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Was the temple of Solomon only for Israelites?

One of the most influential events in the history of the Jewish people was King Solomon's building of the "house of the Lord" on Jerusalem's Mount Moriah. The two Temples which stood on this spot were central to the Jewish connection with God for over one thousand years. But remarkably, the Temple was not reserved for the Jewish people alone. So who was welcomed into the temple?

A Home for the Lord.
In 960 BCE King Solomon took the throne, and almost immediately began to accomplish what his father could not. The Temple of Solomon was to be the largest construction project ever undertaken in Jerusalem. Solomon was endowed with divine wisdom, but even he could not accomplish this gargantuan task alone. To achieve the highest level of construction quality, Solomon enlisted the help of his Gentile neighbors to the north.

Who built the temple?
According to the Bible, “Hiram and Solomon made a treaty” (1 Kgs 5:12). The Phoenician king, Hiram of Tyre sent logs of cedar and cypress from Lebanon to Israel. This luxurious timber would form the roof beams and the intricate wood paneling within the Temple. The Hebrew word for “treaty” is brit בְרִית from the root “to bind”. This is the same word that countless times in Scripture means “covenant,” as we see God made with Noah, Abraham, and Jacob.

A House of Prayer for All People
From its very inception, the Temple was designed to be a universal institution. The prophet Isaiah, addressing the "foreigners who join themselves to the Lord" (Isa. 56:6), proclaimed, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations" (Isa. 56:7).