Chapter 2—The Temple and Its Dedication
The long-cherished plan of David to erect a temple to the Lord,
Solomon wisely carried out. For seven years Jerusalem was filled
with busy workers engaged in leveling the chosen site, in building vast
retaining walls, in laying broad foundations,—“great stones, costly
stones, and hewed stones,”—in shaping the heavy timbers brought
from the Lebanon forests, and in erecting the magnificent sanctuary.
1
Kings 5:17
.
Simultaneously with the preparation of wood and stone, to which
task many thousands were bending their energies, the manufacture of
the furnishings for the temple was steadily progressing under the lead-
ership of Hiram of Tyre, “a cunning man, endued with understanding,
... skillful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone,
and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson.”
2
Chronicles 2:13, 14
.
Thus as the building on Mount Moriah was noiselessly upreared
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with “stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was
neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while
it was in building,” the beautiful fittings were perfected according to
the patterns committed by David to his son, “all the vessels that were
for the house of God.”
1 Kings 6:7
;
4:19
. These included the altar of
incense, the table of shewbread, the candlestick and lamps, with the
vessels and instruments connected with the ministrations of the priests
in the holy place, all “of gold, and that perfect gold.”
2 Chronicles
4:21
. The brazen furniture,—the altar of burnt offering, the great laver
supported by twelve oxen, the lavers of smaller size, with many other
vessels,—“in the plain of Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay
ground between Succoth and Zeredathah.”
2 Chronicles 4:17
. These
furnishings were provided in abundance, that there should be no lack.
Of surpassing beauty and unrivaled splendor was the palatial build-
ing which Solomon and his associates erected for God and His worship.
Garnished with precious stones, surrounded by spacious courts with
magnificent approaches, and lined with carved cedar and burnished
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