1 Kings 6:1-6

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. 6:2 The temple King Solomon built for the Lord was 90 feet ²  long, 30 feet ³  wide, and 45 feet ⁴  high. 6:3 The porch in front of the main hall of the temple was 30 feet ⁵  long, corresponding to the width of the temple. It was 15 feet ⁶  wide, extending out from the front of the temple. 6:4 He made framed windows for the temple. 6:5 He built an extension all around the walls of the temple’s main hall and holy place and constructed side rooms in it. ⁷  6:6 The bottom floor of the extension was seven and a half feet ⁸  wide, the middle floor nine feet ⁹  wide, and the third floor ten and a half ¹⁰  feet wide. He made ledges ¹¹  on the temple’s outer walls so the beams would not have to be inserted into the walls. ¹² 

[6:1]  ¹ sn During the month Ziv. This would be April-May, 966 b.c. by modern reckoning.

[6:2]  ² tn Heb “sixty cubits.” A cubit was a unit of measure roughly equivalent to 18 inches or 45 cm. Measurements in vv. 2-10 have been converted to feet in the translation for clarity.

[6:2]  ³ tn Heb “twenty cubits.”

[6:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “thirty cubits.”

[6:3]  ³ tn Heb “twenty cubits.”

[6:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “ten cubits.”

[6:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he built on the wall of the temple an extension all around, the walls of the temple all around, for the main hall and for the holy place, and he made side rooms all around.”

[6:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “five cubits.”

[6:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “six cubits.”

[6:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “seven cubits.”

[6:6]  ⁸ tn Or “offsets” (ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “offset ledges.”

[6:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “so that [the beams] would not have a hold in the walls of the temple.”