Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we briefly interrupt temple details to zoom in on Solomon's personal house, dividing the temple description in half.

This is probably an intentional move by the

author to illustrate a sad point. Solomon has a divided heart. There was also a hint toward this in

yesterday's reading when the Canaanite laborers worked in shifts where they spent one month

working on the temple, followed by two months working on his house. And according to today's

descriptions, his house is much larger. Granted, houses that hold physical people have to be larger

than ones that house God's spirit and a few small pieces of furniture. So it's reasonable that it

might take longer and be larger, but this interruption of the narrative is probably there to tell us about

what's happening in Solomon's heart. He uses a lot of the same resources for his house,

and he doesn't just build a house. He builds a whole palace complex, and it's majestic. He has

his own palace, his wife's palace, a throne hall, and the hall of pillars.

While his father David had humble roots as a shepherd, Solomon was bougie, maybe a little too

bougie, like the bougiest, and it becomes a problem for him. We'll read more about that in the

future. Next, we jump back into the descriptions of the temple furniture.

You can see how they've come a long way from the tabernacle. This temple is gorgeous.

Solomon hires the most skilled craftsman, and for the bronze items, he uses an artist named

Hiram, not to be confused with King Hiram of Tyra, where he got the cedar trees.

Hiram doesn't just have skill, he has wisdom and understanding too.

And you may recall from our lengthy tabernacle descriptions that God empowered Bezalel in Exodus 31

along those same lines. It says, I have filled him with the spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge

and all craftsmanship.

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