Solomon Builds the Temple: It is clear that 2 Chronicles 3:1–2 serves as introduction to this episode in the Solomon narrative, with 5:1 concluding the account. The structure of the description between the introduction and the conclusion, however, is difficult to unravel. The description starts with a basic overview of the ground plan of the temple (3:3), then moves to a description of the portico in front of the temple (3:4–7), and then provides a detailed account of the Most Holy Place, its contents, and separating curtain (3:8–14). After this (3:15–4:22) there are descriptions of a variety of cultic objects, decorations, structural elements, and so on. As in the source texts in 1 Kings 6–7, the repetition of the verb “and he made” punctuates references to the different objects that were…