I Will Dwell Among Them

In the fourth year of his reign, four hundred eighty years after the exodus, Solomon began to build the house of the Lord. It was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide, with a porch in front and side rooms built around it in three stories. The stones were prepared at the quarry, so no hammer, ax, or iron tool was heard while it was being built.

In the middle of the work, God spoke. The beautiful building was not enough by itself. If Solomon walked in God's statutes and kept His commandments, God would keep His word to David. Then God said, I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.

Inside, cedar covered every wall, carved with gourds and open flowers. The inner sanctuary, the most holy place, was a perfect cube covered with pure gold. Two olive wood cherubim, each ten cubits high, spread their wings across it. Even the floor was overlaid with gold. The house was finished in the eighth month of the eleventh year, after seven years of work.