The Book of Joshua marks a new beginning, to the story of Israel in Canaan. Yet the story continues straight on without a break. Deuteronomy had looked forward to the Israelites occupying Canaan

4:1 Solomon’s Administration

4 So King Solomon was king over all Israel. 2 These were the officials that he had:

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  Azaryahu ben Tsadoq (the priest)
  
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  Elihoreph and Ahiyyahu, sons of Shisha (secretaries)
  
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  Yehoshaphat ben Ahilud (the recorder)
  
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  4 Benayahu ben Yehoyada (in charge of the army)
  
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  Tsadoq and Ebyatar (priests)
  
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  5 Azaryahu ben Natan (in charge of the prefects)
  
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  Zabud ben Natan the priest (the king’s friend)
  
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  6 Ahishar (in charge of the household)
  
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  Adoniram ben Abda (in charge of the work force).
  

7 Solomon had twelve prefects over all Israel; they would provide for the king and his household. There would be a month per year for each for provisioning. 8 These were their names:

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  The son of Hur, in the highland of Ephrayim
  
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  9 The son of Deqer, in Maqats, in Sha’albim, Bet Shemesh, and Bet Hanan Oak
  
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  10 The son of Hesed, in Arubot: Sokoh and the entire region of Hepher was his
  
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  11 The son of Abinadab: all Do’r Height (Taphat, Solomon’s daughter, was his wife)
  
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  12 Ba’ana ben Ahilud: Ta’anak, Megiddo, and all Bet She’an, which is beside Tsaratan, below Yizre’e’l, from Bet She’an as far as Meholah Meadow, as far as across from Yoqmo’am
  
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  13 The son of Geber: in Heights-in-Gil’ad, the Villages of Ya’ir ben Menashsheh which are in Gil’ad, were his; the district of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty big towns with a wall and a copper bar, were his
  
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  14 Ahinadab ben Iddo: Mahanayim
  
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  15 Ahima’ats: in Napthali (also he took Basemat, Solomon’s daughter, as wife)
  
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  16 Ba’ana ben Hushay: in Asher and in Alot
  
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  17 Yehoshaphat ben Paruah: in Yissakar
  
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  18 Shim’i ben Ela: in Benjamin
  
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  19 Geber ben Uri: in the region of Gil’ad (the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and Og the king of Bashan), and the one prefect who was in the region.
  

20 Judah and Israel were as many as the sand that’s by the sea in large number, eating, drinking, and rejoicing.

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  4:21 Solomon’s Prosperity and His Smartness
  

21 Solomon was ruling over all the kingdoms from the River to the country of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt, bringing offerings and serving Solomon all the days of his life. 22 Solomon’s food for one day was thirty ten-gallon measures of fine flour, sixty ten-gallon measures of ordinary flour, 23 ten sturdy cattle, twenty pasture cattle, and a hundred sheep, apart from deer, gazelle, roebuck, and fattened geese, 24 because he was holding sway over all of Beyond the River, from Tiphsah as far as Gaza [Azzah], over all the kings of Beyond the River, and he had peace on all his borders, all round.

25 Judah and Israel lived in confidence, each person under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan as far as Be’er-sheba, all Solomon’s days. 26 Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariotry and 12,000 cavalry. 27 These prefects would provide for King Solomon and for everyone who approached King Solomon’s table, each for his month. They did not let anything be lacking. 28 As for the barley and the straw for the horses and for the steeds, they would bring it to the place where he would be, each person according to the ruling for him.

29 God gave Solomon smartness and understanding in very great measure and width of mind like the sand that’s on the seashore. 30 Solomon’s smartness was greater than the smartness of all the Qedemites and all the smartness of the Egyptians. 31 He was smarter than all humanity, than Etan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Kalkol and Darda, the sons of Mahol. His name was among all the nations around. 32 He spoke 3000 aphorisms and his songs were 1005. 33 He spoke about trees from the cedar that’s in the Lebanon as far as the hyssop that comes out on the wall. He spoke about animals, about birds, about moving things, and about fish. 34 They came from all the peoples to listen to Solomon’s smartness, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his smartness.

