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John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.
1 Kings 6:1
INTRODUCTION TO FIRST KINGS 6
This chapter gives an account of the building of the temple, for which preparations were before made and begins with the time of its building, 1Ki 6:1; gives the dimensions of it and the porch before it, 1Ki 6:2; observes the windows in it and chambers about it, 1Ki 6:4; and while it was building, Solomon had a word from the Lord relative to it, 1Ki 6:11; and then the account goes on concerning the walls of the house, and the flooring of it, 1Ki 6:15; and the oracle in it, and the cherubim in that, 1Ki 6:19; and the doors into it, and the carved work of them, 1Ki 6:31; and the chapter is concluded with observing the time when it was begun and finished 1Ki 6:37.
Ver. 1. And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt,.... The Tyrian writers {k} make it five hundred sixty years from hence; but this no doubt is tightest, which Junius reckons thus; forty years Israel were in the wilderness, seventeen under Joshua, two hundred ninety nine under the judges, eighty under Eli, Samuel, and Saul, forty under David, add to which the four years of Solomon, and they make four hundred eighty {l}; they are somewhat differently reckoned by others {m} from the coming out of Egypt to Joshua forty years, from thence to the first servitude under Cushan twenty five, from thence to the death of Abimelech two hundred fifty six, under Thola twenty three, from thence to the Ammonitish servitude four, under that eighteen, under the judges, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon, thirty one, Samuel and Saul forty, David forty, and Solomon three, in all four hundred eighty;
in the, fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel; when he was clear of all disturbers of his government, and had got all things ready for the building of the temple, and had gathered together gold and silver enough of his own to defray the expenses; for, as for what David gave him, he put that into the treasury of the Lord's house, see 1Ki 7:51;
in the month Zif, which [is] the second month; and so must be Jiar, for Abib or Nisan was the first, and Jiar was the second, which answered to part of our April and part of May; called Zif either from the splendour of the sun, being now higher, and so the greater; or from the trees and flowers of the field being in all their glory; and so the Targum here calls it, the month of splendour of flowers: and it was on the second day of it,
that he began to build the house of the Lord: and a very fit and proper season of the year it was to begin it in, see 2Ch 3:2.
{k} Apud Theophil. ad Autolyc. l. 3. p. 131. {l} So Gerard. Voss. Chron. Sacr. Isagoge, dissert. 8. c. 7. p. 128. {m} Vid. Vitring. Hypotypos. Hist. Sacr. p. 43.
1 Kings 6:2
Ver. 2. And the house which King Solomon built for the Lord,.... For his worship, honour, and glory:
the length thereof [was] threescore cubits; sixty cubits from east to west, including the holy place and the most holy place; the holy place was forty cubits, and the most holy place twenty; the same measure, as to length, Eupolemus, an Heathen writer {n}, gives of the temple, but is mistaken in the other measures:
and the breadth thereof twenty [cubits]; from north to south:
and the height thereof thirty cubits; this must be understood of the holy place, for the oracle or most holy place was but twenty cubits high, 1Ki 6:20; though the holy place, with the chambers that were over it, which were ninety cubits, three stories high, was in all an hundred twenty cubits, 2Ch 3:4; some restrain it to the porch only, which stood at the end, like one of our high steeples, as they think.
{n} Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 34.
1 Kings 6:3
Ver. 3. And the porch before the temple of the house,.... Which stood at the east end of it:
twenty cubits [was] the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; which was from north to south, and of the same dimension, so that they exactly answered each other:
[and] ten cubits [was] the breadth thereof before the house; which being added to it, make the whole of the building, most holy place, holy place, and porch, seventy cubits; the height of the porch is not here given, but in 2Ch 3:4; where it is said to be an hundred twenty cubits high, equal to the height of the house, with the chambers over it; but there the breadth of the porch is not given, as it is here; by these dimensions we may observe the difference between the tabernacle and the temple; the temple was twice as long, and as broad, and thrice as high as that, see Ex 26:8. This fabric was an emblem of the church of God, sometimes called an holy temple, and the temple of the living God, 2Co 6:16.
