1. In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites went forth from the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv (the second month), he began to build the house of the Lord.
2. The house which King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty wide, and thirty high.
3. The porch in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits from side to side along the width of the house, and ten cubits deep in front of the house.
4. Windows with closed lattices were made for the house,
5. and adjoining the wall of the house he built a substructure around its walls that enclosed the nave and the inner sanctuary, and he made side chambers all around.
6. The lowest story was five cubits wide, the middle one six cubits wide, the third seven cubits wide, because he put recesses along the outside of the house to avoid fastening anything into the walls of the house.
7. The house was built of stone dressed at the quarry, so that no hammer or ax, no iron tool, was to be heard in the house during its construction.
8. The entrance to the middle story was on the south side of the house; stairs led up to the middle story and from the middle story to the third.
9. When he had finished building the house, it was roofed in with rafters and boards of cedar.