Long ago the people of Israel had one Temple in Jerusalem, built by King Solomon, until Babylon destroyed it in 586 BCE.
Shared rootsc. 960-586 BCE
The biblical account associates Solomon with the first Temple in Jerusalem, traditionally dated to the tenth century BC; the chronology and scale of the early monarchy remain debated. Assyria conquered the northern kingdom of Israel in the late eighth century BC. Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple in 587/586 BCE and exiled part of Judah's population. The Hebrew Bible preserves traditions about this period and earlier ancestors, the Exodus and Sinai; its books developed over centuries rather than at one datable moment.
Long ago the people of Israel were ruled by kings. King David made Jerusalem his capital, and his son Solomon built a Temple there, a house for God. It stood for about four hundred years, until an army from Babylon burned it down.
The Bible tells how David, around 1000 BCE, took Jerusalem and brought the Ark of the Covenant there, and how God promised that his house would endure 18. A stone inscription found at Tel Dan in northern Israel in 1993, set up by an Aramean king in the ninth century BCE, names the House of David, the earliest mention of David outside the Bible 4,5. Solomon built the Temple in the early years of his reign, around 950 BCE, on the height north of David's city: a hall of hewn stone and cedar with an inner room, the Holy of Holies, that only the high priest entered, and only on the Day of Atonement 1,8.
After Solomon died the kingdom split in two: Israel in the north, with its capital at Samaria, and Judah in the south, with Jerusalem and the Temple 9. Assyria destroyed the northern kingdom in 722 BCE and scattered its people 10,2. Judah lasted a century and a half longer. King Josiah, in 622 BCE, found a book of the law in the Temple and led a reform that closed the country shrines and centred worship in Jerusalem 11,1. In 586 BCE the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem, burned the Temple and carried Judah's leaders into exile 12,2. Fifty years later Cyrus of Persia, who had conquered Babylon, let the exiles go home and rebuild, and a second Temple was dedicated about 516 BCE 6,13,14,17.
The people of Israel believed that there is one God, who made the world and chose them to be his people, and who had given them his teaching, the Torah, to live by. The Temple was where they met him.
The heart of it is the Shema, the words of Deuteronomy that Israel has recited morning and evening ever since: Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one 8. The covenant made at Sinai bound the people to God and to one another; the Ten Commandments and the laws of the Torah spelled out what that meant 8. The Temple was the one place where sacrifice was offered, yet Solomon's own prayer at its dedication asked whether God, whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, could dwell in a house at all 8.
Prophets stood beside the kings and against them. Amos and Micah, Isaiah and Jeremiah insisted that God wanted justice for the poor and the stranger more than sacrifice, and warned that the Temple would not save a people who did wrong 15,20. Their words, gathered in the books that carry their names, became Scripture.
Worship and practice
Worship in the First Temple meant bringing an animal or grain to be offered on the altar by the priests, singing psalms, and coming up to Jerusalem three times a year for the great festivals.
Priests of the family of Aaron served at the altar and Levites sang and kept the gates; the daily offerings, the Sabbath and the festivals of Passover, Weeks and Booths set the rhythm of the year 8. Many of the psalms were written to be sung there, and the Songs of Ascents were sung by pilgrims climbing to the city 8. Ordinary families also worshipped at local shrines and high places until Josiah's reform in 622 BCE gathered sacrifice to the Temple alone 11,1. The synagogue, prayer without sacrifice, grew up later, in the exile and after it 2.
Scripture and Bible translations
The people of the First Temple did not have a Bible yet. They were living the story that the Bible tells, and writing down the first parts of it.
The Torah, the histories of the kings, and the words of the prophets were being composed, collected and copied in these centuries, and much of the Hebrew Bible reached its written form during and after the exile, when a people without a Temple held on to its scrolls 2. Read here in the JPS translation of 1917, the Tanakh in the Jewish order, or in the pointed Hebrew of the Leningrad Codex, the oldest complete manuscript. Jews and Christians both read these books; Jews as the Tanakh, Christians as the Old Testament.
Selected passages
These passages illustrate themes discussed in this profile; they are not a survey of members' favorite verses. Each is quoted from the JPS TaNaKH 1917 and links to its chapter. You can explore the text for study or personal reflection; memorization is optional.
And one called unto another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.
What the prophet heard the angels sing in the Temple in the year King Uzziah died. Jews say it in the Kedushah and Christians in the Sanctus, every week.
It hath been told thee, O man, what is good, and what the LORD doth require of thee: only to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.
A prophet of Judah, in Isaiah's time, answering the question of what God really wants from people. Many call it the whole law in a sentence.
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
Sung by the exiles in Babylon after the Temple fell. The saddest and most remembered line from the years this page ends with.