1 Kings 6:4
Ver. 4. And for the house he made windows of narrow lights. Or "open, shut" {o}, which could be both, having shutters to them, to open or shut at pleasure; windows which they could open, and look through at them, or shut when they pleased; the Targum is,
"open within, and shut without;''
or, as others understand it, they were wide within, and narrow without; by being narrow without, the house was preserved from bad weather, as well as could not so easily be looked into by those without; and by being broader within, the light that was let in spread itself within the house; which some interpret only of the holy place, the most holy place having, as they suppose, no windows in it, which yet is not certain: now these windows may denote the word and ordinances of the church of God, whereby light is communicated to men; which in the present state is but narrow or small, in comparison of the new Jerusalem church state, and the ultimate glory; and especially so it was under the legal dispensation, which was very obscure; see So 2:9
Isa 55:8.
{o} Mypqv Mymja "apertas clausas", Vatablus; "perspectui accommodas, clausas", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
1 Kings 6:5
Ver. 5. And against the wall of the house he built chambers round about,.... Or near it, as Jarchi interprets it, for the beams of them were not fastened in in it, 1Ki 6:6; or rather "upon" it {p}; and when they are said to be round about the house, it must be understood of the two sides, north and south, and of the west end only, for at the east end, where the porch was, there were none:
[against] the walls of the house round about, [both] of the temple and of the oracle; that is, both of the holy and the most holy place:
and he made chambers round about; the said buildings; which is repeated that it might be observed; how many chambers there were, is not said; Josephus says {q} there were thirty of them, and over them others of the same measure and number, and over them others also; so that there were three stories of them, and in all ninety; and which is countenanced by what follows in 1Ki 6:6, and agrees with
Eze 41:6; the Jewish doctors say {r}, there were thirty eight of them, fifteen on the north, fifteen on the south, and eight on the west; they that were to the north and south were five upon five, and five over them; and they that were to the west were three upon three, and two over them; upper rooms or chambers were rare in Heathen temples {s}: these chambers were for the priests, where they lodged and laid up their garments, and ate their holy things; and were emblems of congregated churches, where the true members thereof, who are priests to God, have communion with him, and partake of divine things.
{p} ryq le "super parietem", V. L. Montanus. {q} Antiqu. l. 8. c. 3. sect. 2. {r} Misn. Middot, c. 4. sect. 3. {s} Pausan. Laconic. sive. l. 3. p. 190.
1 Kings 6:6
Ver. 6. And the nethermost chamber [was] five cubits broad,.... The nethermost row of them, which were upon the first floor:
and the middle [was] six cubits broad, and the third [was] seven cubits broad; so that the middlemost was a cubit larger than the lowest, and the highest a cubit larger than that: the reason of which was,
for without [in the wall] of the house he made narrowed rests round about; or rebatements; the thickness of the wall, as it was raised, became narrower at the height of every five cubits; thus the wall being supposed to be six cubits broad, as in Eze 41:5; when it came to be five cubits high, it was narrowed a cubit, which left a projection, rebatement, or bench for the beams of the first chambers to be laid upon, which made the second row of chambers broader by a cubit; and the same being observed in the next story, made the highest a cubit broader than the middlemost: and this was done,
that [the beams] should not be fastened in the walls of the house; or be inserted into them, which could not be done without making holes in it; and these holes could not be made without an iron instrument, and which was not to be used, as the next words show; whereas by the above method the beams of the chambers could be laid upon the buttresses, benches, or rebatements left, without the use of any: the gradual enlargement of these chambers, as they rose higher, may denote the enlargement of the church of God, both as to numbers, gifts, and grace, the nearer it comes to the heavenly state, as in the spiritual and personal reign of Christ.
1 Kings 6:7
Ver. 7. And the house, when it was in building,.... And all the while it was building:
was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither; being hewn or squared by the builders and stonesquarers of Solomon and Hiram, 1Ki 5:18; wherefore the builders had nothing more to do than to lay them in their proper places in the building; it was built with these stones quite up to the ceiling, as Josephus says {t}; and these so admirably polished, and so artificially joined together, that not the least sign of an axe, or of any working tool, could be discerned in them:
so that there was neither hammer, nor axe, [nor] any tool of iron, heard in the house while it was in building; the first of these observations shows, that none are to be laid in the spiritual building of the church, but such as are first hewed and squared by the Spirit, grace, and word of God: or who have an experience of the grace of God, are sound in the faith, and of becoming lives and good conduct; and the other denotes, that such as are therein, whether ministers or members, should do all they do for the edification of the church in a quiet and peaceable manner, without clamour, contention, fights, and tumults.
