Built for Pleasure

Hiram, the king of Tyre, having heard that I was anointed as king in place of my father David, sent his servants to me. He had always loved my father, David. So I sent word to him, "You know that David my father could not build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of the warfare with which his enemies surrounded him until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet. But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side. There is neither adversary nor misfortune.

                                    And so I planned to build a house for the name of the Lord my God. ‘The Lord said to David my father, 'Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, shall build the house for my name.' Now, therefore, command that cedars of Lebanon be cut for me. And my servants will join your servants, and I will pay you for your servants' such wages as you set, for you know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians."

                                   When he heard my words, Hiram rejoiced greatly and said, "Blessed be the Lord this day, who has given to David a wise son to be over this great people."

                                   He sent word to me saying, "I have heard the message that you have sent to me. I am ready to do all you desire in the matter of cedar and cypress timber. My servants shall bring it down to the sea from Lebanon, and I will make it into rafts to go by sea to the place you direct. And I will have them broken up there, and you shall receive it. And you shall meet my wishes by providing food for my household."

                                   Hiram supplied to me good timber of the cedar and cypress trees, as much as I needed. I sent and supplied Hiram with 20,000 cors of wheat as food for his household, and 20,000 cors of beaten oil. This I did year after year.

                                   The Lord my God gave us peace between me and Hiram, king of Tyre. We made a treaty between the both of us. I took great pains to start building the Temple of the Lord.

                                   I drafted forced labor out of all Israel. The number of such people from Israel was 30,000. I sent these men in shifts, 10,000 each month, to Lebanon. They would work for one month and stay at home for two months. Adoniram, one of my officials, was in charge of these men.

                                   In the hill country, I had 70,000 burden bearers and 80,000 stone cutters. 3000 of my chief officers oversaw all this work. They were in charge of all the draft men.

                                   I commanded all these men and they quarried out great and costly stones to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stones. My men along with the men of Hiram and those of Gebal did all the cutting and prepared the timber and stone to build the hose of the Lord.

                                   The construction of the house of the Lord began in the 408th year after we came out from Egypt, in the fourth year of my reign. It started in the month of Ziv, which is the second month.

                                   This house was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. The vestibule in front of the house was twenty cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and ten cubits deep in front of the house.

                                   I got some windows made with recessed frames for the house. I also built a structure against the wall of the house, running around the walls of the house, both the nave and the inner sanctuary. And he made side chambers all around.

                                   The lowest story was five cubits broad, the middle one was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad. For around the outside of the house, he made offsets on the wall in order that the supporting beams should not be inserted into the walls of the house.

                                   When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built.

                                   The entrance for the lowest story was on the south side of the house, and one went up by stairs to the middle story, and from the middle story to the third.

                            I built the house, finished it, and made the ceiling of the house of beams and planks of cedar. I built the structure against the whole house, five cubits high, and it was joined to the house with timbers of cedar.

                                  At that time, the Lord my God spoke to me and said, "Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father. And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people, Israel."

                                 Encouraged, I built the house of the Lord and finished it. And I overlaid the whole house with gold until all the house was finished. Also, I overlaid with gold the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary.

                                  In the inner sanctuary, I got made two cherubim of olivewood, each ten cubits high. Five cubits were the length of one wing of the cherub, and five cubits were the length of the other wing of the cherub; it was ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other.

                                The other cherub also measured ten cubits; both cherubim had the same measure and the same form. The height of one cherub was ten cubits, and so was that of the other cherub.

                                 These cherubim I stationed in the innermost part of the house. And the wings of the cherubim were spread out so that a wing of one touched the one wall, and a wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; their other wings touched each other in the middle of the house.

                                 I got the Cherubim overlaid with gold. Around all the walls of the house, I got carved engraved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, in the inner and outer rooms.

                                The floor of the house was overlaid with gold in the inner and outer rooms. For the entrance to the inner sanctuary were made doors of olivewood; the lintel and the doorposts were five-sided.

                                I got the two doors of olivewood covered with carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. They overlaid them with gold and spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees.

                               The entrance to the nave doorposts of olivewood was in the form of a square, and two doors of cypress wood. The two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding.

                               On them were carved cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and I got them overlaid with gold evenly applied on the carved work.

                                I had the inner court built with three courses of cut stone and one course of cedar beams.

                                In the fourth year, the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid, in the month of Ziv.

                                And in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its parts, and according to all its specifications. It took me and all the workmen seven years to get the building of the house of the Lord finished.

                                It took me thirteen years to build my palace completely, though. I built the House of the Forest of Lebanon. It was a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits broad. It was built to a height of thirty cubits. I got it built on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams on the pillars.

                               These constructions took a lot of my time, and I built my house and the House of the Forest of Lebanon, for my pleasure. I was expecting to feel satisfied and happy at the end of the whole process. But I was flabbergasted. I didn’t feel so. In fact, I was feeling apathetic!

                               “Did I really build these for my pleasure?” I wondered.

                               As I mused about all this, I realized that the most important thing in life is not buildings and harems, not pleasure from the sensual but being in the will of God. Obeying God and His commandments, I realized, rather late, was vital for my soul. I set about marshaling my thoughts and writing them down. “Can I follow what I write?” I pondered as I went about my writing. “Or is this book also being built for my pleasure?”