5:1 The Chance to Build a House for Yahweh

5 Hiram king of Tyre [Tsor] sent his servants to Solomon because he had heard that they had anointed him as king in place of his father, because Hiram had always been loyal to David. 2 Solomon sent to Hiram to say, 3 ‘You yourself know of David my father, that he was not able to build a house for the name of Yahweh his God because of the battle that surrounded him until Yahweh put them beneath the soles of his feet. 4 But now Yahweh my God has made things settle for me all round. There’s no adversary and there’s nothing bad happening.

5 So here I’m saying to build a house for the name of Yahweh my God, as Yahweh spoke to David my father: “Your son, whom I will put on your throne in place of you, he will build the house for my name.” 6 So now, order that they cut down cedars for me from the Lebanon. My servants will be with your servants, and your servants’ wages – I will give it to you in accordance with anything that you say, because you yourself know that there is no one among us who knows about cutting down trees like the Tsidonites’.

7 When Hiram heard Solomon’s words, he rejoiced greatly. He said, ‘Yahweh be blessed today, who has given David a smart son over this numerous people’. 8 Hiram sent to Solomon: ‘I’ve heard what you sent me. I myself will do all you want in cedar trees and in juniper trees. 9 My servants will get them down from the Lebanon to the sea. It’ll be me who makes them into rafts at the sea for the place that you send to me, and I’ll split them up there. It’ll be you who carries them, and you who’ll do what I want in giving bread to my household’.

5:10 The Labourers for the Building

10 So Hiram was giving Solomon cedar wood and juniper wood, all that he wanted, 11 while Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 ten-gallon measures of wheat as provision for his household and twenty [thousand] ten-gallon measures of pressed oil. Thus Solomon would give Hiram year by year. 12 Because Yahweh gave Solomon smartness, as he had spoken to him, there was peace between Hiram and Solomon. The two of them solemnized a pact.

13 King Solomon raised a work force from all Israel; the work force came to 30,000 men. 14 He sent them to the Lebanon 10,000 per month in shifts. They would be a month in the Lebanon, two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the work force.

15 Solomon had 70,000 load-carriers and 80,000 stonecutters in the highland, 16 apart from Solomon’s prefect officers who were in charge of the work, 3,300 holding sway over the company who were doing the work. 17 The king gave them orders and they transported big stones, fine stones, so as to found the house with hewn stones. 18 Solomon’s builders, Hiram’s builders, and men from Byblos shaped them, and prepared the wood and the stones for building the house.

6 In the 480th year of the Israelites’ getting out of the country of Egypt, in the fourth year in the month Ziv (i.e., the second month) of Solomon’s reign over Israel, he built the house for Yahweh. 2 The house that King Solomon built for Yahweh:

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  its length was thirty metres
  
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  its width ten metres
  
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  its height fifteen metres.
  

3 The porch on the front of the hall of the house:

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  its length was ten metres (along the width of the house)
  
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  its width five metres (along the front of the house).
  

4 He made recessed latticed windows for the house, 5 against the wall of the house he built an extension all round (the walls of the house round the hall and the inner sanctuary), and he made side rooms all round.

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  6 The lowest extension: its width was two and a half metres
  
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  the middle: its width was three metres
  
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  the third: its width was three and a half metres
  

because he put supports for the house all round outside so as not to fasten them to the walls of the house.

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  6:7 If You Walk
  

7 When the house was built, it was built of whole quarry stone. Hammers or chisel, any iron tool, did not make itself heard in the house when it was built. 8 The entrance to the middle side room was on the right side of the house, and winding stairs went up to the middle one and from the middle one to the third.

9 So he built the house and finished it, and panelled the house with beams and planks of cedar. 10 He built the extension against the entire house, two and a half metres its height, and secured the house with cedar wood.

11 Yahweh’s word came to Solomon: 12 ‘This house that you’re building: if you walk by my decrees and act by my rulings and keep all my orders, walking by them, I will implement with you my word that I spoke to David your father. 13 I will dwell among the Israelites and I will not abandon my people Israel’.

14 So Solomon built the house and finished it. 15 He built the walls of the house on the inside with cedar planks from the floor of the house up to the ceiling walls. He overlaid it with wood on the inside and overlaid the floor of the house with juniper planks. 16 He built with cedar boards ten metres from the sides of the house, from the floor as far as the walls, and built for it inside an inner room as the very sacred place. 17 The house (i.e., the hall, in front) was twenty metres. 18 The cedar for the house within: carving of melons and open flowers, everything cedar. No stone was visible.

