1 Kings 7:12

And the great court round about The words are the same as in 1 Kings 6:36. The great court was the hindmost part of all the palace grounds, and was apparently higher than the level of the front part. The way in which it was enclosed was by a low wall (sunk fence) as was done for the inner-court of the Temple.

both for the inner court of the house of the Lord The conjunction with which this sentence begins is the usual copulative. But the sense should be -like as the inner court, &c." (Cf. 1 Kings 6:34.) Hence some have conjectured כ = as, instead of ו = andor both. The R.V. has given the true sense in the text - like as the inner court of the house of the Lord, and the porch of the house," and has put the literal translation on the margin. There is no great difficulty in gathering the former sense from the latter. We have only to take the construction to be -and thus was it donefor the inner court &c.… and for."

the porch of the house Probably the porch intended is that spoken of in 1 Kings 6:3. -The house" without any defining words can only be taken of the Temple; so that we cannot understand any porch in Solomon's own house.