1 Kings 6:9

_SO HE BUILT THE HOUSE, AND FINISHED IT; AND COVERED THE HOUSE WITH BEAMS AND BOARDS OF CEDAR._ BUILT THE HOUSE. The temple is here distinguished from the wings or chambers attached to it, and its roofing was of cedar wood....

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 6:9. _COVERED THE HOUSE WITH BEAMS AND BOARDS OF CEDAR._] The Eastern custom is very different from ours: we _ceil_ with _plaster_, and make our _floors_ of _wood_; they make their _floors_ of _plaster_ or _painted tiles_, and make their _ceilings_ of _wood_. But it may not be improper to observe that, in ancient times, our buildings were somewhat similar. Westminster Hall is a proof of this....

HE BUILT THE HOUSE, AND FINISHED IT - i. e., the external shell of the house. The internal fittings were added afterward. See 1 Kings 6:15. COVERED THE HOUSE - Roofed it with a wooden roof, sloped like our roofs....

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,

SO HE BUILT THE HOUSE, AND FINISHED IT,.... The body of it, the walls of the holy and most holy place, with the chambers on the sides of them, and the porch at the end that led into them: AND COVERED THE HOUSE WITH BEAMS AND BOARDS OF CEDAR; with hollow boards, as the Targum, which formed an arch ceiling to it, and made it look very grand and beautiful; and then over them were laid beams and planks of cedar, not properly as a flat roof to it, but rather as a flooring for other buildings; for upon this, as in 1 Kings 6:10, there were chambers built....

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,_...

_So he built the house_ i.e. The Temple building. The next verse speaks of the enclosing framework of chambers. What was now finished was the portion for divine service. _and covered the house_ i.e. Made the roof for it. On this roof, see Fergusson, _Temples of the Jews_, pp. 19 seqq., where the author shews that the covering of the Tabernacle was made with a ridge and sloped to both sides, and that the cedar beams and boards (R.V. PLANKS) spoken of in this verse were to imitate, as nearly as could be done in wood, the Tabernacle roof. Mr Fergusson has suggested (p. 28) that there were most probably pillars inside the Temple to support the beams of the roof. -No cedar beams that were available could be laid across an opening 30 feet free without sagging to an unpleasant extent....

B. THE EXTERIOR OF THE HOUSE 6:2-10 TRANSLATION (2) As for the house which King Solomon built for the LORD: sixty cubits was its length and twenty cubits its breadth and thirty cubits its height. (3) And the porch In front of the Temple of the house, ten cubits was its breadth before the house. (4) And he made for the house windows of fixed lattices. (5) And he built against the wall of the house, floors round about, against the walls which surrounded the Temple and the Debir; and he made chambers round about. (6) And the lowest chamber was five cubits in width, the middle one was six cubits in width and the third was seven cubits in width, for he made rebatements for the house round about that (there might be) no insertion into the walls of the house. (7) And the house when it was being built was built of perfect stones from the quarry, and neither hammer, ax, nor any tool of iron, was...