19 He prepared an inner room inside the house, within, to put Yahweh’s pact chest there. 20 In front of the inner room was ten metres in length, ten metres in width, and ten metres in its height. He overlaid it with beaten gold and overlaid the altar with cedar.

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  6:21 The Inner Room
  

21 Solomon overlaid the house inside with beaten gold, and passed gold chains in front of the inner room and overlaid it with gold. 22 So the entire house he overlaid with gold until the entire house was complete, and the entire altar belonging to the inner room he overlaid with gold. 23 In the inner room he made two sphinxes of oil wood; its height was five metres. 24 One sphinx’s wing was two and a half metres and the second sphinx’s wing was two and a half metres. From the ends of its wings to the other ends of its wings was five metres, 25 and the second sphinx was five metres: one measure and one profile for the two sphinxes. 26 The height of one sphinx was five metres, and so the second sphinx.

27 He put the sphinxes in the middle of the inner house. They spread the sphinxes’ wings so that the wing of the one touched the wall and the wing of the second sphinx was touching the second wall, with their wings toward the middle of the house, wing touching wing. 28 He overlaid the sphinxes with gold, 29 and all the walls of the house, all round, he carved with carved engravings of sphinxes, palms, and open flowers, inside and outside. 30 The floor of the house he overlaid with gold, inside and outside.

31 As the entrance of the inner room he made doors of oil wood, the upright (the doorposts) fivefold, 32 the two doors of oil wood. He carved on them carvings of sphinxes, palms, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold. He hammered the gold onto the sphinxes and onto the palms. 33 In this way he made for the entrance to the hall doorposts of oil wood, out of a quarter, 34 and two doors of juniper wood, one door of two leaves folding and the other door of two leaves folding. 35 He carved sphinxes, palms, and open flowers and overlaid them with gold, fitted onto the chiseling. 36 He built the inner courtyard with three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar timbers.

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  6.37 The Forest-like Meeting House
  

37 In the fourth year Yahweh’s house was founded, in the month of Ziv, 38 and in the eleventh year in the month of Bul (i.e., the eight month) the house got finished in keeping with all his words and with all his rulings. He built it over seven years.

7 His own house Solomon built over thirteen years. He finished his entire house 2 and built the Lebanon Forest house:

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  Its length fifty metres, its width twenty-five metres, and its height fifteen metres
  
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  On four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar timbers on the pillars
  
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  3 It was paneled with cedar above, on top of the planks that were on the forty-five pillars (fifteen per row)
  
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  4 Frames, three rows, face to face, three times
  
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  5 All the entrances and the doorposts, square in frame, in front, face to face, three times
  
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  6 The porch of pillars he made, twenty-five metres its length and fifteen metres its width
  
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  A porch in front of them and pillars and a canopy in front.
  

7 He made the porch for the throne where he would exercise authority (the authority porch). It was covered in cedar from floor to floor. 8 His house where he would live (the other courtyard within the porch) was of this same making. He would make a house for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom Solomon took, like this porch. 9 All these things:

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  Fine stone, hewn according to measure, trimmed with a trimmer, inside and outside, from foundation to coping, from outside as far as the big courtyard
  
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  10 The foundation: fine stones, big stones, five-metre stones and four-metre stones
  
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  11 On top: fine stones, hewn according to measure, and cedar
  
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  12 The big courtyard all round: three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar timbers, both for the inner courtyard of Yahweh’s house and for the house’s porch.
  
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  7:13 The Other Hiram
  

13 King Solomon sent and got Hiram from Tyre. 14 He was the son of a woman who was a widow from the clan of Naphtali, but his father had been a Tyrian, a coppersmith. He was full of smartness, of understanding, and of knowledge for doing all work in copper. So he came to King Solomon and did all his work. 15 He shaped the two pillars, of copper.

