Solomon's Temple
A Walk Through Solomon's Temple
In the tenth century BC, King Solomon spent seven years building the house of the LORD on Mount Moriah (1 Kings 6:1, 38). Walk step by step from the courts to the Most Holy Place and see what each part teaches about worship, and how it is fulfilled in Yeshua.
60 × 20 × 30cubits · the house (length × width × height)
7 yearsto build
1 Kings 6–8main passage
Drag to turn the model and pinch or scroll to zoom. Tap a number or press “Tour”.
The Temple site
Mount Moriah
2 Chronicles 3:1; Genesis 22:2, 14
Solomon built on Mount Moriah — where Abraham offered Isaac, and where David built an altar on the threshing floor of Ornan. The place of “The LORD will provide” became the center of Israel’s worship.
Fulfilled in YeshuaThe Lamb God provides — Yeshua, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
The great court and the court of the priests
The Courts
1 Kings 6:36; 2 Chronicles 4:9
The house stood within an inner court for the priests, surrounded by a great outer court. Worshippers passed through the courts, drawing step by step toward God’s presence.
Fulfilled in Yeshua“I am the door” — through Yeshua anyone may come near to the Father (John 10:9; Ephesians 2:18).
The altar of burnt offering
The Bronze Altar
2 Chronicles 4:1; 7:1
A great bronze altar, twenty cubits long and wide and ten high, stood before the house for the daily burnt offerings. At the dedication, fire came down from heaven and consumed the offering. No one could draw near to God without sacrifice.
Fulfilled in YeshuaOne sacrifice for all time — the body of Yeshua, offered once (Hebrews 10:10–12).
Washing
The Bronze Sea and Lavers
1 Kings 7:23–26, 38; 2 Chronicles 4:2–6
The huge bronze “Sea,” resting on twelve bronze oxen, was for the priests to wash in, and ten bronze basins were used to rinse the offerings. Holy service begins with being washed clean.
Fulfilled in YeshuaThe Lord who washes us with the water of the Word — “If I do not wash you…” (John 13:8; Ephesians 5:26; Titus 3:5).
The two pillars of the porch
Jachin and Boaz
1 Kings 7:15–22; 2 Chronicles 3:15–17
Two bronze pillars crowned with lily-work stood before the porch. The right was named Jachin, “He will establish”; the left Boaz, “In Him is strength.”
Fulfilled in YeshuaA temple God establishes and strengthens — “He who overcomes, I will make a pillar in the temple of My God” (Revelation 3:12).
Ulam
The Porch
1 Kings 6:3
The porch at the front of the house was twenty cubits wide and ten deep. Through it the priests entered the Holy Place.
Fulfilled in Yeshua“I am the way, the truth, and the life” — the one way to the Father (John 14:6).
The Holy Place
Ten Golden Lampstands
1 Kings 7:49; 2 Chronicles 4:7
The Holy Place, forty cubits long, was lined with cedar overlaid with gold and carved with cherubim, palm trees and open flowers. Ten golden lampstands, five on each side, gave it light.
Fulfilled in Yeshua“I am the light of the world” — and He calls us to be light (John 8:12; Matthew 5:14).
The Holy Place
Tables of Showbread
2 Chronicles 4:8, 19; 1 Kings 7:48
Golden tables held the bread of the Presence, set continually before the LORD. It pictured fellowship with God and His covenant provision.
Fulfilled in Yeshua“I am the bread of life” (John 6:35).
Prayer
The Golden Altar of Incense
1 Kings 6:20–22; 7:48; Psalm 141:2
Before the Most Holy Place stood a cedar altar overlaid with gold, where incense rose continually. Scripture likens the prayers of God’s people to incense — the very heart of a house of prayer.
Fulfilled in YeshuaYeshua our High Priest, who always lives to intercede for us (Hebrews 7:25; Revelation 8:3–4).
Between the Holy and Most Holy Place
The Veil
2 Chronicles 3:14
A veil of blue, purple and crimson yarn and fine linen, embroidered with cherubim, screened the Most Holy Place — the boundary between a holy God and sinful people.
