The Daily Audio Bible

Solomon prepares to build the temple

5 Hiram was the king of Tyre.^[a] He heard that Solomon had become king of Israel after his father David. Hiram had always been a friend of King David, so he sent his men to say ‘hello’ to Solomon. ² Solomon then sent this message to Hiram:

³ ‘You know that my father David could not build a temple for the Lord his God. This was because he had to fight battles against enemies that were all around Israel. He did that until the Lord helped him to win against all of them. ⁴ But now the Lord my God has made us safe from danger. No enemy tries to attack us on any of our borders. ⁵ So I have decided to build a temple to give honour to the Lord my God.^[b] The Lord said to my father David, “I will put your son on your throne to rule as king after you. He will build a temple for people to give honour to my name.” ⁶ So please tell your men to cut down cedar trees in Lebanon for me. We ourselves do not have people who know how to cut wood from trees as well as your men from Sidon. So our men will help your men with the work. And I will pay your workers whatever you decide is right.’^[c]

⁷ Hiram was very happy when he received Solomon's message. He said, ‘Praise the Lord today, because he gave David a wise son to rule over the great nation, Israel.’ ⁸ Then Hiram sent this message to Solomon:

‘I have received the message that you sent to me. I will give you the wood that you have asked for. I will send you cedar wood and pine wood, as much as you need. ⁹ My men will take the trees from the hills of Lebanon down to the sea. Then we will tie several trees together like a boat. We will take them on the sea to the place where you want them. There we will undo the ropes so that your men can carry the trees away. You will pay me with enough food to feed the people of my palace.’

¹⁰ So Hiram supplied Solomon with all the cedar trees and pine trees that Solomon asked for. ¹¹ Then Solomon supplied Hiram with 2,000 tons of wheat as food for the people in his palace. He also supplied 450,000 litres of olive oil. Solomon sent this every year to Hiram.

¹² The Lord gave wisdom to Solomon, as he had promised to do. King Hiram and King Solomon made an agreement that their nations would not fight against each other. So there was peace between them.

¹³ King Solomon commanded 30,000 men from everywhere in Israel to do the work. ¹⁴ He sent them to Lebanon in groups of 10,000 men each month. They worked in Lebanon for one month, then they lived at home for two months. Adoniram was the officer who had authority over them. ¹⁵ Solomon also had 80,000 men to cut stones in the hills. He had 70,000 men to carry the stones to Jerusalem. ¹⁶ He also had 3,300 officers who told the workers what they should do. ¹⁷ The king commanded the workers to cut large pieces of stone from the rocks. They cut the best stones into the right shape to build the foundation of the temple. ¹⁸ Solomon's men and Hiram's men worked together with men from Gebal.^[d] They cut the stones and the wood and they prepared them to build the temple.

Solomon builds the temple^[e]

6 Solomon began to build the Lord's temple 480 years after the Israelites had left Egypt. It was in the fourth year that he had ruled Israel as king. He started the work in the month called Ziv, the second month of the year.^[f]

² The temple that King Solomon built for the Lord was 27 metres long. It was 9 metres wide. It was 13.5 metres high. ³ The temple had an entrance room in front of its big hall. The entrance room was as wide as the temple, 9 metres wide. It came 4.5 metres out from the front of the temple itself. ⁴ Solomon made narrow windows near the tops of the temple walls.^{[g] 5} Solomon built rooms around the outside of the temple walls. These rooms continued outside the big hall and the inside room. The side rooms were on three levels.^{[h] 6} The lowest level of rooms was 2.3 metres wide. The middle level was 2.7 metres wide and the top level was 3.2 metres wide. Each floor was built on wooden beams. The beams rested on stones in the temple walls, so that there were no holes that they cut into the walls.

⁷ When they built the temple, they used stones that were the right shape. Workers had already cut the stones at the place where they came from. There was no sound of hammers, axes or any iron tools at the place of the temple. ⁸ The door to the lowest level of rooms on the sides of the temple was on the south side of the temple. Stairs went up to the middle level and to the top level.^[i]

⁹ Solomon finished building the temple. He made the roof with wooden beams and with cedar boards. ¹⁰ He also built the rooms around the sides of the temple. Each room was 2.3 metres high. Cedar beams fixed the rooms to the temple building.