{t} Antiqu. l. 8. c. 3. sect. 2.
1 Kings 6:8
Ver. 8. The door of the middle chamber [was] in the right side of the house,.... The south side of it:
and they went up with winding stairs into the middle [chamber]; which were outside the chambers, and which winded about for the sake of taking up less room, and which led up to the door of the middle chamber, on the south of which they went into it; according to the Vulgate Latin and Tigurine versions, they went up in the forth of a cockle, or the shell of a snail; in like manner as was the ascent of the temple of Pan at Alexandria, as Strabo {u} relates:
and out of the middle into the third; the third chamber, and by winding stairs up to that; and the like might be on the north side, though not expressed, and on the west: the Jews say {w}, that in the second temple, these winding stairs went from the northeast to the northwest, whereby they went up to the roof of the chambers, and so to the south and west; with this compare Eze 41:7; and which may represent the windings and turnings of God's people in this present state, their many afflictions and tribulations, through which they pass from one state to another.
{u} Geograph. l. 17. p. 547. {w} Misn. Middot, c. 4. sect. 5. See Lightfoot's Prospect of the Temple, &c.; c. 12. p. 1071.
1 Kings 6:9
Ver. 9. 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 1Ki 6:10, there were chambers built.
1 Kings 6:10
Ver. 10. And [then] he built chambers against all the house five cubits high,.... Which some understand of the same chambers in 1Ki 6:5; here made mention of again for the sake of giving the height of them, not before given; but they were built against, or upon the wall of the house, these against, or rather upon the whole house itself; and are the chambers referred to, See Gill on "1Ki 6:2"; which consisting of three stories of ninety cubits, raised the whole house to an equal height with the porch, 2Ch 3:4; as is there intended {x}; these are the upper chambers in 2Ch 3:9; and they rested on the house [with] timber of cedar; or on the timber of cedar, the beams of cedar, with which the house was covered, as in 1Ki 6:9; on these the chambers rested, being built upon them; and in one of these chambers the disciples might be after Christ's ascension, Ac 1:13.
{x} Vid. Joseph. Antiqu. ut supra. (l. 8. c. 3. sect. 2.)
1 Kings 6:11
Ver. 11. And the word of the Lord came to Solomon,.... The word of prophecy, as the Targum, foretelling what would be the case of this building, according to the obedience or disobedience of him and the people of Israel; which was brought to him either by an impulse of the Spirit of God upon him; or by the hand of a prophet, as Kimchi thinks; and some of the Jewish writers {y}, as he particularly, name Ahijah the Shilonite as the prophet that was sent with this message to him:
saying, as follows.
{y} Seder Olam Rabba, c. 20. p. 53.
1 Kings 6:12
Ver. 12. [Concerning] this house which thou art in building,.... Or with respect to that, these things are to be said as from the Lord:
if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; even all the laws of God, moral, ceremonial, and judicial; and this respects not only Solomon personally, but his successors, and even all the people of Israel:
then will I perform my covenant with thee, which I spake unto David thy father; by Nathan the prophet; not only that he should build an house for God, which should be a settled dwelling place, but that his own house and kingdom should be established for a long time to come, and his posterity should enjoy the presence of God in this house, provided regard was had to the precepts and ordinances of the Lord, 2Sa 7:12.
1 Kings 6:13
Ver. 13. And I will dwell among the children of Israel,.... In this house now building, and which was in the middle of the land, and where he would meet with them, and accept their sacrifices, not only of slain beasts, but of prayer and praise:
and will not forsake my people Israel; and leave them to the mercy of their enemies, and to be carried captive by them, but protect and defend them.
1 Kings 6:14
Ver. 14. So Solomon built the house, and finished it. He went on with it until he had completed it, animated and encouraged by the promise of the divine Presence in it, provided a proper regard was had to the will and ways of God. Abarbinel thinks the above message was sent him in the midst of his work, to strengthen and caution him from a dependence on the continuance of the fabric, because of the strength of it; since its perpetuity depended on his, his successors', and the people's conduct and behaviour; wherefore conscious to himself of his own integrity, and hoping well of posterity, he was not discouraged, but proceeded in his undertaking until he had brought it to perfection.
