1. So in the month of Ziv, the second month of the year, during Solomon’s fourth year as king, he began work on the Temple. This was 480 years after the Israelites left Egypt.
2. The Temple was 60 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high.
3. The porch of the Temple was 20 cubits long and 10 cubits wide. The porch ran along the front of the main part of the Temple itself. Its length was equal to the width of the Temple.
4. There were narrow windows in the Temple. These windows were smaller on the inside of the wall than on the outside.
5. Then Solomon built a row of rooms around the main part of the Temple. This row of rooms was three stories tall with the rooms built one above the other.
6. The rooms touched the Temple wall, but their beams were not built into that wall. The Temple wall became thinner at the top, so the rooms on the upper floors were larger than the ones below them. The rooms on the bottom floor were 5 cubits wide. The rooms on the middle floor were 6 cubits wide. The rooms above that were 7 cubits wide.
7. The stones were completely finished before they were brought into the Temple area, so there was no noise of hammers, axes, or any other iron tools in the Temple.
8. The entrance to these rooms was on bottom floor at the south side of the Temple. Inside there were stairs that went up to the second floor and from there to the third floor.
9. Solomon finished building the main part of the Temple and then covered it inside with cedar boards.
10. Then he finished building the rooms around the Temple. Each story was 5 cubits tall. The cedar beams in these rooms rested on a ledge of the Temple wall.
11. The Lord said to Solomon,
12. “If you obey all my laws and commands, I will do for you what I promised your father David.
13. I will live among the children of Israel in this Temple that you are building, and I will never leave the people of Israel.”
14. When Solomon finished the stonework on the Temple,
15. the stone walls inside the Temple were covered with cedar boards from floor to ceiling. Then the stone floor was covered with pine boards.
16. They built an inner room 20 cubits long in the back part of the Temple. This room was called the Most Holy Place. They covered the walls in this room with cedar boards, from floor to ceiling.