Although the First Jerusalem Temple was built by King Solomon, preparations for its construction began in the previous kingdom. Jerusalem of that time was much smaller than the present, of its four hills, only one was inhabited - Mount Zion. After the occupation of the city, David surrounded it with a wall. A fairly high Mount Moriah adjoined Zion on the east side. She was occupied by the field of a local resident, the Jebusite Orna. In the middle of the field, on the upper ridge of the mountain, a threshing floor was arranged. King David bought this mountain from Orna for 50 shekels of silver (according to other sources, for 600 shekels of gold). It is quite possible that the mountain was bought in parts: first a small part of it for 50 shekels of silver, and then other adjacent areas - only 600 shekels of gold.
The building material prepared by King David for the temple is gold, silver (although it is not mentioned in the decoration of the Temple of Solomon), copper, precious stones, iron, cedar beams, marble, stone. The Jerusalem Temple was the only one for the entire kingdom of Israel and therefore required all kinds of splendor.
David fulfilled the plan of the Temple in general and in particular, which he passed on to his heirs in a solemn testament and with an insistent demand to fulfill it.
Despite a lot of building material prepared by David, it was not enough even to start work, especially there were few stones and timber. Therefore, King Solomon, starting to build the Temple, entered into an agreement with the Tyrian king Hiram, according to which he undertook: to supply Solomon with cedar and cypress wood, hewn ready-made stones from the Lebanese mountains; the felling of timber and the processing of stones should be provided to the people sent by Solomon, but to guide them also to appoint Phoenician craftsmen, as more experienced in the business; wooden beams to be delivered from Lebanon by sea on rafts to Jaffa, the pier closest to Jerusalem. For his part, Solomon had to supply wheat, wine, oil to Tire. There is evidence that King Solomon concluded a similar agreement with the Egyptian king.
At the construction site of the Temple, no ax, hammer, or other iron tool could be heard: wood and stone finishing work was carried out in Lebanon, foundry work was performed in the Jordan Valley.
Before proceeding with the construction of the Temple, it was required to find a place for it corresponding to the plan. In its original form, the ridge of Mount Moriah was very steep; it could barely accommodate the body of the temple and the altar. There was no room at all for the courtyards that were supposed to surround the Temple on all sides. In addition, in its original direction, the ridge of the mountain ran diagonally - not directly from north to south, but from north-west to southeast. And the Temple and its courts had to be clearly oriented (like a tabernacle) in the correct relation to the four cardinal points. Therefore, in preparation for the construction of the Temple, it was required: a) to expand the upper part of the mountain to the size provided for by the plan of the Temple; b) change or align the direction of the ridge so that the area prepared for the Temple is facing the four cardinal points as accurately as possible.
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And King Solomon came up with a wise plan: to build on the eastern side of the mountain, starting from its bottom, among the Kidron Valley passing here, a large and solid stone wall in the direction that the wall of the Temple courtyard should have (that is, directly from north to south), and cover the gap between the wall and the slope of the mountain with earth.
In general, the Temple of Solomon was built according to the plan given for the tabernacle of Moses, only in large sizes and with those adaptations that were necessary in the rich, immovable sanctuary. The temple was divided into the Holy of Holies, the sanctuary and the narthex, but it was larger and more magnificent than the tabernacle.
A large area was arranged around the inner section of the Solomon Temple - a section for the people (or a large courtyard). The second courtyard, or the courtyard of the priests, was twice the size of the tabernacle. Correspondingly to the washer of the tabernacle at the altar of the Temple, there was a whole system of vessels for ablution: 10 artistically made washers on supports and a large pool for water, called the sea in size.
The narthex of the temple was a corridor 20 cubits in length (along the width of the body of the Temple) and 10 cubits in depth. There were two large brass pillars in front of him. The internal size of the Temple was partly doubled, partly tripled the size of the tabernacle.
The Holy of Holies and the sanctuary were separated by a stone wall with an olive tree door. The walls of the Temple itself were lined with massive hewn stone, lined with white marble on the outside, but, like the doors of the Tabernacle, inside they were covered with wooden lining, and then still lined with sheet gold. The doors, the ceiling, and the cypress floor of the Temple were covered with gold.
On the walls of the tabernacle were figures of the same cherubim as on the embroidered cover that draped its inner walls. And on the walls of the Temple of Solomon cherubs were depicted, only the ornament in the form of plants was added.
