Solomon's Palace

¹Solomon also built a palace for himself, and it took him thirteen years.

^2-3The Hall of the Forest of Lebanon was 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. It had three rows of cedar pillars, 15 in each row, with cedar beams resting on them. The ceiling was of cedar, extending over storerooms, which were supported by the pillars.

⁴On each of the two side walls there were three rows of windows.

⁵The doorways and the windows had rectangular frames, and the three rows of windows in each wall faced the opposite rows.

⁶The Hall of Columns was 75 feet long and 45 feet wide. It had a covered porch, supported by columns.

⁷The Throne Room, also called the Hall of Judgment, where Solomon decided cases, had cedar panels from the floor to the rafters.

⁸Solomon's own quarters, in another court behind the Hall of Judgment, were made like the other buildings. He also built the same kind of house for his wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt.

⁹All these buildings and the great court were made of fine stones from the foundations to the eaves. The stones were prepared at the quarry and cut to measure, with their inner and outer sides trimmed with saws.

¹⁰The foundations were made of large stones prepared at the quarry, some of them twelve feet long and others fifteen feet long.

¹¹On top of them were other stones, cut to measure, and cedar beams.

¹²The palace court, the inner court of the Temple, and the entrance room of the Temple had walls with one layer of cedar beams for every three layers of cut stones.

Huram's Task

¹³King Solomon sent for a man named Huram, a craftsman living in the city of Tyre, who was skilled in bronze work.

¹⁴His father, who was no longer living, was from Tyre, and had also been a skilled bronze craftsman; his mother was from the tribe of Naphtali. Huram was an intelligent and experienced craftsman. He accepted King Solomon's invitation to be in charge of all the bronze work.

The Two Bronze Columns

¹⁵Huram cast two bronze columns, each one 27 feet tall and 18 feet in circumference, and placed them at the entrance of the Temple.

¹⁶He also made two bronze capitals, each one 7½ feet tall, to be placed on top of the columns.

¹⁷The top of each column was decorated with a design of interwoven chains

¹⁸and two rows of bronze pomegranates.

¹⁹The capitals were shaped like lilies, 6 feet tall,

²⁰and were placed on a rounded section which was above the chain design. There were 200 pomegranates in two rows around each capital.

²¹Huram placed these two bronze columns in front of the entrance of the Temple: the one on the south side was named Jachin and the one on the north was named Boaz.

²²The lily-shaped bronze capitals were on top of the columns. And so the work on the columns was completed.

The Bronze Tank

²³Huram made a round tank of bronze, 7½ feet deep, 15 feet in diameter, and 45 feet in circumference.

²⁴All around the outer edge of the rim of the tank were two rows of bronze gourds, which had been cast all in one piece with the rest of the tank.

²⁵The tank rested on the backs of twelve bronze bulls that faced outward, three facing in each direction.

²⁶The sides of the tank were 3 inches thick. Its rim was like the rim of a cup, curving outward like the petals of a lily. The tank held about 10,000 gallons.

The Bronze Carts

²⁷Huram also made ten bronze carts; each was 6 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 4½ feet high.

²⁸They were made of square panels which were set in frames,

²⁹with the figures of lions, bulls, and winged creatures on the panels; and on the frames, above and underneath the lions and bulls, there were spiral figures in relief.

³⁰Each cart had four bronze wheels with bronze axles. At the four corners were bronze supports for a basin; the supports were decorated with spiral figures in relief.

³¹There was a circular frame on top for the basin. It projected upward 18 inches from the top of the cart and 7 inches down into it. It had carvings around it.

³²The wheels were 25 inches high; they were under the panels, and the axles were of one piece with the carts.

³³The wheels were like chariot wheels; their axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were all of bronze.

³⁴There were four supports at the bottom corners of each cart, which were of one piece with the cart.

³⁵There was a 9-inch band around the top of each cart; its supports and the panels were of one piece with the cart.

³⁶The supports and panels were decorated with figures of winged creatures, lions, and palm trees, wherever there was space for them, with spiral figures all around.

³⁷This, then, is how the carts were made; they were all alike, having the same size and shape.

³⁸Huram also made ten basins, one for each cart. Each basin was 6 feet in diameter and held 200 gallons.

³⁹He placed five of the carts on the south side of the Temple, and the other five on the north side; the tank he placed at the southeast corner.

