3:1 Then Solomon began to build the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing-floor of Araunah 1008 [Hebrew Ornan, a variant of Araunah] the Jebusite, the place provided by Davi
3:2 He began building on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.
3:3 The foundation Solomon laid for building the temple of God was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide [That is, about 90 feet (about 27 metres) long and 30 feet (about 9 metres) wide] (using the cubit of the old standard).
3:4 The portico at the front of the temple was twenty cubits [That is, about 30 feet (about 9 metres) also in verses 8, 11 and 13] long across the width of the building and twenty cubits [Some Septuagint and Syriac manuscripts Hebrew and a hundred and twent
3:5 He panelled the main hall with pine and covered it with fine gold and decorated it with palm tree and chain designs.
3:6 He adorned the temple with precious stones. And the gold he used was gold of Parvaim.
3:7 He overlaid the ceiling beams, door-frames, walls and doors of the temple with gold, and he carved cherubim on the walls.
3:8 He built the Most Holy Place, its length corresponding to the width of the temple twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. He overlaid the inside with six hundred talents [That is, about 20 tons (about 21 metric tons)] of fine gold.
3:9 The gold nails weighed fifty shekels. [That is, about 1 1/4 pounds (about 0.6 kilogram)] He also overlaid the upper parts with gold.
3:10 In the Most Holy Place he made a pair of sculptured cherubim and overlaid them with gold.
3:11 The total wing-span of the cherubim was twenty cubits. One wing of the first cherub was five cubits [That is, about 7 1/2 feet (about 2.3 metres) also in verse 15] long and touched 1009 the temple wall, while its other wing, also five cubits long, touc
3:12 Similarly one wing of the second cherub was five cubits long and touched the other temple wall, and its other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of the first cherub.
3:13 The wings of these cherubim extended twenty cubits. They stood on their feet, facing the main hall. [Or facing inward]
3:14 He made the curtain of blue, purple and crimson yarn and fine linen, with cherubim worked into it.
3:15 In the front of the temple he made two pillars, which together were thirty-five cubits [That is, about 52 feet (about 16 metres)] long, each with a capital on top measuring five cubits.
3:16 He made interwoven chains [Or possibly made chains in the inner sanctuary the meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.] and put them on top of the pillars. He also made a hundred pomegranates and attached them to the chains.
3:17 He erected the pillars in the front of the temple, one to the south and one to the north. The one to the south he named Jakin [Jakin probably means he establishes.] and the one to the north Boaz. [Boaz probably means in him is strength.]