2 Chronicles 3:1-4·~1 min

Temple Construction Begins

The chapter opens by locating the temple on Mount Moriah, dating the beginning of construction, and naming its basic dimensions. It ends with the front portico, already marked by gold and proportion.

T¹hen Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. This was the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ²Solomon began construction on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign. ³The foundation that Solomon laid for the house of God was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide, according to the old standard. ⁴The portico at the front, extending across the width of the temple, was twenty cubits long and twenty cubits high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold.

Section summarySolomon begins building the house of the LORD in Jerusalem at the place linked to David and the LORD’s appearance. The section fixes the work in time and space, then gives the temple’s first measurements and the gold-covered portico at its front.

Role in the chapterThis opening section establishes the temple as a real, prepared, and sacred project. It ties Solomon’s work to David’s earlier obedience and sets the measured, deliberate tone for the chapter’s description.