Chapter 31 Smart Judgment

However, the investment in this building has reached several million.The Jews are all farmers or merchants, lacking craftsmen.The masons, carpenters, and blacksmiths needed for the construction were all brought in from abroad, and most of them came from Phoenicia, the largest trade center in the world at that time (three thousand years ago). Today, Tire and Sidon are ordinary small fishing villages.In the era of Solomon, it was a prosperous port, enough to dazzle and envy the Jews who came to visit. David had made a treaty with the ruler of Tyre.Now Solomon made an alliance with the king of Sidon.

The Jewish king provided food to Sidon every year, and Hiram, king of Sidon, gave a certain number of ships to the Jews for use.In addition, craftsmen were sent to participate in the construction of the temple. Jewish ships (chartered) sailed to all the ports of the Mediterranean, as far as Tarshish in Spain.They returned laden with gold, precious stones, and precious timbers for the construction of the Temple. But the Mediterranean is too small to satisfy the needs of a great sovereign.He decided to establish trade relations with India.He invited Phoenician shipbuilders to build a dock near the town of Eden Gaber in the Gulf of Aqaba in the east of the Red Sea. The ships they built sailed to Ophir (on the east coast of Africa or the west coast of India) , carrying back sandalwood, spices, and ivory.After landing, it was transported to Jerusalem by camel team.

Solomon's Temple was nothing compared to the pyramids (3,000 years old at the time) and the buildings of Tibbers, Memphis, Nineveh, and Babylon. But this is the first time a small nation in West Asia has realized such an ambitious plan.Even the rich queen of Sheba, the famous gold producing area in Arabia, was attracted and came to pay Solomon an official visit and pay tribute to him. Unfortunately, in foreign historical materials, there is no record about the temple.Only in the "Old Testament" "Kings" in a more detailed account.This was hundreds of years after Solomon's death.At that time, the people agreed that the construction of the temple cost 188,000 talents of gold and 1,017,000 talents of silver, which is 500 million pounds in today's pounds.But this figure is fifty times the ancient gold supply, and the figure is obviously exaggerated.And since there was not a single stone left in the temple, the original site was buried a hundred feet below the ground.So it is difficult to make a correct estimate.

However, according to ancient legends, there were many buildings on Mount Moriah, and their construction began in the 480th year after the Jews came out of Egypt (this is the first affirmative year in the Old Testament) , completed in the 487th year. All the preparatory work, stone hewing and sawing, was done far away from Mount Moriah.In this way, when the work officially begins, the noise will be reduced to a minimum. The Jews at that time did not like to live in stone houses, they were not used to bare walls.Therefore, the floors, walls and ceiling of the temple are inlaid with cypress wood panels and covered with gold leaf.The center of the Temple, the Holy of Holies, is a small room thirty square meters square, in which stand two gigantic wooden angels, guarded by their outstretched wings, holding the Ark of the Covenant.This ordinary wooden cabinet has been wandering with the Jews for six centuries. The two stone slabs inside are engraved with the sacred covenant law, which was inscribed after Jehovah appeared when Moses received the oracle on Mount Sinai.

The hut is solemn and solemn, and only the high priest can approach the Holy Spirit once a year on the Day of Atonement. On that day, the high priest took off his official uniform and put on pure white clothes.In one hand, he held the censer, which contained a few pieces of charcoal for sacrifices, and in the other hand, he held a golden bowl containing the blood of cows for sacrifices.He sprinkled the blood of the bull on the ground as a token of atonement. Then he withdrew, closing the gilded gates, adorned with fragrant flowers and palms, leaving only the silent statues of angels guarding the Ark.

The shrine is next to the Holy of Holies, separated by fir boards, and this is the busy part of the temple. The incense altar is set up here.Judaism stipulates that the sacrificer should sprinkle the blood of the animal before the incense altar. From morning till night, the shrine was full of human voices and livestock sounds. The teachings of Judaism are complicated and difficult to understand.The priests thus collected a great deal of money from it.They changed at will the rules laid down by Moses, and for each crime a special form of atonement was instituted. Poor people can use bread and baked grains to offer sacrifices, but if they are rich, they must use cattle and sheep, which must be brought to the temple and handled by the priests.

There are cattle and sheep for sale at the entrance of the temple, which is very convenient.So the whole day in front of the temple is the sound of cows lowing and sheep bleating.At first, the animals were slaughtered by the sacrificers themselves, but later they were handled by the priests, and the individuality of the sacrifices disappeared. The slaughtered animals are cut into pieces, and the blood is smeared on the altar or sprinkled in front of the altar. The meat, especially the part with oil, is put on the altar and roasted with fire. The copper altar is placed on the square, so that the smoke from the roasting meat You can float directly to heaven.

After the sacrifice, the priests can eat the remaining meat, or give it to the priest.Priests and their families lived in three rows of buildings next to the temple, so it was very convenient to receive gifts. When the Temple was finished and ready to be opened, Solomon held a great ceremony and invited all the Jewish leaders to Jerusalem.Together they walked from Jerusalem to Zion to meet the holy ark.