World English Bible
- Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.
- For he built the House of the Forest of Lebanon. Its length was one hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits, on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams on the pillars.
- It was covered with cedar above over the forty-five beams that were on the pillars, fifteen in a row.
- There were beams in three rows, and window was facing window in three ranks.
- All the doors and posts were made square with beams; and window was facing window in three ranks.
- He made the hall of pillars. Its length was fifty cubits and its width thirty cubits, with a porch before them, and pillars and a threshold before them.
- He made the porch of the throne where he was to judge, even the porch of judgment; and it was covered with cedar from floor to floor.
- His house where he was to dwell, the other court within the porch, was of the same construction. He made also a house for Pharaoh’s daughter (whom Solomon had taken as wife), like this porch.
- All these were of costly stones, even of stone cut according to measure, sawed with saws, inside and outside, even from the foundation to the coping, and so on the outside to the great court.
- The foundation was of costly stones, even great stones, stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits.
- Above were costly stones, even cut stone, according to measure, and cedar wood.
- The great court around had three courses of cut stone with a course of cedar beams, like the inner court of the LORD’s house and the porch of the house.
- King Solomon sent and brought Hiram out of Tyre.
- He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze; and he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill to work all works in bronze. He came to King Solomon and performed all his work.
- For he fashioned the two pillars of bronze, eighteen cubits high apiece; and a line of twelve cubits encircled either of them.
- He made two capitals of molten bronze to set on the tops of the pillars. The height of the one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other capital was five cubits.
- There were nets of checker work and wreaths of chain work for the capitals which were on the top of the pillars: seven for the one capital, and seven for the other capital.
- So he made the pillars; and there were two rows of pomegranates around the one network, to cover the capitals that were on the top of the pillars; and he did so for the other capital.
- The capitals that were on the top of the pillars in the porch were of lily work, four cubits.
- There were capitals above also on the two pillars, close by the belly which was beside the network. There were two hundred pomegranates in rows around the other capital.
- He set up the pillars at the porch of the temple. He set up the right pillar and called its name Jachin; and he set up the left pillar and called its name Boaz.
- On the tops of the pillars was lily work. So the work of the pillars was finished.
- He made the molten sea ten cubits from brim to brim, round in shape. Its height was five cubits; and a line of thirty cubits encircled it.
- Under its brim around there were buds which encircled it for ten cubits, encircling the sea. The buds were in two rows, cast when it was cast.
- It stood on twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east; and the sea was set on them above, and all their hindquarters were inward.
- It was a hand width thick. Its brim was worked like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily. It held two thousand baths.
- He made the ten bases of bronze. The length of one base was four cubits, four cubits its width, and three cubits its height.
- The work of the bases was like this: they had panels; and there were panels between the ledges;
- and on the panels that were between the ledges were lions, oxen, and cherubim; and on the ledges there was a pedestal above; and beneath the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging work.
- Every base had four bronze wheels and axles of bronze; and its four feet had supports. The supports were cast beneath the basin, with wreaths at the side of each.
- Its opening within the capital and above was a cubit. Its opening was round like the work of a pedestal, a cubit and a half; and also on its opening were engravings, and their panels were square, not round.
- The four wheels were underneath the panels; and the axles of the wheels were in the base. The height of a wheel was a cubit and half a cubit.
- The work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel. Their axles, their rims, their spokes, and their hubs were all of cast metal.
- There were four supports at the four corners of each base. Its supports were of the base itself.
- In the top of the base there was a round band half a cubit high; and on the top of the base its supports and its panels were the same.
- On the plates of its supports and on its panels, he engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, each in its space, with wreaths all around.
- He made the ten bases in this way: all of them had one casting, one measure, and one form.
- He made ten basins of bronze. One basin contained forty baths. Every basin measured four cubits. One basin was on every one of the ten bases.
- He set the bases, five on the right side of the house and five on the left side of the house. He set the sea on the right side of the house eastward and toward the south.
- Hiram made the pots, the shovels, and the basins. So Hiram finished doing all the work that he worked for King Solomon in the LORD’s house:
- the two pillars; the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars; the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars;
- the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks; two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars;
- the ten bases; the ten basins on the bases;
- the one sea; the twelve oxen under the sea;
- the pots; the shovels; and the basins. All of these vessels, which Hiram made for King Solomon for the LORD’s house, were of burnished bronze.
- The king cast them in the plain of the Jordan, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan.
- Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because there were so many of them. The weight of the bronze could not be determined.
- Solomon made all the vessels that were in the LORD’s house: the golden altar and the table that the show bread was on, of gold;
- and the lamp stands, five on the right side and five on the left, in front of the inner sanctuary, of pure gold; and the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs, of gold;
- the cups, the snuffers, the basins, the spoons, and the fire pans, of pure gold; and the hinges, both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, of the temple, of gold.
- Thus all the work that King Solomon did in the LORD’s house was finished. Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated—the silver, the gold, and the vessels—and put them in the treasuries of the LORD’s house.
