1 Kings 6:1

The Building of the Temple

6:1 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites left Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, during the month Ziv ¹  (the second month), he began building the Lord’s temple.

1 Kings 6:15

6:15 He constructed the walls inside the temple with cedar planks; he paneled the inside with wood from the floor of the temple to the rafters ²  of the ceiling. He covered the temple floor with boards made from the wood of evergreens.

1 Kings 7:2

7:2 He named ³  it “The Palace of the Lebanon Forest”; ⁴  it was 150 feet ⁵  long, 75 feet ⁶  wide, and 45 feet ⁷  high. It had four rows of cedar pillars and cedar beams above the pillars.

1 Kings 15:22

15:22 King Asa ordered all the men of Judah (no exemptions were granted) to carry away the stones and wood that Baasha had used to build Ramah. ⁸  King Asa used the materials to build up ⁹  Geba (in Benjamin) and Mizpah.

1 Kings 16:24

16:24 He purchased the hill of Samaria ¹⁰  from Shemer for two talents ¹¹  of silver. He launched a construction project there ¹²  and named the city he built after Shemer, the former owner of the hill of Samaria.

¹ sn During the month Ziv. This would be April-May, 966 b.c. by modern reckoning.

² tc The MT reads קִירוֹת (qirot, “walls”), but this should be emended to קוֹרוֹת (qorot, “rafters”). See BDB 900 s.v. קוֹרָה.

³ tn Heb “he built.”

⁴ sn The Palace of the Lebanon Forest. This name was appropriate because of the large amount of cedar, undoubtedly brought from Lebanon, used in its construction. The cedar pillars in the palace must have given it the appearance of a forest.

⁵ tn Heb “one hundred cubits.”

⁶ tn Heb “fifty cubits.”

⁷ tn Heb “thirty cubits.”

⁴ tn Heb “and King Asa made a proclamation to all Judah, there was no one exempt, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its wood which Baasha had built.”

⁵ tn Heb “and King Asa built with them.”

⁵ map For location see Map2-B1; Map4-D3; Map5-E2; Map6-A4; Map7-C1.

⁶ tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 150 pounds of silver.

⁷ tn Heb “he built up the hill.”