How long did it take Solomon to build the Temple, and how much would it cost by today’s standards?
In 1 Kings 6:38 at the conclusion of a description of building the Temple we read, “In the eleventh year in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was finished in all its details according to its specifications. He had spent seven years building it.“
It is not so easy to figure how much it would have cost by today’s standards. The account of building Solomon’s temple is in 1 Kings 6:1-38. You can read there the of the gold, silver, bronze, precious stones, carved stone blocks, intricate art work, cedar timbers, etc. that went into that edifice. Chapter 7 adds more details (as well as talking some about Solomon’s palaces). After the account of the dedication of the temple in 1 Kings 8, 9:11-28 tells even more about what went into the temple – and how King Hyrum (Hiram) of Tyre thought Solomon had cheated him in his payment for services in the building of the temple and palaces.
In 1 Chronicles 29:1-9 you can read of the amounts of gold and silver David accumulated for this building. The amounts are given in “talents.” A talent was a weight of 75 pounds. Thus, each talent is 1200 ounces. Work from that to see the value of some of the raw materials – not counting the other materials, the labor, etc.
I do not know how to put a value on all of these things in today’s money – but it would be huge.
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