Fulfilled in YeshuaWhen Yeshua died the veil was torn from top to bottom, opening a new and living way through His flesh (Matthew 27:51; Hebrews 10:19–20).
Devir
The Most Holy Place and the Ark
1 Kings 6:19–28; 8:6–9; Leviticus 16
A perfect cube of twenty cubits, overlaid with pure gold, where two olive-wood cherubim ten cubits high spread their wings over the Ark of the Covenant. Inside the Ark were the two tablets of stone. The high priest entered only once a year, on the Day of Atonement.
Fulfilled in YeshuaYeshua, our mercy seat — God set Him forth as the atoning sacrifice (Romans 3:25; Hebrews 9:11–12).
A house of prayer for all peoples
A House Filled with Glory
1 Kings 8:10–11, 41–43; Isaiah 56:7
On the day of dedication the cloud of the LORD’s glory filled the house. Solomon prayed that God would hear even the foreigner from a distant land who prays toward this house. From the beginning, God’s house was a house of prayer for the nations.
Fulfilled in YeshuaThe Word became flesh and dwelt among us — Yeshua is the true Temple, and in Him we become temples of the Holy Spirit (John 1:14; 2:19–21; 1 Corinthians 6:19; Mark 11:17).
A Timeline of God's Dwelling Place
From the wilderness Tabernacle to the New Jerusalem
In the wilderness
The Tabernacle
Exodus 25:8–9; 40:34–35
God said, “Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.” When the Tabernacle was finished, His glory filled it.
Judges era
The Tabernacle at Shiloh
Joshua 18:1; 1 Samuel 1–4
After the conquest the Tabernacle stood at Shiloh. In Eli’s day the Ark was captured by the Philistines — “the glory has departed” (Ichabod).
c. 1000 BC
David and the Ark
2 Samuel 6; 24:18–25; 1 Chronicles 22
David brought the Ark to Jerusalem, bought the threshing floor of Araunah (Ornan) and built an altar there, and gathered materials for the Temple.
c. 966–959 BC
Solomon builds and dedicates the Temple
1 Kings 6:1, 38; chapter 8
Begun in Solomon’s fourth year and finished seven years later; at its dedication during Sukkot, God’s glory filled the house.
The kings
Decline and reform
2 Chronicles 29; 2 Kings 22–23
Idolatry at times defiled the Temple, but Hezekiah cleansed it, and Josiah repaired it, found the Book of the Law and renewed the covenant.
586 BC
Babylon destroys the Temple
2 Kings 25:8–9; Ezekiel 10:18; 11:23
Nebuchadnezzar’s army burned the Temple. Before this, Ezekiel saw the glory of the LORD depart from the house.
c. 516 BC
The Second Temple
Ezra 6:15; Haggai 2:9
The returned exiles rebuilt the Temple under Zerubbabel. Haggai prophesied that the latter glory of this house would be greater than the former.
164 BC
The Maccabees rededicate the Temple
John 10:22
The Temple, defiled by Antiochus IV, was reclaimed and rededicated — the origin of Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication.
c. 20 BC
Herod's expansion
John 2:20
Herod the Great began a vast expansion and beautification of the Temple; work was still going on in Yeshua’s day.
The time of Yeshua
Yeshua and the Temple
Luke 2:22–38, 46; John 2:13–22; Mark 11:17
Yeshua was presented in the Temple as a baby and at twelve sat among its teachers. He cleansed it, saying “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations,” and spoke of His own body as the Temple. When He died, the veil was torn (Matthew 27:51).
AD 70
Rome destroys the Temple
Matthew 24:1–2; Luke 19:43–44
As Yeshua foretold, the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple; not one stone was left upon another.
Today
We are His temple
1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:19–22; 1 Peter 2:5
Now believers are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit — living stones built up as a spiritual house.
One day
The New Jerusalem
Revelation 21:3, 22; Ezekiel 40–48
Ezekiel saw a vision of a restored Temple, and John saw the New Jerusalem. He saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
Dates are approximate; scholars differ slightly.