1 Kings 7:9

_ALL THESE WERE OF COSTLY STONES, ACCORDING TO THE MEASURES OF HEWED STONES, SAWED WITH SAWS, WITHIN AND WITHOUT, EVEN FROM THE FOUNDATION UNTO THE COPING, AND SO ON THE OUTSIDE TOWARD THE GREAT COURT._ Sawed with saws. Some have averred that saws for cutting stones were not invented earlier than the fourth century B.C. But this opinion is erroneous, being contradicted by the present passage. It may be noticed that Eastern saws differ from those used by European nation in this remarkable feature, that the point of the teeth is inclined toward, not from, the handle, so that the sawyer makes his impression upon the wood, not in thrusting the instrument from him, but in pulling it toward him....

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....

The stones were uniform - all cut to certain fixed measures of length, breadth, and thickness. They were not squared only on the face which showed, but also on the sides which fell within the wall and were not seen. Saws appear in Assyrian sculptures of the age of Sennacherib; and fragments of an iron saw have been found at Nimrud....

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

ALL THESE WERE OF COSTLY STONES,.... Marble, porphyry, c. ACCORDING TO THE MEASURE OF HEWED STONES, SAWED WITH SAWS, WITHIN AND WITHOUT they were all hewed, and squared, and polished, and so they appeared both on the inside of the building, and without: EVEN FROM THE FOUNDATION UNTO THE COPING; from the bottom to the top: AND SO ON THE OUTSIDE TOWARD THE GREAT COURT: where the people used to assemble when they had causes to be tried, and was adjoining to the king's house....

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 ...

SAWED WITH SAWS. Figure of speech _Ployptoton_. App-6....

_All these_ i.e. The whole of the buildings described in the previous verses. _according to the measures of hewed stones_ Better not to be taken as in construction, but with R.V. EVEN HEWN STONES ACCORDING TO MEASURE. The word is literally -according to measures," and this the R.V. explains on the margin as -after _divers_measures." But this is what is meant by their text. _within and without_ Though the inside face of the walls was to be covered with cedar, and so put out of sight, the same care was taken with the dressing of that part of the stone work, as with all that was to remain uncovered. _toward the great court_ Better, UNTO. What appears to be meant in the verse is a strong expression of the excellency of the stone work. This is said to have been of the same character from the base to the coping of all the walls, and then is added, that it was the same from the front part of...

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...