1 Kings 5:18

5:18 Solomon’s and Hiram’s construction workers,¹ along with men from Byblos,² did the chiseling and prepared the wood and stones for the building of the temple.³

1 Kings 6:8

6:8 The entrance to the bottom⁴ level of side rooms was on the south side of the temple; stairs went up⁵ to the middle floor and then on up to the third⁶ floor.

1 Kings 6:16

6:16 He built a wall 30 feet in from the rear of the temple as a partition for an inner sanctuary that would be the most holy place.⁷ He paneled the wall with cedar planks from the floor to the rafters.⁸

1 Kings 6:18

6:18 The inside of the temple was all cedar and was adorned with carvings of round ornaments and of flowers in bloom. Everything was cedar; no stones were visible.⁹

1 Kings 6:21

6:21 Solomon plated the inside of the temple with gold.¹⁰ He hung golden chains in front of the inner sanctuary and plated the inner sanctuary¹¹ with gold.

1 Kings 6:29

6:29 On all the walls around the temple, inside and out,¹² he carved¹³ cherubs, palm trees, and flowers in bloom.

1 Kings 6:38

6:38 In the eleventh year, in the month Bul¹⁴ (the eighth month) the temple was completed in accordance with all its specifications and blueprints. It took seven years to build.¹⁵

1 Kings 7:12

7:12 Around the great courtyard were three rows of chiseled stones and one row of cedar beams, like the inner courtyard of the Lord’s temple and the hall of the palace.¹⁶

1 Kings 8:6

8:6 The priests brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant to its assigned¹⁷ place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, in the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubs.

1 Kings 8:27

8:27 “God does not really live on the earth!¹⁸ Look, if the sky and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this temple I have built!

1 Kings 8:42

8:42 When they hear about your great reputation¹⁹ and your ability to accomplish mighty deeds,²⁰ they will come and direct their prayers toward this temple.

1 Kings 16:9

16:9 His servant Zimri, a commander of half of his chariot force, conspired against him. While Elah was drinking heavily²¹ at the house of Arza, who supervised the palace in Tirzah,

1 Kings 18:3

18:3 So Ahab summoned Obadiah, who supervised the palace. (Now Obadiah was a very loyal follower of the Lord.²²

¹tn Heb “builders.”

²tn Heb “the Gebalites.” The reading is problematic and some emend to a verb form meaning, “set the borders.”

³tc The LXX includes the words “for three years.”

⁴tc The Hebrew text has “middle,” but the remainder of the verse suggests this is an error.

⁵tn Heb “by stairs they went up.” The word translated “stairs” occurs only here. Other options are “trapdoors” or “ladders.”

⁶tc The translation reads with a few medieval Hebrew mss, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate הַשְּׁלִשִׁית (hashÿlishit, “the third”) rather than MT הַשְּׁלִשִׁים (hashÿlishim, “the thirty”).

⁷tn Heb “He built twenty cubits from the rear areas of the temple with cedar planks from the floor to the walls, and he built it on the inside for an inner sanctuary, for a holy place of holy places.”

⁸tc The MT has קְלָעִים (qÿla’im, “curtains”), but this should be emended to קוֹרוֹת (qorot, “rafters”). See BDB 900 s.v. קוֹרָה.

¹⁰tn Heb “Cedar was inside the temple, carvings of gourds (i.e., gourd-shaped ornaments) and opened flowers; the whole was cedar, no stone was seen.”

¹³tn Heb “with plated gold” (or perhaps, “with pure gold”).

¹⁴tn Heb “it.”

¹⁶sn Inside and out probably refers to the inner and outer rooms within the building.

¹⁷tn Heb “carved engravings of carvings.”

¹⁹sn In the month Bul. This would be October-November 959 b.c. in modern reckoning.

²⁰tn Heb “he built it in seven years.”

²²tn Or “the porch of the temple.”

²⁵tn The word “assigned” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

²⁸tn Heb “Indeed, can God really live on the earth?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course not,” the force of which the translation above seeks to reflect.

³¹tn Heb “your great name.” See the note on the word “reputation” in the previous verse.

³²tn Heb “and your strong hand and your outstretched arm.”

³⁴tn Heb “while he was drinking and drunken.”

³⁷tn Heb “now Obadiah greatly feared the Lord.” “Fear” refers here to obedience and allegiance, the products of healthy respect for the Lord’s authority.