<P> The Hebrew noun hekhal (Hebrew היכל) in Classical Hebrew means "a large building". This can be either the main building of the Temple in Jerusalem (that is the nave, or sanctuary, of the Temple), or a palace such as the "palace" of Ahab, king of Samaria, or the "palace" of the King of Babylon . </P> <P> Hekhal is used 80 times in the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible . Of these, 70 refer to the House of the LORD (in Hebrew Bible בֵּית יְהוָה beit Yahweh), the other 10 are references to palaces . There is no reference to any part of the tabernacle using this term in the Hebrew Bible . </P> <P> "In the year that king Uzziah died . I saw the LORD sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and His train filled the hekhal (sanctuary)." Isaiah 6: 1 . </P> <P> In older English versions of the Bible, including the King James Version, the term "temple" is used to translate hekhal . In modern versions more reflective of archaeological research, the distinction is made of different sections of the whole Temple . Scholars and archaeologists generally agree on the structure of Solomon's Temple as described in 1 Kings 6: 3--5, with the main building, the hekhal, in English now sometimes called "the sanctuary", the devir, the inner sanctuary, and finally the Holy of Holies . </P>

What was inside the first temple in jerusalem