1 Kings 6:7

_AND THE HOUSE, WHEN IT WAS IN BUILDING, WAS BUILT OF STONE MADE READY BEFORE IT WAS BROUGHT THITHER: SO THAT THERE WAS NEITHER HAMMER NOR AXE NOR ANY TOOL OF IRON HEARD IN THE HOUSE, WHILE IT WAS IN BUILDING._ There was neither hammer, nor ax, nor any tool of iron heard in the house. A subterranean quarry has been very recently discovered near Jerusalem, where the temple stones are supposed to have been hewn. There is unequivocal evidence to be found in this quarry that the stones were dressed there, because there are blocks exactly similar in size, as well as in the nature of the stone, to the ancient remains. Thence probably they would be moved on rollers down the Tyropean valley to the very side of the temple. The discovery of the great quarry under Bezetha has shown that these immense stones were excavated, hewn, and fully prepared on the spot, whence they were conveyed on trucks o...

1-10 The temple is called the house of the Lord, because it was directed and modelled by him, and was to be employed in his service. This gave it the beauty of holiness, that it was the house of the Lord, which was far beyond all other beauties. It was to be the temple of the God of peace, therefore no iron tool must be heard; quietness and silence suit and help religious exercises. God's work should be done with much care and little noise. Clamour and violence often hinder, but never further the work of God. Thus the kingdom of God in the heart of man grows up in silence, Mark 5:27....

Verse 1 Kings 6:7. _THE HOUSE - WAS BUILT OF STONE_] It appears that every _stone_ was hewn and squared, and its place in the building _ascertained_, before it came to Jerusalem: the _timbers_ were fitted in like manner. This greatly lessened the trouble and expense of carriage. On this account, that all was prepared at Mount Lebanon, _there was neither hammer, axe, nor any tool of iron_ _heard in the building_; nothing except mallets to drive the tenons into the mortises, and drive in the pins to fasten them, was necessary: therefore there was no noise. But _why_ is this so particularly marked? Is it not because the temple was a type of the kingdom of God; and the souls of men are to be prepared _here_ for _that_ place of blessedness? _There_, there is no preaching, exhortations, repentance, ears, cries, nor prayers; the stones must be all squa...

The spirit of the command (marginal references), was followed. Thus the fabric rose without noise....

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 HOUSE, WHEN IT WAS IN BUILDING,.... And all the while it was building: WAS BUILT OF STONE MADE READY BEFORE IT WAS BROUGHT THITHER; being hewn or squared by the builders and stonesquarers of Solomon and Hiram, 1 Kings 5:18; wherefore the builders had nothing more to do than to lay them in their proper places in the building; it was built with these stones quite up to the ceiling, as Josephus says t; and these so admirably polished, and so artificially joined together, that not the least sign of an axe, or of any working tool, could be discerned in them: SO THAT THERE WAS NEITHER HAMMER, NOR AXE, [NOR] ANY TOOL OF IRON, HEARD IN THE HOUSE WHILE IT WAS IN BUILDING; the first of these observations shows, that none are to be laid in the spiritual building of the church, but such as are first hewed and squared by the Spirit, grace, and word of God: o

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,_...

MADE READY. made perfect. BEFORE: i.e. in the quarries afar off, or beneath the city. HEARD. So in the spiritual house. Ephesians 2:20....

_stone made ready_before it was _brought_thither] The R.V. renders MADE READY AT THE QUARRY with a margin on the last three words -when it was brought away." The final Hebrew word מַסָּע on which the various reading is given is from the root of the verb rendered doubly in 1 Kings 6:17 -to hew" or -to bring away." The best authorities incline to make it a noun signifying -the place of hewing," -the stonequarry." The LXX. gives λίθοις ἀκροτόμοις, which implies that the stones were made of their necessary shape at the quarry. The idea of this preparation at a distance, so that there might be as little noise as possible while the building was in progress, was probably derived from the command (Exodus 20:25; Deuterono