¹¹ Then the Lord gave this message to Solomon:

¹² ‘I will make my home in this temple that you are building. I will do everything for you that I promised to your father David. But you must obey my laws, rules and commands. ¹³ Then I will live among my people, the Israelites. I will never leave them.’

¹⁴ So Solomon finished building the temple. ¹⁵ He used cedar boards to cover the walls on the inside of the temple. The boards went from the floor of the temple up to its ceiling. He covered the floor of the temple with wood from pine trees. ¹⁶ He built a wall across the inside of the temple to make a separate room. That wall was 9 metres from the back wall of the temple. The inside room was the Most Holy Place.^[j] The walls were covered with cedar boards from the floor to the ceiling. ¹⁷ The big hall in front of the Most Holy Place was 18 metres long. ¹⁸ The inside of the temple was covered with boards made of cedar wood. The workers cut pictures of fruits and flowers on the wood. The cedar boards completely covered the stone walls, so you could not see any stone.

¹⁹ Solomon prepared the inside room to be the Most Holy Place where they would put the Lord's Covenant Box. ²⁰ The inside room was 9 metres long, 9 metres wide and 9 metres high. Solomon used pure gold to cover the walls of this room. He also covered the cedar altar with gold. ²¹ Solomon covered all the walls inside the temple with gold. He also hung gold chains across the entrance to the Most Holy Place. He covered everything there with gold. ²² So he covered everything inside the whole temple with gold. That included the altar that was inside the Most Holy Place.

²³ Solomon used olive wood to make models of two cherubs to stand in the Most Holy Place. Each cherub was 4.4 metres tall. ²⁴ The first cherub had two wings that were 2.2 metres long each. So it was 4.4 metres from the end of one wing to the end of the other wing. ²⁵ The second cherub was also 4.4 metres across its wings. The two cherubs were the same size and the same shape. ²⁶ Each cherub was 4.4 metres high. ²⁷ Solomon put the cherubs in the inside room of the temple. Their wings went from one wall of the temple to the other wall. One cherub's wing touched one wall of the temple. One of the other cherub's wings touched the other wall. And their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. ²⁸ Solomon covered the cherubs with gold.

²⁹ Solomon's workers cut pictures in the wood on the walls of the big hall and the inside room. They were pictures of cherubs, palm trees and flowers. ³⁰ They also covered the floors of both the rooms with gold. ³¹ They used olive wood to make doors for the entrance to the Most Holy Place. The doors were fixed to wooden pillars which had five sides. ³² The wooden doors had pictures of cherubs, palm trees and flowers. Solomon covered the pictures of the cherubs and the palm trees with very thin gold. ³³ The doors to the big hall of the temple were fixed to pillars made of olive wood. Those pillars had four sides. ³⁴ Solomon also made two doors from pine wood. Each door had two separate parts that could turn. ³⁵ He cut pictures of cherubs, palm trees and flowers on those doors too. He covered them with gold in the same way.

³⁶ Solomon also built a yard around the temple building. The wall around the yard had three rows of special stones, then a row of cedar beams, and so on.

³⁷ They built the foundation of the Lord's temple in the fourth year that Solomon was king. It was in the month called Ziv. ³⁸ They finished building the temple in the 11th year that Solomon was king. It was the eighth month, the month called Bul. So they built the temple in seven years, exactly as the plans showed that it should be.

Stephen speaks to the Jewish leaders

7 The most important priest said to Stephen, ‘These men are saying things against you. Are these things true?’

² Stephen said, ‘Men of Israel, my friends and leaders. Listen to what I say. Our great God appeared to our ancestor, Abraham, when he was still living in Mesopotamia. This happened before he went to Haran. ³ God said to Abraham, “Leave your own country and your own family and go to a different country. I will show you where that will be.”^[a]

⁴ So Abraham left his country where the Chaldean people lived. He went to Haran and he stayed there. While he was there, his father died. Then God said to him, “Leave this place.” God then sent him to live in Canaan. This is where we are living now.^[b]

⁵ At that time, God did not give Abraham any part of Canaan for his own family. He did not give Abraham even a very small piece of ground. But God made a promise to Abraham. He said, “This land will become your own country. It will also be your descendants' country.” When God said this to him, Abraham did not yet have any children. ⁶ This is what God said to him: “Your descendants will live in a foreign country for 400 years. The people in that country will cause your descendants to be their slaves. They will be very cruel to them. ⁷ But I will punish those people who cause your descendants to work as slaves for them. After I have done that, your descendants will leave that country. They will come to this place and worship me here.” That is what God said to Abraham.^[c]

⁸ Then God made an covenant with Abraham that his descendants would be his special people. God said, “You must circumcise all your baby boys.”

