When I was a son to my father, ¹  a tender only child ²  before my mother,

The Lover to His Beloved: Like ¹  a lily among the thorns, ²  so is my darling among the maidens.

He named ¹  it “The Palace of the Lebanon Forest”; ²  it was 150 feet ³  long, 75 feet ⁴  wide, and 45 feet ⁵  high. It had four rows of cedar pillars and cedar beams above the pillars.

The Lord will bring on you, your people, and your father’s family a time ¹  unlike any since Ephraim departed from Judah – the king of Assyria!” ² 

As his father David had decreed, Solomon ¹  appointed the divisions of the priests to do their assigned tasks, the Levitical orders to lead worship and help the priests with their daily tasks, ²  and the divisions of the gatekeepers to serve at their assigned gates. ³  This was what David the man of God had ordered. ⁴ 

All the people followed him up, playing flutes and celebrating so loudly they made the ground shake. ¹ 

The king sent with him Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, the Kerethites, and the Pelethites and they put him on the king’s mule.

ten calves fattened in the stall, ¹  twenty calves from the pasture, and a hundred sheep, not to mention rams, gazelles, deer, and well-fed birds.

The inner sanctuary was 30 feet ¹  long, 30 feet wide, and 30 feet high. He plated it with gold, ²  as well as the cedar altar. ³ 

In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubs of olive wood; each stood 15 feet ¹  high.

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 

He also made a throne room, called “The Hall of Judgment,” where he made judicial decisions. ¹  It was paneled with cedar from the floor to the rafters. ² 

There were twelve statues of lions on the six steps, one lion at each end of each step. There was nothing like it in any other kingdom. ¹ 

He removed the male cultic prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the disgusting idols ¹  his ancestors ²  had made.

He gave him ¹  the blueprints of all he envisioned ²  for the courts of the Lord’s temple, all the surrounding rooms, the storehouses of God’s temple, and the storehouses for the holy items.

He gave him the regulations ¹  for the divisions of priests and Levites, for all the assigned responsibilities within the Lord’s temple, and for all the items used in the service of the Lord’s temple.

for the gold lampstands and their gold lamps, including the weight of each lampstand and its lamps, for the silver lampstands, including the weight of each lampstand and its lamps, according to the prescribed use of each lampstand,

David said, ¹  “All of this I put in writing as the Lord directed me and gave me insight regarding the details of the blueprints.” ² 

In front of the temple he made two pillars which had a combined length ¹  of 52½ feet, ²  with each having a plated capital seven and one-half feet high. ³