The porch in front of the main hall of the temple was 30 feet ¹  long, corresponding to the width of the temple. It was 15 feet ²  wide, extending out from the front of the temple.

As the temple was being built, only stones shaped at the quarry ¹  were used; the sound of hammers, pickaxes, or any other iron tool was not heard at the temple while it was being built.

He built an extension all around the temple; it was seven and a half feet high ¹  and it was attached to the temple by cedar beams.

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 ¹  of the ceiling. He covered the temple floor with boards made from the wood of evergreens.

The inside of the temple was all cedar and was adorned with carvings of round ornaments and of flowers in bloom. Everything was cedar; no stones were visible. ¹ 

Each of the first cherub’s wings was seven and a half feet long; its entire wingspan was 15 feet. ¹ 

He made doors of olive wood at the entrance to the inner sanctuary; the pillar on each doorpost was five-sided. ¹ 

In the eleventh year, in the month Bul ¹  (the eighth month) the temple was completed in accordance with all its specifications and blueprints. It took seven years to build. ² 

All of these were built with the best ¹  stones, chiseled to the right size ²  and cut with a saw on all sides, ³  from the foundation to the edge of the roof ⁴  and from the outside to the great courtyard.

Jeroboam was a talented man; ¹  when Solomon saw that the young man was an accomplished worker, he made him the leader of the work crew from the tribe ²  of Joseph.

Zimri destroyed Baasha’s entire family, just as the Lord had predicted to Baasha ¹  through Jehu the prophet.

Each one struck down an enemy soldier; ¹  the Syrians fled and Israel chased them. King Ben Hadad of Syria escaped on horseback with some horsemen.

Then Jehu killed all who were left of Ahab’s family in Jezreel, and all his nobles, close friends, and priests. He left no survivors.

(At that time King Rezin of Syria ¹  recovered Elat for Syria; he drove the Judahites from there. ²  Syrians ³  arrived in Elat and live there to this very day.)

“Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him melt down ¹  the silver that has been brought by the people to the Lord’s temple and has been collected by the guards at the door.

He issued this edict because ¹  a Passover like this had not been observed since the days of the judges; it was neglected for the entire period of the kings of Israel and Judah. ² 

The king of Egypt did not march out from his land again, for the king of Babylon conquered all the territory that the king of Egypt had formerly controlled between the Brook of Egypt and the Euphrates River.

The king of Babylon deported to Babylon all the soldiers (there were 7,000), as well as 1,000 craftsmen and metal workers. This included all the best warriors. ¹ 

By the ninth day of the fourth month ¹  the famine in the city was so severe the residents ²  had no food.

But the Babylonian army chased after the king. They caught up with him in the plains of Jericho, ¹  and his entire army deserted him.