_A.M. 2992. B.C. 1012._ The time when the temple was built, 1 Kings 6:1. The dimensions of it, 1 Kings 6:2; 1 Kings 6:3. The windows, chambers, materials, doors, 1 Kings 6:4. God's message to Solomon, 1 Kings 6:11. The walls and flooring, 1 Kings 6:14. The oracle and cherubim, 1 Kings 6:19. The doo... [ Continue Reading ]
_In the four hundred and eightieth year_ Allowing forty years to Moses, seventeen to Joshua, two hundred and ninety-nine to the Judges, forty to Eli, forty to Samuel and Saul, forty to David, and four to Solomon before he began the work, we have just the sum of four hundred and eighty. So long it wa... [ Continue Reading ]
_The house_ Properly so called, as distinct from all the walls and buildings adjoining to it; namely, the holy and most holy place. _Which King Solomon built for the Lord_ For his worship and service; and wherein his divine presence might, as it were, dwell among them by a visible appearance. _The l... [ Continue Reading ]
_The porch before the temple_ That is, in the _front of_, or entrance into _the house_, (2 Chronicles 3:4,) being a portico, a walk, or gallery, at the east end of the building, (from side to side.) And the measures of this were harmonious also. For twenty to ten (the length of the portico to the br... [ Continue Reading ]
_Windows of narrow lights_ Narrow without, to prevent the inconveniences of the weather, and widening by degrees inwardly, that the house might better receive, and more disperse, the light. The tabernacle had no light from without, and it appears by this the temple had not much.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Against the wall of the house he built chambers_ For the accommodation of the priests, when they were upon duty at the temple. Here they kept their clothes, the sacred vessels not in immediate use, and the treasures belonging to the temple. These chambers are said to have been built _against_ or _a... [ Continue Reading ]
_The nethermost chamber was five cubits broad_ In the inside, and besides the galleries mentioned above. It appears, by 1 Kings 6:10, that they were but five cubits high, and built over one another in three stories; increasing in breadth every story one cubit, by the contrivance which follows. _For... [ Continue Reading ]
_The house was built of stone made ready_ Hewed and squared, and so fitted for their several uses and places, according to the direction of the architect, that they might be joined together without any other labour than the putting them one by or upon another. _So that there was neither hammer nor a... [ Continue Reading ]
_The door for the middle chamber_ That is, by which they entered to go up into the middle row of chambers; _was in the right side_ That is, in the south side, called _the right side_, because, when a man looks toward the east, the south is on his right hand. There was another door on the left, or th... [ Continue Reading ]
_So he built the house, and finished it_ That is, the walls of the house. _And then he built chambers_ There is nothing in the Hebrew for the word _then_, which being omitted, the sense is, that he here gives an account of the height of these chambers, as, 1 Kings 6:6, he did of the breadth. But it... [ Continue Reading ]
_The word of the Lord came to Solomon_ By the prophet. _If thou wilt walk in my statutes_, &c. Here God expresses the condition upon which his promise and favour is suspended; and, by assuring him thereof in case of obedience, he plainly intimates the contrary upon his disobedience. Thus he was taug... [ Continue Reading ]
_He built the walls within with boards of cedar_ He wainscoted the house, as we now speak, with cedar. _Both the floor of the house and the walls of the ceiling_ Or, from the floor unto the ceiling; that is, from the bottom to the top. _And he covered the floor with planks of fir_ Or, with another s... [ Continue Reading ]
_He built twenty cubits on the sides of the house_ He speaks here of the _most holy place_, which contained in length _twenty cubits_, and might be said to be _on the sides of the house_, because it took off twenty cubits in length from each side of the house, and was also twenty cubits from side to... [ Continue Reading ]
_The temple before it_ The part of the house which was before the most holy place. In the Hebrew the words are, _before my face_, that is, before the place where the divine glory appeared. _Was forty cubits long_ Twice as long as the most holy place. _The cedar of the house was carved_ Cedar is here... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the oracle_ Or, rather, the most holy place. _He prepared_ That is, he adorned and fitted it for the reception of the ark. Solomon made every thing new but the ark: that, with its mercy-seat, was still the same that Moses made. This was the token of God's presence, which is with his people, whe... [ Continue Reading ]
_So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold_ Or, _that house_, the oracle, or the most holy place; which he made as sumptuous as he could. _And he wade a partition by the chains of gold_ The most holy place was separated from the sanctuary by a partition, before which there was a veil also,... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the whole house he overlaid with gold_ Not only the oracle, but all the holy place; and, as some think, even the chambers belonging to it. _Also the whole altar that was by the oracle he overlaid with gold_ That is, the altar of incense; thence called the _golden altar;_ which was in the upper... [ Continue Reading ]
_Within the oracle he made two cherubims_ These were different from, and much larger than those made by Moses, which were of solid gold, and arose out of each end of the mercy-seat, being of one piece with it, and looking one upon the other, Exodus 25:18. But these made by Solomon were of olive-wood... [ Continue Reading ]
_Were ten cubits_ Whereas those of Moses were only so long as to cover the mercy-seat, which was but two cubits and a half in length. _And the other cherub was ten cubits_ So that they filled the whole breadth of the house, which was twenty cubits. _The height was ten cubits_ That is, half as high a... [ Continue Reading ]
_He set the cherubims within the inner house_ With their faces toward the sanctuary, so that they looked upon him that entered the oracle. _They stretched forth the wings of the cherubims_ Or, rather, _the cherubims stretched forth their wings. So that the wing of one touched one wall_, &c. That is,... [ Continue Reading ]
_He overlaid the cherubims with gold_ It must be observed, there were four cherubim in the most holy place of Solomon's temple; two lesser made by Moses of massy gold, and two larger made by Solomon, overlaid with gold. Those made by Moses were part of the mercy-seat, and inseparable from it; these... [ Continue Reading ]
_The lintel and side-posts were a fifth part of the wall_ The original text here is very obscure, there being nothing in it for the words, _of the wall;_ but only, _The lintel and side-posts were a fifth_, which may be understood to signify, that they held the proportion of a fifth part of the doors... [ Continue Reading ]
_The two doors also were of olive-tree_ Or, _The leaves of the doors;_ signifying what sort of doors they were, namely, folding-doors, as is more particularly observed 1 Kings 6:34. _He carved upon them carvings of cherubims, &c., and overlaid them with gold_ When the veil, which covered this whole... [ Continue Reading ]
_The inner court_ That wherein the priests officiated, (2 Chronicles 4:9,) so called because it was next to the temple, which it encompassed. _With three rows of hewed stone, and a row of cedar beams _ It is difficult to ascertain the precise meaning of the sacred historian here. He may be understoo... [ Continue Reading ]
_In the fourth year_, &c. This was mentioned 1 Kings 6:1, and is here repeated to subjoin, in the next words, how long the house was in building. _In the eleventh year, in the month Bul_ As the second month was called _Zif_, for the reason before given, so the eighth month was called _Bul_, which si... [ Continue Reading ]