Artist: Maarten van Heemskerck
Solomon Building the Temple, from The Story of Solomon.
During the later years of David's reign, he laid up great treasure of gold and silver, and brass, and iron, for the building of a house to the Lord on Mount Moriah. This house was to be called "The Temple"; and it was to be made very beautiful, the most beautiful building, and the richest in all the land. David had greatly desired to build this house while he was king of ancient Israel, but God said to him:
"You have been a man of war, and have fought many battles, and shed much blood. My house shall be built by a man of peace. When you die, your son Solomon shall reign, and he shall have peace, and shall build my house."
According to the Christian Bible, Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple, was the Holy Temple in ancient Jerusalem before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 BCE and its subsequent replacement with the Second Temple in the 6th century BCE.
The Bible states that the temple was constructed under Solomon, king of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah and that during the Kingdom of Judah, the temple was dedicated to Yahweh, and is said to have housed the Ark of the Covenant.
Historian Josephus says that "the temple was burnt four hundred and seventy years, six months, and ten days after it was built", although other sources state that the First Temple stood for 410 years and place construction in 832 BCE and destruction in 422 BCE, 165 years later than secular estimates.
