In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of the LORD laid, in the month Zif:
In the fourth year was the foundation ... laid. Josephus says ('Antiquities,' b. 8:, ch. 4:, sec. 9) that the summit of the mount was leveled with incredible labour, in order that the lower parts might be raised 400 cubits, to the same height with the top of the hill upon which the temple was to stand. The building was begun in the second month of the fourth year, and completed in the eighth month of the eleventh year of Solomon's reign, comprising a period of seven and a half years, which is reckoned here in round numbers. It was not a very large, but a very splendid building, requiring great care, and ingenuity, and division of labour. The immense number of workmen employed, together with the previous preparation of the materials, serves to account for the short time occupied in the process of building.