Summary List of Temple Furnishings

^40-45Huram also made pots, shovels, and bowls. He completed all his work for King Solomon for the Lord's Temple. This is what he made: The two columns The two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the columns The design of interwoven chains on each capital The 400 bronze pomegranates, in two rows of 100 each around the design on each capital The ten carts The ten basins The tank The twelve bulls supporting the tank The pots, shovels, and bowls All this equipment for the Temple, which Huram made for King Solomon, was of polished bronze.

⁴⁶The king had it all made in the foundry between Sukkoth and Zarethan, in the Jordan Valley.

⁴⁷Solomon did not have these bronze objects weighed, because there were too many of them, and so their weight was never determined.

⁴⁸Solomon also had gold furnishings made for the Temple: the altar, the table for the bread offered to God,

⁴⁹the ten lampstands that stood in front of the Most Holy Place, five on the south side and five on the north; the flowers, lamps, and tongs;

⁵⁰the cups, lamp snuffers, bowls, dishes for incense, and the pans used for carrying live coals; and the hinges for the doors of the Most Holy Place and of the outer doors of the Temple. All these furnishings were made of gold.

⁵¹When King Solomon finished all the work on the Temple, he placed in the Temple storerooms all the things that his father David had dedicated to the Lord—the silver, gold, and other articles.

Life Is Useless

¹These are the words of the Philosopher, David's son, who was king in Jerusalem.

²It is useless, useless, said the Philosopher. Life is useless, all useless.

³You spend your life working, laboring, and what do you have to show for it?

⁴Generations come and generations go, but the world stays just the same.

⁵The sun still rises, and it still goes down, going wearily back to where it must start all over again.

⁶The wind blows south, the wind blows north—round and round and back again.

⁷Every river flows into the sea, but the sea is not yet full. The water returns to where the rivers began, and starts all over again.

⁸Everything leads to weariness—a weariness too great for words. Our eyes can never see enough to be satisfied; our ears can never hear enough.

⁹What has happened before will happen again. What has been done before will be done again. There is nothing new in the whole world.

¹⁰“Look,” they say, “here is something new!” But no, it has all happened before, long before we were born.

¹¹No one remembers what has happened in the past, and no one in days to come will remember what happens between now and then.

The Philosopher's Experience

¹²I, the Philosopher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

¹³I determined that I would examine and study all the things that are done in this world. God has laid a miserable fate upon us.

¹⁴I have seen everything done in this world, and I tell you, it is all useless. It is like chasing the wind.

¹⁵You can't straighten out what is crooked; you can't count things that aren't there.

¹⁶I told myself, “I have become a great man, far wiser than anyone who ruled Jerusalem before me. I know what wisdom and knowledge really are.”

¹⁷I was determined to learn the difference between knowledge and foolishness, wisdom and madness. But I found out that I might as well be chasing the wind.

¹⁸The wiser you are, the more worries you have; the more you know, the more it hurts.

¹I decided to enjoy myself and find out what happiness is. But I found that this is useless, too.

²I discovered that laughter is foolish, that pleasure does you no good.

³Driven on by my desire for wisdom, I decided to cheer myself up with wine and have a good time. I thought that this might be the best way people can spend their short lives on earth.

⁴I accomplished great things. I built myself houses and planted vineyards.

⁵I planted gardens and orchards, with all kinds of fruit trees in them;

⁶I dug ponds to irrigate them.

⁷I bought many slaves, and there were slaves born in my household. I owned more livestock than anyone else who had ever lived in Jerusalem.

⁸I also piled up silver and gold from the royal treasuries of the lands I ruled. Men and women sang to entertain me, and I had all the women a man could want.

⁹Yes, I was great, greater than anyone else who had ever lived in Jerusalem, and my wisdom never failed me.

¹⁰Anything I wanted, I got. I did not deny myself any pleasure. I was proud of everything I had worked for, and all this was my reward.

¹¹Then I thought about all that I had done and how hard I had worked doing it, and I realized that it didn't mean a thing. It was like chasing the wind—of no use at all.

¹²After all, a king can only do what previous kings have done. So I started thinking about what it meant to be wise or reckless or foolish.

¹³Oh, I know, “Wisdom is better than foolishness, just as light is better than darkness.

¹⁴The wise can see where they are going, and fools cannot.” But I also know that the same fate is waiting for us all.