People
Davidabout 1000 BCE The shepherd who became king, made Jerusalem his capital, and to whom the psalms are traditionally ascribed; the House of David is named on the Tel Dan stone.4
Solomontenth century BCE David's son, who built the Temple and prayed at its dedication that God would hear from heaven whoever prayed toward it.8
Isaiaheighth century BCE A prophet of Jerusalem in the years Assyria destroyed the north, who saw the LORD in the Temple and spoke of a coming king of peace.19
Josiahreigned 640 to 609 BCE The king who found the book of the law in the Temple and renewed the covenant, closing the country shrines.11
Jeremiahseventh to sixth century BCE The prophet who stood in the Temple gate and warned that the building would not save a people who did wrong, and who lived to see it burn.20
Cyrusreigned 559 to 530 BCE The Persian king who conquered Babylon and let the exiles return; his own clay cylinder records his policy of sending captive peoples home.6
Today
Nothing of Solomon's Temple can be seen today. But its memory is alive: Jews still pray facing Jerusalem, and every summer they fast on the day the Temple fell.
The Temple stood on the height that is now the Temple Mount, holy to Jews and Muslims; the platform has never been excavated, so what is known of the First Temple comes from the Bible and from buildings of the same age found elsewhere 1. Jews mourn its destruction, and the Second Temple's on the same date, on the fast of Tisha B'Av 7. Both the Jewish and the Christian branches of this tree grow from the people of these centuries: their scriptures, their prayers and their prophets belong to everyone below them.
The story ends in catastrophe: Jerusalem besieged and starved, the Temple burned, the king's sons killed before his eyes, and the leaders of Judah marched to Babylon 12,2. The book of Lamentations is the people's grief written down 16. The prophets said the fall had come because Israel and Judah had oppressed the poor and trusted the Temple instead of doing justice, and that judgement on their own nation is in Israel's Scripture because Israel kept it there 15,20.
Words to know
Temple
The house of God in Jerusalem where Israel offered sacrifice: the First Temple built by Solomon and destroyed by Babylon in 586 BCE, and the Second Temple, dedicated about 516 BCE and destroyed by Rome in 70 CE.
covenant
A solemn agreement that binds two parties. In the Bible, God's covenant with Israel at Sinai, and later covenants, shape the whole story.
Torah
The first five books of the Bible, and more broadly the whole of God's teaching. A Torah scroll is read in every synagogue.
prophet
In the Bible, someone who speaks God's message to the people, often calling them back to justice and faithfulness. Isaiah, Jeremiah and Amos were prophets.
exile
The years after 586 BCE when Babylon carried the leaders of Judah away from their land. Much of the Hebrew Bible reached its written form during and after the exile.
canon
The list of books a community counts as Scripture. Jewish, Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox canons overlap almost entirely and differ at the edges.
Shabbat
The seventh day, from Friday sunset to Saturday nightfall, kept as a day of rest because the Torah commands it in the Ten Commandments; Jews light candles, bless wine and bread, and do no work. Christians who keep a Sabbath on Saturday, such as Seventh-day Adventists, use the same commandment.
Passover, the eight-day festival (seven in Israel) that remembers the Exodus from Egypt, commanded in the Torah and kept with the seder meal and unleavened bread; it begins on 15 Nisan in spring.
Historians agree that a Temple stood in Jerusalem before its destruction by Babylon, traditionally dated here to 586 BCE 1,2. The surviving Babylonian Chronicle records the earlier capture of Jerusalem in 597 BCE, not the Temple's later destruction 21. Its platform has never been excavated, so its plan is known from the Bible's description and from temples of the same age dug elsewhere 1. The Tel Dan inscription, found in 1993, names the House of David and is the earliest mention of David outside the Bible 4,5. How large David's and Solomon's kingdom was is debated among archaeologists; the page gives the Bible's account and says so.
What is the difference between the First Temple and the Second Temple?
The First Temple was Solomon's, built around 950 BCE and destroyed by Babylon in 586 BCE 1,12. The Second Temple was built by the exiles who returned under Persian rule, dedicated about 516 BCE, enlarged by Herod the Great, and destroyed by Rome in 70 CE 3,14,17. Jesus taught in the Second Temple; the Western Wall in Jerusalem is part of Herod's platform for it 3.
Why did Babylon destroy the Temple?
Judah had rebelled against Babylon, which ruled it as a vassal; Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, took it in 586 BCE, and burned the Temple as conquerors did 12,2. The prophets gave a second answer: that the people had broken the covenant, oppressed the poor and trusted the building rather than God, and that the fall was judgement 20,15.
Do Jews still mourn the First Temple?
Yes. Tisha B'Av, the ninth day of the month of Av, is a day of fasting and the reading of Lamentations in memory of the destruction of both Temples 7,16. Jewish prayer still faces Jerusalem, and the wedding glass is broken in memory of the Temple.
Sources
Numbered references link the account above to its sources. These include the tradition's own documents and outside reference works. The review status below distinguishes source checking from completed member and scholarly review.
BibleVerse. “Israel and Judah: the First Temple: where they came from, what they hold, and the Bible they read.” bibleverse.site, version 2026-09-09, https://bibleverse.site/denominations/firsttemple/
Awaiting review by a member of the tradition. First published 2026-09-06; last changed 2026-09-09. Years before the common era are written BCE, and after it CE, as Jewish readers write them.
Found something wrong? Send it through the contact page. A correction checked against two sources is made within a week and logged in this page's change history.
A prophet's answer to what God wants, from the years of the First Temple, in thirty-three words. It has been learned by heart for twenty-seven centuries.
It hath been told thee, O man, what is good, and what the LORD doth require of thee: only to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.