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  The height of one pillar was nine metres
  
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  A line of six metres would go round the second pillar
  
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  16 Two capitals he made to put on the tops of the pillars, cast in copper; the height of one capital was two and a half metres and the height of the second capital was two and a half metres
  

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  17 Nets of netted work, twists of chainwork, for the capitals that were on the top of the pillars, seven for one capital, seven for the second capital
  
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  18 He made the pillars with two rows all round on each net, to cover the capitals that were on the top of the pomegranates, and in this way he made it for the second capital
  
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  19 The capitals that were on the top of the pillars made of lotuses, in the porch, two metres
  
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  20 The capitals on the two pillars also above, next to the bulge that was across from the net
  
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  The two hundred pomegranates in rows all round on the second capital
  
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  21 He set up the pillars for the porch of the hall: he set up the right pillar and named it ‘He-establishes’ and set up the left pillar and named it ‘In-him-is-Strength’
  
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  22 On the top of the pillars: lotus work.
  

So the work on the pillars was complete.

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  7:23 The “Sea” and Its Stands
  

23 He made the sea, cast:

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  Five metres from its lip to its lip, circular all round, two and a half metres its height
  

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  A line of fifteen metres would go round it all round
  
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  24 Melons under its lip going round it, all round, five metres, encircling the sea all round; two rows of melons cast with its casting
  
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  25 Standing on twelve cattle, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, three facing east, with the sea on them, above, and all their rears inward
  
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  26 Its thickness a handbreadth
  
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  Its lip like the making of the lip of a cup, a lotus petal
  

It could contain 2,000 five-gallon measures.
27 He made the ten stands, copper:

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  The length of one stand two metres, two metres its width, and one and a half metres its height
  
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  28 This was the making of a stand: they had rims, and rims between the frames
  
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  29 On the rims that were between the frames, lions, cattle, and sphinxes
  
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  On the frames a stand
  
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  On top and below the lions and the cattle, spirals of hammered making
  
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  30 Four copper wheels for each stand, and copper axles
  
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  Its four legs had shoulder pieces under the basin
  
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  The shoulder-pieces, cast, with spirals across from each
  
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  31 Its mouth inside the capital and half a metre above
  
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  Its mouth circular, the making of a stand, three-quarters of a metre
  
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  Also on the mouth, carvings
  
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  Their rims square not circular
  
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  32 The four wheels below the rims
  
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  The wheels’ supports in the stand
  
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  The height of a wheel three-quarters of a metre
  
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  33 The making of the wheels like the making of a chariot wheel
  
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  Their supports, their backs, their spokes, and their hubs, all cast
  
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  34 Four shoulder-pieces at the four corners of each stand; from the stand its shoulder-pieces
  
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  35 At the top of the stand a circular band all round, the height a quarter of a metre
  
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  On the top of the stand, its handles and its rims coming from it.
  

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  7:36 The Articles for the House
  

36 He engraved on the panels of its handles and on its rims sphinxes, lions, and palms, according to the space on each, with spirals all round. 37 Like this he made the ten stands, each cast, one measure, one shape for all of them. 38 He made ten copper basins. Each basin would contain forty five-gallon measures, each basin two metres, each on its stand, for the ten stands. 39 He put the stands five at the right shoulder of the house and five at the left shoulder of the house. The sea he put at the right shoulder of the house to the east, toward the south. 40 Hiram made the basins, the shovels, and the bowls.

So Hiram finished doing all the work that he did for King Solomon at Yahweh’s house:

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  41 Two pillars
  
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  Two globes for the capitals that were on the top of the pillars
  
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  Two nets to cover the two globes for the capitals that were on the top of the pillars
  
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  42 The four hundred pomegranates for the two nets, two rows of pomegranates for each net, to cover the two globes for the capitals that were on the face of the pillars
  
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  43 The ten stands and the ten basins on the stands
  
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  44 The one sea and the twelve cattle beneath the sea
  
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  45 The buckets, the shovels, the basins, all these articles that Hiram made for King Solomon for Yahweh’s house, polished copper.
  

46 The king cast them in the Jordan Plain, in the earthen compactness between Sukkot and Tsaretan. 47 Solomon left all the articles alone [unweighed], because of the very, very large number; the weight of the copper was not searched out.

48 Solomon made all the articles that were for Yahweh’s house:

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  the gold altar
  
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  the table on which was the presence bread, gold
  
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  49 the lights (five on the right and five on the left) in front of the inner room, beaten gold
  
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  the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs, gold
  
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  50 the basins, the snuffers, the sprinklers, the ladles, and the pans, beaten gold
  
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  the hinges for the doors of the inner house, for the very sacred place, for the doors of the house, for the hall, gold.
  

