1. 400 and eighty years after the people of Israel left Egypt, during the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the second month, the month of Ziv, Solomon began work on the Temple.
2. Inside it was 27 metres long, nine metres wide, and 13.5 metres high.
3. The entrance room was 4.5 metres deep and nine metres wide, as wide as the sanctuary itself.
4. The walls of the Temple had openings in them, narrower on the outside than on the inside.
5. Against the outside walls, on the sides and the back of the Temple, a three-storied annexe was built, each storey 2.2 metres high.
6. Each room in the lowest storey was 2.2 metres wide, in the middle storey 2.7 metres wide, and in the top storey 3.1 metres wide. The temple wall on each floor was thinner than on the floor below so that the rooms could rest on the wall without having their beams built into it.
7. The stones with which the Temple was built had been prepared at the quarry, so that there was no noise made by hammers, axes, or any other iron tools as the Temple was being built.
8. The entrance to the lowest storey of the annexe was on the south side of the Temple, with stairs leading up to the second and third storeys.
9. So King Solomon finished building the Temple. He put in a ceiling made of beams and boards of cedar.
10. The three-storied annexe, each storey 2.2 metres high, was built against the outside walls of the Temple, and was joined to them by cedar beams.
11. The Lord said to Solomon,
12. “If you obey all my laws and commands, I will do for you what I promised your father David.
13. I will live among my people Israel in this Temple that you are building, and I will never abandon them.”
14. So Solomon finished building the Temple.
15. The inside walls were covered with cedar panels from the floor to the ceiling, and the floor was made of pine.