts of olive tree, a fourth part of the wall. And the two doors were of fir tree: the two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding. 35And he carved thereon cherubims and palm trees and open flowers: and covered them with gold fitted upon the carved work. And he built the inner court with three rows of hewed stone, and a row of cedar beams. In the fourth year was the foundation of the laid, in the month Zif: And in the eleventh year, in the month , which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The united kingdom, 1050 BC to 931 BC ›
Saul, David, and Solomon. A rare window when both Egypt and Mesopotamia are weak, which is how a small kingdom in the corridor between them could briefly become a regional power.
- The power vacuum
- This is the whole political explanation for the united kingdom. Egypt is fragmented, Assyria is recovering but still local, the Hittites are gone, and nobody is in a position to object to a strong state in the corridor. It lasts about a century, and Israel's golden age fits exactly inside it.
- Phoenicia
- Tyre under Hiram is the commercial power of the coast, and supplies the cedar, the craftsmen, and the shipping for Solomon's building programme. The alliance is trade, not charity: Israel had grain and a land route, Tyre had timber and ships.
- Egypt
- Weak enough that a pharaoh gives a daughter in marriage to an Israelite king, which is the opposite of Egyptian practice in stronger centuries. Late in the era it recovers under a new house, and Shishak will invade within five years of Solomon's death.
- Further afield
- Greece is still in its dark age but beginning to recover, and will adopt the Phoenician alphabet within a century or two. Carthage is founded by settlers from Tyre by tradition in 814 BC. In the Americas the Olmec centre shifts to La Venta.