Later, Abraham became the father of Isaac. Abraham circumcised Isaac when he was eight days old. Then Isaac became the father of Jacob. Jacob himself had 12 sons. These sons became the 12 ancestors of the families of Israel.^[d]

⁹ One of Jacob's sons was called Joseph. Jacob was more kind to Joseph than to his other sons. For this reason, Joseph's brothers did not like him. So one day they took Joseph and they sold him as a slave. The men that bought Joseph took him to Egypt. There he became the slave of an important man. All this time, God took care of Joseph. ¹⁰ God saved him from all his troubles and he helped him to live in a wise way. Because of that, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, liked Joseph. He saw that Joseph was very wise. So Pharaoh gave Joseph authority to rule Egypt and everyone in the king's own house.

¹¹ Then there was a famine everywhere in Egypt and in Canaan. Everyone was very hungry and they suffered a lot. Our ancestors also had no food to eat. ¹² Jacob heard news that Pharaoh had stored a lot of wheat in Egypt. So he sent his sons there to buy food from Pharaoh. This was the first time that they went to Egypt.

¹³ Later, Jacob sent his sons back to Egypt for a second time. This time, Joseph told his brothers who he really was. As a result, Pharaoh came to know about Joseph's family. ¹⁴ After this, Joseph sent a message to his father, that he should also come to Egypt with his whole family. At that time, there were 75 people in Jacob's family.

¹⁵ So Jacob went to Egypt with all his family. Jacob and his 12 sons, our ancestors, lived there until they died.^[e]

¹⁶ When the people of Israel left Egypt, they carried with them the dead bodies of Joseph and his family. They took them back to Shechem and they buried them in a hole for dead people there. Abraham had bought that ground in Shechem from the family of a man called Hamor. He had paid Hamor the right money for it.’^[f]

¹⁷ Stephen then said, ‘After many years, the time arrived for God to make his promise to Abraham become true. By this time, Jacob's family who still lived in Egypt had become very many. ¹⁸ Now, a different king ruled Egypt. This new king did not know anything about Joseph and what he had done. ¹⁹ He was very cruel to our ancestors and he caused them to suffer. When new babies were born, he said that our people must put them out of their homes. He said that because he wanted the babies to die.

²⁰ It was at this time that Moses was born. He was a very beautiful baby. His parents took care of him for three months in their own home. ²¹ Then they had to put him outside. But Pharaoh's daughter found him and she took him to her home. She took care of him as if he was her own son.^{[g] 22} Moses had teachers who taught him all the wise things that the Egyptians knew. He learned how to speak well. He could also do powerful things.

²³ When Moses was 40 years old, he went to see his own people, the people of Israel. ²⁴ He saw that an Egyptian man was being cruel to one of the Israelite men. So he went to help the Israelite man. He killed the Egyptian man to punish him. ²⁵ Moses thought that his own people would understand him. They would know that God was using him to save them. They would no longer be slaves to work for the Egyptians. But his people did not understand all this. ²⁶ On the next day, Moses saw two Israelite men. They were fighting each other. He tried to make them become friends. He said to them, “Listen to me, men. You are both in the family of Israel. You should not hurt each other.”

²⁷ The man who was being cruel to the other man pushed Moses away. He said to Moses, “You have no authority to rule us. You are not our judge. ²⁸ I know that yesterday you killed an Egyptian man. So do you want to kill me too?”

²⁹ When Moses heard this, he decided to run away. He went to the land of Midian and he lived there. He married a wife and they had two sons.

A song to sing as we climb.

Solomon wrote this song.

Every good thing comes from God^[a]