1 Kings 7 – “Bronze, Cedar, and the Weight of Glory”
Yesterday we lingered over the temple’s silent construction (1 Kings 6) and heard the Spirit whisper about inner transformation. Today the story lifts the curtain on Solomon’s royal palace complex and the dazzling bronze and gold furnishings of God’s house. Chapter 7 feels almost like an architectural appendix, yet the Spirit has hidden treasures here for the patient seeker.
• 7:1-12 – Solomon spends 13 years building his
palace and 7 years on God’s temple (cf. 6:38).
‑ Ancient Near-Eastern kings normally lived larger than their gods;
Solomon reverses the order (temple first), but the chronicler still lets
us feel the tension.
‑ Western readers may miss how the palace served the entire court:
justice hall, treasury, armory, harem, and archives. It was the White
House, Supreme Court, and Library of Congress in one.
‑ The Hebrew narrator conveys unease by the simple math: Which house
quietly absorbs more of my time, talent, and treasure—the Lord’s or my
own?
Cross-references
• Haggai 1:2-9 | “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your
paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?”
• Matthew 6:33 | Seek first the kingdom.
• 7:13-14 – Solomon “sent for Huram from Tyre,” a
man with an Israelite mother and Phoenician father.
‑ The Chronicler (2 Chr 2 & 4) calls him Huram-Abi,
“my father Huram,” a title of honor.
‑ The Spirit again weaves outsiders into the story of redemption
(cf. yesterday’s note on the cedars of Lebanon). Augustine read this as
a figure of the Gentiles later beautifying Christ’s church (City of God
16.39).
Archaeological Echo
Copper ingots stamped “For King Shlomo” discovered near the Gulf of
Aqaba (Timna mines) affirm a Mediterranean network of metalworkers in
Solomon’s era.
• 7:15-22 – Two bronze pillars, Jachin (יָכִין, “He
establishes”) and Boaz (בֹּעַז, “In Him is strength”),
flanked the porch.
‑ They were free-standing—supporting nothing but testifying
everything.
‑ Together they sermonize: God establishes His kingdom in strength.
Centuries later, Christ says, “The one who conquers, I will make
a pillar in the temple of my God” (Revelation 3:12, New
International Version).
Devotional turn
Ask the Spirit: “Where am I leaning for stability? What name is etched
on the pillars of my confidence?”
• 7:23-26 – A giant basin, five cubits high, ten
wide—“like the sea.”
‑ The Hebrew yam (יָם) equally means “sea.” In Israelite imagination, the
sea symbolized untamed chaos (Genesis 1:2; Psalm 93). Set on twelve oxen
(the tribes), the basin proclaims: All Israel upholds the conviction
that God subdues chaos and cleanses His people.
‑ Its 30-cubit circumference intrigues
mathematicians—an ancient approximation of π. The Bible is not a
geometry textbook; the narrator writes pastorally, not
trigonometrically.
Patristic note
Origen saw the Sea as baptism’s laver, the oxen as apostles bearing the
gospel to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations (Homilies on 1
Kings 8).
• 7:27-39 – Ten bronze stands with wheels carried smaller
basins.
‑ Think “portable sinks” for priests handling sacrifices—holiness
meeting people where they are.
‑ Calvin drew a straight line from these rolling basins to the church’s
mission: “The grace that purifies must be carried to every corner of the
world” (Commentary on 1 Kings).
• 7:48-51 – The chapter ends inside, where everything is gold.
‑ Outer courts were bronze—a metal of judgment; inner holy places
gleamed with gold, a symbol of unalloyed glory.
‑ The order hints at the gospel journey: from cleansing (bronze) to
communion (gold).
Literary Device
Notice the chiastic structure:
A – Palace (wood & stone)
B – Bronze artisan & pillars
C – Sea (bronze)
C′ – Stands & basins (bronze)
B′ – Gold furnishings
A′ – “Solomon completed all the work for the temple” (7:51)
The pattern draws the eye to the Sea—the triumph of God over chaos—as
the theological pivot.
Hebrews 9 revisits these furnishings and insists they were “copies of
the true things” (New International Version). Each gleaming object
whispers Jesus’ name:
• Jachin & Boaz — Christ the sure foundation (Ephesians 2:20).
• The Sea — Christ our purification (Titus 3:5).
• The Gold Altar — Christ our intercession (Revelation 8:3).
• The Palace — Christ the greater Son of David preparing rooms for us
(John 14:2).
“Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation” (Latin 6th c., tr. John M.
Neale).
It sings of pillars, cornerstone, and the glory that fills God’s
house.
Master Builder,
You established Your house in strength and washed away our chaos in
waves of mercy.
Establish my days in Your purpose, my work in Your wisdom, and my heart
in Your unwavering love.
May I carry the cleansing grace of Christ into every space I enter
today.
In the Name of the One fairer than gold and stronger than bronze,
Amen.