From Splendor to Shadow

Chapter 2—Solomon's Magnificent Temple

For seven years Jerusalem was filled with busy workers leveling the chosen site of the temple, building vast retaining walls, laying broad foundations, shaping timbers brought from the Lebanon forests, and erecting the magnificent sanctuary. See 1 Kings 5:17. Simultaneously the manufacture of the furnishings was progressing under the leadership of Hiram of Tyre, “a cunning man, ... 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. SS 18.1

The building on Mount Moriah was noiselessly upreared with “stone prepared at the quarry; so that neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of iron was heard in the temple, while it was being built.” 1 Kings 6:7, RSV. The beautiful fittings included the altar of incense, the table of showbread, the candlestick and lamps, with the vessels and instruments connected with the holy place, all of “perfect gold.” 2 Chronicles 4:21. The brazen altar of burnt offering, the laver supported by twelve oxen, with many other vessels—“in the plain of Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground.” 2 Chronicles 4:17. SS 18.2