1 Kings 7 · WEB
Solomon's Palace and the Temple Furnishings
Listen — WEB narration 0:00 / 0:00 Narration: World English Bible (David Williams), public domain — AudioTreasure.
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Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.
2He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon. Its length was one hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits, on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams on the pillars.
3It was covered with cedar above over the forty-five side rooms that were on the pillars; fifteen in a row.
4There were three rows of window openings; and window was opposite window in three ranks.
5All the doorways and door posts had square frames; and window was opposite window in three ranks.
6He made the porch of pillars. Its length was fifty cubits, and its width thirty cubits; and a porch was in front of them; and pillars and a threshold were in front of them.
7He made the porch of the throne where he was to judge, even the porch of judgment; and it was covered with cedar from floor to ceiling.
8His house where he was to dwell, the other court within the porch, was of similar work. He also made a house for Pharaoh's daughter, whom Solomon had taken as wife, similar to this porch.
9All these were of costly stones, even of cut stone, according to measure, sawed with saws, inside and outside, even from the foundation to the coping, and so on the outside to the great court.
10The foundation was of costly stones, even great stones — stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits.
11On top were costly stones, according to measure, cut stone, and cedar wood.
12The great court around had three courses of cut stone and a course of cedar beams, like the inner court of Yahweh's house and the porch of the house.
13King Solomon sent and fetched Huram out of Tyre.
14He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze. He was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill in working in bronze. He came to king Solomon and performed all his work.
15He fashioned the two pillars of bronze. Eighteen cubits was the height of one pillar, and a line of twelve cubits encircled it; and so the other pillar.
16He made two capitals of molten bronze to set on the tops of the pillars. The height of the one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other capital was five cubits.
17There were nets of checker work and wreaths of chain work for the capitals which were on the top of the pillars: seven for the one capital and seven for the other capital.
18So he made the pillars; and there were two rows around on the one network to cover the capitals that were on the top of the pillars with pomegranates; and so he did for the other capital.
19The capitals that were on the top of the pillars in the porch were of lily work, four cubits.
20The capitals on the two pillars also had pomegranates above, close to the belly which was beside the network: and the pomegranates were two hundred in rows around on the other capital.
21He set up the pillars at the porch of the temple. He set up the right pillar and called its name Jachin; and he set up the left pillar and called its name Boaz.
22On the top of the pillars was lily work. So the work of the pillars was finished.
23He made the molten sea. It was round, ten cubits from brim to brim, and five cubits high. A line of thirty cubits encircled it.
24Under its brim all around there were gourds encircling it, ten in a cubit, encircling the sea all around. The gourds were in two rows, cast when it was cast.
25It stood on twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, three looking toward the west, three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east; and the sea was set on them, and all their hindquarters were toward the center.
26It was a handbreadth thick. Its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily. It held two thousand baths.
27He made the ten bases of bronze. Each base was four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three cubits high.
28The work of the bases was like this: they had panels; and the panels were between the ledges;
29and on the panels that were between the ledges were lions, oxen, and cherubim. On the ledges there was a pedestal above; and beneath the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging work.
30Every base had four bronze wheels, with axles of bronze; and its four feet had supports: the supports were cast, with wreaths at the side of each.
31Its opening within the capital and above was a cubit; and its opening was round after the work of a pedestal, a cubit and a half. Also on its opening were engravings; and their panels were square, not round.
32The four wheels were under the panels; and the axles of the wheels were in the base; and the height of a wheel was a cubit and half a cubit.
33The work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel. Their axles, their rims, their spokes, and their hubs were all molten.
34There were four supports at the four corners of each base. Its supports were part of the base itself.
35In the top of the base there was a round band half a cubit high; and on the top of the base its stays and its panels were the same.
36On the plates of its stays and on its panels, he engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, according to the space of each, with wreaths all around.
37He made the ten bases this way. All of them had the same casting, the same measure, and the same form.
38He made ten basins of bronze: each basin contained forty baths; and each basin was four cubits; and each basin was on each of the ten bases.
39He put the five bases on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house: and he set the sea on the right side of the house eastward, toward the south.
40Huram made the basins and the shovels and the basins. So Huram finished doing all the work that he worked for king Solomon in Yahweh's house:
41the two pillars, and the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars; and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars;
42and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks; two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars;
43and the ten bases, and the ten basins on the bases;
44and the one sea, and the twelve oxen under the sea;
45and the pots, the shovels, and the basins — even all these vessels which Huram made for king Solomon, for Yahweh's house — were of burnished bronze.
46The king cast them in the plain of the Jordan in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan.
47Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because there were so very many of them. The weight of the bronze was not determined.
48Solomon made all the vessels that were in Yahweh's house: the golden altar, and the table for the show bread, of gold;
49and the lamp stands, five on the right side and five on the left, in front of the inner sanctuary, of pure gold; and the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs, of gold;
50and the cups, the snuffers, the basins, the spoons, and the fire pans, of pure gold; and the hinges, both for the doors of the inner house — the most holy place — and for the doors of the house, that is, of the temple, of gold.
51Thus all the work that king Solomon did for Yahweh's house was finished. Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated, the silver, the gold, and the vessels, and put them in the treasuries of Yahweh's house.
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Summary
Solomon's building program extended beyond the Temple to an elaborate palace complex that took thirteen years to complete. The centerpiece of the chapter, however, is the work of Huram, a master craftsman from Tyre, who fashioned the Temple's extraordinary bronze furnishings: the two great pillars named Jachin and Boaz, the massive bronze Sea supported by twelve oxen, ten wheeled bronze stands with basins, and a host of smaller vessels. The chapter concludes with Solomon completing the Temple's gold furnishings and placing David's dedicated offerings in the Temple treasuries.
Themes
- Skilled craftsmanship as a gift from God for sacred service
- The grandeur of God's dwelling place reflecting his glory
- Completion — all that David had prepared and Solomon had built is now finished
- The integration of human artistry and divine purpose
Key verses
- 1 Kgs 7:14 — “He was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill in working in bronze.”
- 1 Kgs 7:21 — “He set up the right pillar and called its name Jachin; and he set up the left pillar and called its name Boaz.”
- 1 Kgs 7:51 — “Thus all the work that king Solomon did for Yahweh's house was finished.”
Context & background
Huram (also called Hiram the craftsman, distinct from Hiram the king) was of mixed heritage — a Phoenician father and an Israelite mother from the tribe of Naphtali — making him culturally bilingual in Israelite and Phoenician traditions. The two bronze pillars, Jachin ("he establishes") and Boaz ("in him is strength"), stood at the entrance of the Temple and likely had symbolic or ceremonial significance. The bronze Sea, holding roughly 10,000-12,000 gallons, was used for the ritual washing of priests. The Jordan Valley near Succoth (modern Tell Deir Alla, Jordan) had clay soils ideal for metal casting. The Temple Mount (modern Haram esh-Sharif, Jerusalem) today occupies the site of all this bronze and gold craftsmanship.
Cross-references
- 1 Cor 3:16 — Paul declares believers themselves are the temple of God
- 2 Chr 4:1-22 — Parallel account of the Temple furnishings with additional details
- Ex 31:2-5 — Bezalel filled with God's Spirit for craftsmanship on the Tabernacle, a parallel to Huram
- Jer 52:17-23 — The Babylonians break up and carry away these bronze furnishings in 586 BC
- Rev 3:12 — Pillars as a symbol of permanence in God's temple