Solomon Begins Building the Father's House
The building begins on Mount Moriah, at the threshing floor David bought, where our Father had appeared to him. Measurements, gold overlay, carved cherubim, the woven curtain, and two pillars named Jachin and Boaz — the site matters here as much as the splendour.
3 1Then Solomon began building our Father's house in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, where our Father had appeared to his father David, at the site David had prepared on Ornan the Jebusite's threshing floor. 2He began building in the second month, second day, in the fourth year of his reign. 3These are the foundations Solomon laid for building the house of our Father: length about ninety feet by the earlier standard, width about thirty feet. 4The portico across the house's front, along the width of the house, was about thirty feet wide; its height was 120 feet. He covered the inside with pure gold.
5He paneled the large room with cypress wood, covered it in fine gold, and added palm trees and chains. 6He adorned the house with precious stones for beauty, and the gold was from Parvaim. 7He covered the house—beams, thresholds, walls, doors—with gold, and carved cherubim on the walls.
8He made the Most Holy Place, its length matching the house's width—about thirty feet—and its width also thirty feet. He overlaid it with about twenty-three tons of fine gold. 9Nails weighed about twenty ounces of gold; he covered the upper rooms with gold.
10In the Most Holy Place he made two carved cherubim, gilded them. 11Together the cherubim's wings spanned about thirty feet: one wing of the first cherub, about seven and a half feet, touched the house wall; its other wing, also about seven and a half feet, touched the second cherub's wing. 12The second cherub's wing, about seven and a half feet, touched the house wall; its other wing, also about seven and a half feet, joined the first cherub's wing. 13The wings of these cherubim spread about thirty feet; they stood on their feet, facing the main hall.
14He made the curtain of blue, purple, and crimson yarn and fine linen, with cherubim woven into it.
15In front of the house he made two pillars, each about fifty-three feet tall, topped with a capital about seven and a half feet high. 16He made chains like a necklace, put them atop the pillars, made one hundred pomegranates, and fastened them to the chains. 17He set up the pillars in front of the temple, one to the right, one to the left, naming the right one Jachin and the left one Boaz.
