Terumah Haftorah Study

(26) GOD had given Solomon wisdom, just as promised. There was friendship between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty. (27) King Solomon imposed forced labor on all Israel; the levy came to 30,000 men. (28) He sent them to the Lebanon in shifts of 10,000 a month: they would spend one month in the Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor. (29) Solomon also had 70,000 porters and 80,000 quarriers in the hills, (30) apart from Solomon’s 3,300 officials who were in charge of the work and supervised the gangs doing the work. (31) The king ordered huge blocks of choice stone to be quarried, so that the foundations of the house might be laid with hewn stones. (32) Solomon’s masons, Hiram’s masons, and those from Gebal shaped them. Thus the timber and the stones for building the house were made ready. (1) In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites left the land of Egypt, in the month of Ziv—that is, the second month—in the fourth year of his reign over Israel, Solomon began to build the House of GOD. (2) The House that King Solomon built for GOD was 60 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. (3) The portico in front of the Great Hall of the House was 20 cubits long—along the width of the House—and 10 cubits deep to the front of the House. (4) aMeaning of parts of vv. 4–6 is uncertain. He made windows for the House, recessed and latticed. (5) Against the outside wall of the House—the outside walls of the House enclosing the Great Hall and the Shrine—he built a storied structure; and he made side chambers all around. (6) The lowest story was 5 cubits wide, the middle one 6 cubits wide, and the third 7 cubits wide; for he had provided recesses around the outside of the House so as not to penetrate the walls of the House. (7) When the House was built, only finished stones cut at the quarry were used, so that no hammer or ax or any iron tool was heard in the House while it was being built. (8) The entrance to the middle [story of] the side chambers was on the right side of the House; and winding stairs led up to the middle chambers, and from the middle chambers to the third story. (9) When he finished building the House, he paneled the House with beams and planks of cedar (10) He built the storied structure against the entire House—each story 5 cubits high, so that it encased the House with timbers of cedar. (11) Then the word of GOD came to Solomon, (12) “With regard to this House you are building—if you follow My laws and observe My rules and faithfully keep My commandments, I will fulfill for you the promise that I gave to your father David: (13) I will abide among the children of Israel, and I will never forsake My people Israel.”