¹⁵I thought to myself, “What happens to fools is going to happen to me, too. So what have I gained from being so wise?” “Nothing,” I answered, “not a thing.”

¹⁶No one remembers the wise, and no one remembers fools. In days to come, we will all be forgotten. We must all die—wise and foolish alike.

¹⁷So life came to mean nothing to me, because everything in it had brought me nothing but trouble. It had all been useless; I had been chasing the wind.

¹⁸Nothing that I had worked for and earned meant a thing to me, because I knew that I would have to leave it to my successor,

¹⁹and he might be wise, or he might be foolish—who knows? Yet he will own everything I have worked for, everything my wisdom has earned for me in this world. It is all useless.

²⁰So I came to regret that I had worked so hard.

²¹You work for something with all your wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and then you have to leave it all to someone who hasn't had to work for it. It is useless, and it isn't right!

²²You work and worry your way through life, and what do you have to show for it?

²³As long as you live, everything you do brings nothing but worry and heartache. Even at night your mind can't rest. It is all useless.

²⁴The best thing we can do is eat and drink and enjoy what we have earned. And yet, I realized that even this comes from God.

²⁵How else could you have anything to eat or enjoy yourself at all?

²⁶God gives wisdom, knowledge, and happiness to those who please him, but he makes sinners work, earning and saving, so that what they get can be given to those who please him. It is all useless. It is like chasing the wind.

A Time for Everything

¹Everything that happens in this world happens at the time God chooses.

²He sets the time for birth and the time for death, the time for planting and the time for pulling up,

³the time for killing and the time for healing, the time for tearing down and the time for building.

⁴He sets the time for sorrow and the time for joy, the time for mourning and the time for dancing,

⁵the time for making love and the time for not making love, the time for kissing and the time for not kissing.

⁶He sets the time for finding and the time for losing, the time for saving and the time for throwing away,

⁷the time for tearing and the time for mending, the time for silence and the time for talk.

⁸He sets the time for love and the time for hate, the time for war and the time for peace.

⁹What do we gain from all our work?

¹⁰I know the heavy burdens that God has laid on us.

¹¹He has set the right time for everything. He has given us a desire to know the future, but never gives us the satisfaction of fully understanding what he does.

¹²So I realized that all we can do is be happy and do the best we can while we are still alive.

¹³All of us should eat and drink and enjoy what we have worked for. It is God's gift.

¹⁴I know that everything God does will last forever. You can't add anything to it or take anything away from it. And one thing God does is to make us stand in awe of him.

¹⁵Whatever happens or can happen has already happened before. God makes the same thing happen again and again.

Injustice in the World

¹⁶In addition, I have also noticed that in this world you find wickedness where justice and right ought to be.

¹⁷I told myself, “God is going to judge the righteous and the evil alike, because every thing, every action, will happen at its own set time.”

¹⁸I decided that God is testing us, to show us that we are no better than animals.

¹⁹After all, the same fate awaits human beings and animals alike. One dies just like the other. They are the same kind of creature. A human being is no better off than an animal, because life has no meaning for either.

²⁰They are both going to the same place—the dust. They both came from it; they will both go back to it.

²¹How can anyone be sure that the human spirit goes upward while an animal's spirit goes down into the ground?

²²So I realized then that the best thing we can do is enjoy what we have worked for. There is nothing else we can do. There is no way for us to know what will happen after we die.

A Prayer for Protection

¹Listen to my words, O Lord, and hear my sighs.

²Listen to my cry for help, my God and king! I pray to you, O Lord;

³you hear my voice in the morning; at sunrise I offer my prayer and wait for your answer.

⁴You are not a God who is pleased with wrongdoing; you allow no evil in your presence.

⁵You cannot stand the sight of the proud; you hate all wicked people.

⁶You destroy all liars and despise violent, deceitful people.

⁷But because of your great love I can come into your house; I can worship in your holy Temple and bow down to you in reverence.

⁸Lord, I have so many enemies! Lead me to do your will; make your way plain for me to follow.

⁹What my enemies say can never be trusted; they only want to destroy. Their words are flattering and smooth, but full of deadly deceit.

¹⁰Condemn and punish them, O God; may their own plots cause their ruin. Drive them out of your presence because of their many sins and their rebellion against you.

¹¹But all who find safety in you will rejoice; they can always sing for joy. Protect those who love you; because of you they are truly happy.

¹²You bless those who obey you, Lord; your love protects them like a shield.