1 Kings / Question
Solomon began building the house of the LORD in the fourth year of his reign, in the month Ziv (1 Kings 6:1). The temple was finished in the eleventh year, in the month Bul (1 Kings 6:38). The text totals the building time as seven years (1 Kings 6:38).
In 1 Kings 6:1–7, the story marks the official start of Solomon’s temple project with a precise date tied to Israel’s earlier exodus from Egypt and to Solomon’s reign. The passage then describes the basic size of the temple building, its front porch, its windows, and the side structures built around it. This unit begins the longer temple-building section that dominates 1 Kings 6–7, shifting from political and administrative summaries of Solomon’s reign to a focused report on construction.
This passage opens the temple narrative by tying Solomon’s building work to Israel’s larger story. It gives a start date using two clocks at once: Solomon’s reign (his fourth year) and Israel’s remembered past (years since the exodus).
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with 1 Kings 6:1, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
1It happened in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon`s reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of Yahweh.