1 Kings 6:20

_AND THE ORACLE IN THE FOREPART WAS TWENTY CUBITS IN LENGTH, AND TWENTY CUBITS IN BREADTH, AND TWENTY CUBITS IN THE HEIGHT THEREOF: AND HE OVERLAID IT WITH PURE GOLD; AND SO COVERED THE ALTAR WHICH WAS OF CEDAR._ The oracle in the fore part was twenty cubits in length ... It was a perfect cube....

15-38 See what was typified by this temple. 1. Christ is the true Temple. In him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead; in him meet all God's spiritual Israel; through him we have access with confidence to God. 2. Every believer is a living temple, in whom the Spirit of God dwells, 1 Corinthians 3:16. This living temple is built upon Christ as its Foundation, and will be perfect in due time. 3. The gospel church is the mystical temple. It grows to a holy temple in the Lord, enriched and beautified with the gifts and graces of the Spirit. This temple is built firm, upon a Rock. 4. Heaven is the everlasting temple. There the church will be fixed. All that shall be stones in that building, must, in the present state of preparation, be fitted and made ready for it. Let sinners come to Jesus as the living Foundation, that they may be built on him, a part of this spiritual house, consecrated...

THE FORE PART - Perhaps “the interior.” AND SO COVERED ... - Rather, “and he covered the altar (of incense) with cedar.” The altar was doubtless of stone, and was covered with cedar in preparation for the overlaying with gold. This overlaying was not gilding, but the attachment of thin plates of gold, which had to be fastened on with small nails. Such a mode of ornamentation was common in Babylonia, in Assyria, and in Media....

EXPOSITION SOLOMON'S TEMPLE.—The preparations for the building of the Temple having been related in the preceding chapter, the historian now proceeds to describe the edifice. He begins his narrative with a precise statement of the date of its erection (1 Kings 6:1); then follows (1) a description of the shape, size, and arrangement of the exterior (1 Kings 6:2), and (2) a detailed account of its internal fittings and adornments (1 Kings 6:15-11). The promise made to Solomon during its erection finds a place in 1 Kings 6:11; while the vessels,

AND THE ORACLE IN THE FOREPART,.... Which stood in the forepart of the temple, before a man's face as he entered into it, and went on; or the forepart of the holy of holies, next to the holy place, was of the dimensions as follows, when the back part of it might be higher at least, and be equal to the holy place, even thirty feet; the forepart being lower, and left open to let in the light of the candlesticks, and the smoke of the incense, out of the holy place: this [WAS] TWENTY CUBITS IN LENGTH, AND TWENTY CUBITS IN BREADTH, AND TWENTY CUBITS IN THE HEIGHT THEREOF: and was a perfect square, and as the most holy place may be an emblem of the church triumphant, it may denote the perfection of its heavenly state; so the new Jerusalem is a foursquare, Revelation 21:16; AND HE OVERLAID IT WITH PURE GOLD; make it rich, glorious, and magnificent, an

CHAPTER 6THE DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPLE _ 1. The date of the beginning of the building (1 Kings 6:1)_ 2. The house, the porches and side chambers (1 Kings 6:2) 3. The divine charge (1 Kings 6:11) 4. The internal arrangements (1 Kings 6:15) 5. The cherubim (1 Kings 6:23) 6. The doors (1 Kings 6:31) 7. The inner court and the temple finished ...

DESCRIPTION OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. The Temple area is on the eastern hill of Jerusalem, which overlooks the valley of the Kidron, with the Mount of Olives on the opposite side. It was probably not the Zion captured by David (2 Samuel 5), but the site was purchased by him from Ornan, or Araunah, the Jebusite (2 Samuel 24:18). It is marked by an outcrop of rock, now called the _Sakrah._ The Temple hill is divided from the Upper City on the western hill by a valley called the Tyropœ an (cheese-makers). The Temple was part of a great scheme of building which has been restored by Stade, whose reconstruction is now generally adopted in descriptions of early Jerusalem. To understand aright the difficult account of Solomon's buildings in these Chapter s, Ezekiel's restored Temple (Ezekiel 40-48) and Josephus'sketch of Herod's Temple (_Wars,_...

OVERLAID. See note on covered, 1 Kings 6:15 and 1 Kings 6:18....

_the oracle in the fore-part_ The two words thus rendered would, if they stood alone, be rendered -before the oracle." In this verse, however, this cannot be the meaning. But in standing before such a room as is here described, it is in front of you, and you see the interior. In this way -before the oracle" may be taken to indicate what is seen when you stand there. Hence we may arrive at the sense in the R.V. - WITHIN THE ORACLE WAS _a space_&c." It is difficult to assign any meaning to the A.V., and it may be that some error has crept into the text. Some have preferred to render literally thus, -And before the oracle twenty cubits was it in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height thereof, and he overlaid it with pure gold he overlaid also the altar with cedar." But the accents of the Hebrew do not favour such a parenthetic clause, and the last sentence is...

D. THE INTERIOR OF THE HOUSE 6:15-35 1 Kings 6:15 resumes the description of the building of the Temple which was interrupted in 1 Kings 6:11-14 by the account of the divine communication which came to Solomon. In this paragraph the author discusses (1) the paneling and partitioning of the house (1 Kings 6:15-22); (2) the cherubim of the Debir (1 Kings 6:23-28); (3) interior decorations (1 Kings 6:29-30); and (4) the Temple doors (1 Kin