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  7:51 The Work Completed
  

51 So all the work that king Solomon had done for Yahweh’s house was complete, and

Solomon brought in the sacred things from David his father; the silver, the gold, and the articles he put in the treasuries of Yahweh’s house.

8 Then Solomon congregated Israel’s elders (all the heads of the clans, the Israelites’ ancestral leaders) to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to take up Yahweh’s pact chest from David’s Town (i.e., Zion). 2 All the Israelites congregated to King Solomon in the month of Etanim at the festival (i.e., the seventh month). 3 All Israel’s elders came and the priests carried the chest. 4 They took up Yahweh’s chest, the appointment tent, and all the sacred articles that were in the tent. The priests and the Levites took them up 5 while King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel who had assembled to him were with him before the chest, sacrificing sheep and cattle that could not be numbered and could not be counted because of the large number.

6 The priests brought Yahweh’s pact chest to its place, to the inner room of the house, to the very sacred place, under the sphinxes’ wings, 7 because the sphinxes were spreading their wings to the chest’s place; the sphinxes screened the chest and its poles from above. 8 The poles extended and the heads of the poles could be seen from the sacred place in front of the inner room, but they could not be seen outside. They have been there until this day. 9 There was nothing in the chest, only the two stone tablets that Moses had set down there at Horeb, when Yahweh solemnized things with the Israelites, when they got out from the country of Egypt.

10 When the priests went out from the sacred place and the cloud was filling Yahweh’s house, 11 the priests were not able to stand to minister before the cloud, because Yahweh’s splendour was filling Yahweh’s house.

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  8:12 The God Who Dwells in the Cloud
  

12 Then Solomon said:
Yahweh has said he would dwell in a thundercloud.

13 I have indeed built a stately house for you,

an established place for you to live in to the ages.
14 The king turned his face round and blessed Israel’s entire congregation, as Israel’s entire congregation was standing. 15 He said, ‘Blessed be Yahweh the God of Israel who spoke by his own mouth with David my father, and by his own hand has fulfilled it: 16 “From the day that I got my people Israel out of Egypt I didn’t choose a town from all Israel’s clans to build a house for my name to be there, but I chose David to be in charge of my people Israel”.

17 It was in David my father’s mind to build a house for the name of Yahweh the God of Israel, 18 but Yahweh said to David my father, “In that it was in your mind to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your mind. 19 Only you yourself will not build the house. Rather, your son, who is going to come out from your insides, he will build the house for my name”.

20 Yahweh has implemented his word that he spoke. I have arisen in place of David my father, I have sat on Israel’s throne as Yahweh spoke, and I have built the house for the name of Yahweh the God of Israel. 21 I have set a place there for the chest where Yahweh’s pact is, which he solemnized with our ancestors when he got them out of the country of Egypt’.

22 Solomon stood before Yahweh’s altar in front of the entire congregation of Israel and spread out his palms to the heavens.

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  8:23 Will God Really Live on Earth?
  

23 He said, ‘Yahweh, God of Israel, there is no god like you in the heavens above or on the earth beneath, keeping pact and commitment for your servants who walk before you with their entire mind, 24 who has kept for your servant David my father what you spoke to him. You spoke with your own mouth and with your own hand you have fulfilled it, this very day.

25 So now, Yahweh, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you spoke to him: “There will not be cut off for you someone before me sitting on Israel’s throne, if only your sons keep watch over their way in walking before me as you have walked before me”. 26 So now, God of Israel, may your word please prove trustworthy that you spoke to your servant David my father.

27 Because will God truly live on the earth? There – the heavens, even the highest heavens, could not contain you, certainly not this house that I have built. 28 But turn your face toward your servant’s plea and toward his prayer for grace, Yahweh my God, so as to listen to the resounding cry and to the plea that your servant is making before you today, 29 so that your eyes are opened toward this house night and day, toward the place of which you’ve said, “My name will be there,” so as to listen to the plea that your servant makes toward this place. 30 May you listen to the prayer for grace by your servant and your people Israel, which they make toward this place. May you yourself listen toward the place where you live, toward the heavens, listen and pardon.

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