1 Solomon, however, took thirteen years to complete the construction of his entire palace.

2 He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon a hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high, with four rows of cedar pillars supporting the cedar beams.

3 The house was roofed with cedar above the beams that rested on the pillars — forty-five beams, fifteen per row. 4There were three rows of high windows facing one another in three tiers. 5All the doorways had rectangular frames, with the openings facing one another in three tiers.

6 Solomon made his colonnade fifty cubits long and thirty cubits wide, with a portico in front of it and a canopy with pillars in front of the portico.

7 In addition, he built a hall for the throne, the Hall of Justice, where he was to judge. It was paneled with cedar from floor to ceiling.

8 And the palace where Solomon would live, set further back, was of similar construction. He also made a palace like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had married.

9 All these buildings were constructed with costly stones, cut to size and trimmed with saws inside and out from the foundation to the eaves, and from the outside to the great courtyard. 10The foundations were laid with large, costly stones, some ten cubits long and some eight cubits long. 11Above these were costly stones, cut to size, and cedar beams.

12 The great courtyard was surrounded by three rows of dressed stone and a row of trimmed cedar beams, as were the inner courtyard and portico of the house of the Lord.

13 Now King Solomon sent to bring Huram from Tyre. 14He was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a craftsman in bronze. Huram had great skill, understanding, and knowledge for every kind of bronze work. So he came to King Solomon and carried out all his work.

15 He cast two pillars of bronze, each eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in circumference. 16He also made two capitals of cast bronze to set on top of the pillars, each capital five cubits high. 17For the capitals on top of the pillars he made a network of lattice, with wreaths of chainwork, seven for each capital.

18 Likewise, he made the pillars with two rows of pomegranates around each grating to cover each capital atop the pillars. 19And the capitals atop the pillars in the portico were shaped like lilies, four cubits high. 20On the capitals of both pillars, just above the rounded projection next to the network, were the two hundred pomegranates in rows encircling each capital.

21 Thus he set up the pillars at the portico of the temple. The pillar to the south he named Jachin, and the pillar to the north he named Boaz. 22And the tops of the pillars were shaped like lilies. So the work of the pillars was completed.

23 He also made the Sea of cast metal. It was circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim, five cubits in height, and thirty cubits in circumference. 24Below the rim, ornamental buds encircled it, ten per cubit all the way around the Sea, cast in two rows as a part of the Sea.

25 The Sea stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The Sea rested on them, with all their hindquarters toward the center. 26It was a handbreadth thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold two thousand baths.

27 In addition, he made ten movable stands of bronze, each four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three cubits high.

28 This was the design of the stands: They had side panels attached to uprights, 29and on the panels between the uprights were lions, oxen, and cherubim. On the uprights was a pedestal above, and below the lions and oxen were wreaths of beveled work.

30 Each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles and a basin resting on four supports, with wreaths at each side. 31The opening to each stand inside the crown at the top was one cubit deep, with a round opening like the design of a pedestal, a cubit and a half wide. And around its opening were engravings, but the panels of the stands were square, not round.

32 There were four wheels under the panels, and the axles of the wheels were attached to the stand; each wheel was a cubit and a half in diameter. 33The wheels were made like chariot wheels; their axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were all of cast metal.

34 Each stand had four handles, one for each corner, projecting from the stand. 35At the top of each stand was a circular band half a cubit high. The supports and panels were cast as a unit with the top of the stand.

36 He engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees on the surfaces of the supports and panels, wherever each had space, with wreaths all around. 37In this way he made the ten stands, each with the same casting, dimensions, and shape.

38 He also made ten bronze basins, each holding forty baths and measuring four cubits across, one basin for each of the ten stands.

39 He set five stands on the south side of the temple and five on the north, and he put the Sea on the south side, at the southeast corner of the temple.

40 Additionally, Huram made the pots, shovels, and sprinkling bowls.

So Huram finished all the work that he had undertaken for King Solomon in the house of the Lord:

All the articles that Huram made for King Solomon in the house of the Lord were made of burnished bronze. 46The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zarethan. 47Solomon left all these articles unweighed, because there were so many. The weight of the bronze could not be determined.

48 Solomon also made all the furnishings for the house of the Lord:

51 So all the work that King Solomon had performed for the house of the Lord was completed.

Then Solomon brought in the items his father David had dedicated— the silver, the gold, and the furnishings— and he placed them in the treasuries of the house of the Lord.

30 After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight. As he approached to look more closely, the voice of the Lord came to him: 32‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.

33 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34I have indeed seen the oppression of My people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’

35 This Moses, whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ is the one whom God sent to be their ruler and redeemer through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36He led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and for forty years in the wilderness.

37 This is the same Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.’ 38He was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. And he received living words to pass on to us.

39 But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. 40They said to Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us! As for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’

41 At that time they made a calf and offered a sacrifice to the idol, rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:

44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the wilderness. It was constructed exactly as God had directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. 45And our fathers who received it brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations God drove out before them. It remained until the time of David, 46who found favor in the sight of God and asked to provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47But it was Solomon who built the house for Him.

48 However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says: