And it came to pass in the four hundred and fortieth year after the departure of the children of Israel out of Egypt, in the fourth year and second month of the reign of King Solomon over Israel, that the king commanded that they should take great [and] costly stones for the foundation of the house, and hewn stones. And the men of Solomon, and the men of Hiram hewed [the stones], and laid them [for a foundation]. In the fourth year he laid the foundation of the house of the Lord, in the month of Ziv, in the second month. In the eleventh year, in the eighth month, the house was completed according to all its plan, and according to all its arrangement.

And he began to build in the second month, in the fourth year of his reign.