Outwardly, the appearance of the Temple amazed with its grandeur, massiveness and fortress, but inside - with wealth and splendor, unheard of even in the ancient world. The entire interior of the Temple was lined with wood - the walls and ceiling were cedar, and the floor was cypress, so that the stone inside the Temple was not visible. The wall boards were decorated with carvings from inwardly carved (rather than protruding) reliefs, the deeply carved main subjects of the paintings never protruded above the plane of the wall. The paintings again depicted the figures of cherubs, but they were supplemented with images of palms, colokints (a genus of wild cucumbers) and blossoming flowers. The choice of a palm tree is explained not only by the fact that it was the most beautiful and useful tree - a symbol of beauty, greatness and moral perfection. According to the ancients, the native land of the palm tree was Palestine, from where it spread throughout the ancient East. The palm tree in the Jerusalem Temple was a symbol of the triumph of God in the promised land. In the tabernacle, there were no images of a palm tree, since it was a desert sanctuary, built only on the way to Palestine.
The wooden planks that covered the stone walls (grates in the windows, ceiling, floor, steps leading to the Holy of Holies) were in turn covered with sheet gold. Every nail with which the gold plates were nailed was also gold. Over the gold, there were also multi-colored precious stones for decoration.
In its outer forms, the Temple resembled a ship expanding to the top, or Noah's ark. The inner platforms towered one above the other extended out from the lower main part of the wall in three protrusions. These ledges required special supports, which were three rows of columns with a fourth row of cedar pilasters. Thus, along the three walls of the Temple (northern, southern and western) colonnades (or covered alleys) were formed under wide awnings of the wall protruding in the upper parts of the wall.
When the Temple was ready, King Solomon called for the consecration of all the elders and many people. With the sound of trumpets and the singing of spiritual songs, the Ark of the Covenant was brought in and placed in the Holy of Holies under the shade of two colossal new cherubim, who extended their wings so that the ends of the outer wings touched the wall, and the inner wings bowed over the Ark. The glory of the Lord in the form of a cloud filled the Temple, so that the priests could not continue the service. Then Solomon ascended to his royal place, fell on his knees and began to pray to God that in this place He would accept the prayers of not only the Israelites, but also the Gentiles. At the end of this prayer, fire came down from heaven and scorched the sacrifices prepared in the Temple.
The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem, plundered it, burned it and destroyed the Temple of Solomon to its foundations. Then the Ark of the Covenant also perished. All the Jewish people were taken into captivity (589 BC), only the poorest Jews were left on their land to cultivate vineyards and fields. The prophet Jeremiah remained in the destroyed Jerusalem, who wept over the ruins of the city and continued to teach good to the remaining inhabitants.
The Jews were in Babylonian captivity for 70 years. The Persian king Cyrus, in the very first year of his rule over Babylon, allowed the Jews to return to their homeland. Such prolonged bondage led them to the realization that only the Temple of Jehovah can stand Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah. This conviction was so firm in them that they left Babylon only with the royal permission to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.
Forty-two thousand Jews went to their land. Those who remained in Babylon helped them with gold, silver and other property and, moreover, with rich donations for the Temple. The king gave to the Jews the sacred vessels, which were taken by Nebuchadnezzar from the Temple of Solomon.
Returning to Jerusalem, the Jews first rebuilt the altar to the Lord God, and the next year they laid the foundation of the Temple. Nineteen years later, the construction of the Temple was completed. During the reign of Herod (37-4 years BC), who made a lot of efforts to expand and decorate it, the Temple reached a special flourishing and splendor. All structures were adorned with white marble and gold, and even the thorns on the roof of the Temple, made specifically to prevent pigeons from landing on it, were gold.
During the Jewish War, the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed again in 70 AD, and the destruction of the Second Temple took place on the "ninth aba" in the Jewish calendar, on the day of the destruction of the First Temple - more than 500 years later.
Today, only the surviving part of the western wall that surrounded the Temple Mount Moriah, on top of which stood the Jerusalem Temple, recalls the majestic structure, which was the focus of the spiritual life of the Jewish people. This part of the wall, composed of huge stone monoliths, is 156 meters long. It is called the Wailing Wall (or Western Wall) and is the national shrine of the Jewish people.