1 Kings 7:8

_AND IT WAS COVERED WITH CEDAR ABOVE UPON THE BEAMS, THAT LAY ON FORTY FIVE PILLARS, FIFTEEN IN A ROW._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

1-12 All Solomon's buildings, though beautiful, were intended for use. Solomon began with the temple; he built for God first, and then his other buildings. The surest foundations of lasting prosperity are laid in early piety. He was thirteen years building his house, yet he built the temple in little more than seven years; not that he was more exact, but less eager in building his own house, than in building God's. We ought to prefer God's honour before our own ease and satisfaction....

Verse 1 Kings 7:8. _A HOUSE FOR PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER_] This appears to have been a _third house_; probably the whole _three_ made but _one_ _building_, and were in the same place, but distinguished from each other; the first as Solomon's palace, the second as a house of judgment, a court-house; the third, the _harem_, or apartments for the women....

LIKE UNTO THIS PORCH - i. e., of similar materials, hewn stone and cedar. The zenana could not have been a mere portico....

EXPOSITION SOLOMON'S PALACES AND THE PREPARATION OF THE TEMPLE VESSELS.—The first twelve verses of this chapter constitute a break in the long account of the Temple, its furniture and its consecration. The historian having described the Temple buildings, before he passes on to speak of their contents pauses for a moment to record a few particulars as to the building of the suite of palaces which next occupied Solomon's attention. The LXX; possibly following an older arrangement, but more probably (see next note) adopting an apparently more logical and methodical order, relegates this section to the end of the chapter. 1 KINGS 7:1 But Solomon was building his own house thirteen

AND HIS HOUSE WHERE HE DWELT,.... Which was properly his dwellingplace, that part of the house where he usually resided: [HAD] ANOTHER COURT WITHIN THE PORCH, WHICH [WAS] OF THE LIKE WORK; a court between that and the porch, called the inner court, 2 Kings 20:4. SOLOMON MADE ALSO A HOUSE FOR PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER, WHOM HE HAD TAKEN TO WIFE; see 1 Kings 3:1, LIKE UNTO THIS PORCH: being built of the same sort of materials, though in a different form....

CHAPTER 7 THE HOUSE OF SOLOMON AND PHARAOH'S DAUGHTERTHE FURNISHINGS OF THE TEMPLE _ 1. The house of the forest of Lebanon (1 Kings 7:1)_ 2. The royal palace and the house of Pharaoh's daughter (1 Kings 7:8) 3. The master workman (1 Kings 7:13) 4. The great pillars and chapiters (1 Kings 7:15) 5. The brazen sea (1 Kings 7:23) 6. The ten lavers with their carriages (1 Kings 7:27) 7. Hiram's work ...

1 KINGS 7. SOLOMON'S PALACE (1 KINGS 1-12). THE TEMPLE IMPLEMENTS (1KINGS 13- 51). Twenty years (_cf._ 1 Kings 9:10 with 1 Kings 7:1) was Solomon engaged in building. After completing the Temple he built his own palace, with its courts and approaches. These, according to Stade, were erected on the Ophel hill, which lay S. of the Temple mountain, and were constructed so as to lead up to the sanctuary itself. The whole chapter, like most of the 6th, is from a source descriptive of the Temple. First came what was called, probably from its rows of cedar pillars, the house of the forest of Lebanon (1 Kings 7:2). Part of this was used as an armoury ...

_And his house where he dwelt_had _another court within the porch_, which _was of the like work_ It is better to leave out the italics of A V. and translate -And his house WHERE HE MIGHT DWELL, THE OTHER COURT WITHIN THE PORCH, was of the like work." The description has apparently been carrying us, from the front of the house of the forest, regularly more and more inward. Now we are brought to a court behind the previously mentioned porch, and in this court stood the king's own dwelling house. It is noteworthy how little description is given to this or to the house for Pharaoh's daughter. This probably comes to pass because the public were never admitted to these quarters. _Pharaoh's daughter_ Cf. 1 Kings 3:1. The house for her probably joined the king's residence. Josephus (_Ant._viii. 5. 2) tells us that it was united with the porch of the throne, but his descrip

I. THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE PALACE COMPLEX 7:1-12 TRANSLATION (1) Now his own house, Solomon was thirteen years in the process of building; and he finished all his house. (2) And he built the house of the forest of Lebanon; a hundred cubits was its length and fifty cubits was its width and thirty cubits was its height, upon four rows of cedar pillars, and cedar beams upon the pillars. (3) And it was covered with cedar above the chambers which were upon the forty-five pillars, fifteen to a row. (4) And there were beam-layers in three rows and outlook[189] WAS OPPOSITE OUTLOOK THREE TIMES. (5) AND ALL THE DOORS AND POSTS[190] were squared with windows, and light was opposite light in three ranks. (6) And he made a porch of pillars; fifty cubits was its length and thirty cubits was its width, and the porch was before them, and the pillars and the threshold were before them. (7) Then he made...