1 Kings 6:15
Ver. 15. And he built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar,.... For as yet he had only built the stone walls of it without, but now he wainscotted it with cedar boards: and not only them, but
both the floor of the house, and the walls of the ceiling; or from "the floor of the house unto the walls of the ceiling"; that is, from the floor, including that, to the walls on each side, reaching up to the ceiling,
he covered [them] on the inside with wood: of one sort or another, cedar or fir, or both: particularly he
covered the floor of the house with planks of fir: which Hiram sent him, 1Ki 5:8; which is differently interpreted; by Josephus cypress; by others, as the Tigurine version, pine tree wood; it is very probable it was of the cedar kind, and not the floor only, but the ceiling also, 2Ch 3:5.
1 Kings 6:16
Ver. 16. And he built twenty cubits on the sides of the house,.... At the end or extremity of it, as the Targum; that is, he built the most holy place, which was twenty two cubits long, at the end of the holy place, which he wainscotted as the other:
both the floor and the walls with boards of cedar; or from the floor, including that, to the walls on each side, from wall to wall, and taking in them, they were all lined with cedar wood:
he even built [them] for it within, [even] for the oracle, [even] for the most holy [place]; which explains what building is spoken of, and that the inside of that was covered with cedar from bottom to top.
1 Kings 6:17
Ver. 17. And the house, that [is], the temple before it,.... The holy place, which was before the of holies:
was forty cubits [long]; and which, with the most holy place, being twenty cubits, as in the preceding verse, made the length of the whole house sixty cubits, as in 1Ki 6:2.
1 Kings 6:18
Ver. 18. And the cedar of the house within,.... With which the inside of the place was lined:
[was] carved with knops; of an oval form; so the Targum says, they had the appearance of eggs; and Ben Gersom likewise, that they were in the form of eggs:
and open flowers; not in the figure of buds, but flowers blown, and open, as lilies and others; so the Targum:
all [was] cedar; the wainscotting of the house, the sides of it at least, if not the floor, and the carved work of it; and this was done, that the gold might be laid upon it, which could not be done on stone as on wood: and all was so covered, that
there was no stone seen; of which the outward walls were built: all this denotes the inward beauty of the church, and the curious workmanship of the Spirit of God in the hearts of his people, whereby they become all glorious within, adorned with the graces of the blessed Spirit, their stony hearts being kept out of sight, yea, taken away.
1 Kings 6:19
Ver. 19. And the oracle he prepared in the house within,.... In the innermost part of the house he fitted up the oracle, or speaking place, from whence the Lord spake and gave answer, to receive what was to be put into it: particularly
to set there the ark of the covenant of the Lord; even the very same that Moses made, Ex 37:1, for which David had pitched a tent in Zion, 1Ch 15:1, and where it now was; for Solomon made no new ark.
1 Kings 6:20
Ver. 20. And the oracle in the forepart,.... Which stood in the forepart of the temple, before a man's face as he entered into it, and went on; or the forepart of the holy of holies, next to the holy place, was of the dimensions as follows, when the back part of it might be higher at least, and be equal to the holy place, even thirty feet; the forepart being lower, and left open to let in the light of the candlesticks, and the smoke of the incense, out of the holy place: this
[was] twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height thereof: and was a perfect square, and as the most holy place may be an emblem of the church triumphant, it may denote the perfection of its heavenly state; so the new Jerusalem is a foursquare, Re 21:16;
and he overlaid it with pure gold; make it rich, glorious, and magnificent, and may denote the glory of the heavenly state, Re 21:21; and so Florus {z}, the Roman historian, calls it the golden heaven, as it were, into which Pompey went, and saw the great secret of the Jewish nation, the ark:
and [so] covered the altar [which was of] cedar; the altar of incense, which is here mentioned, because it was near the most holy place, 1Ki 6:22; this altar by Moses was made of shittim wood, but Solomon's was of cedar it seems; unless, as the words will bear to be rendered, "he covered the altar with cedar" {a}; though made of shittim wood, it had a covering of cedar over it; or if of stone, such a covering was on it, that it might better receive the gold which was afterwards put upon it.
{z} De Gest. Roman. l. 3. c. 5. {a} zra Puy "operuit cedro", Montanus.
1 Kings 6:21
Ver. 21. So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold,.... The inside of the holy of holies with fine gold, which gold amounted to six hundred talents, 2Ch 3:8; and these to 7,332,000 ducats of gold, or 3,045,000 pounds sterling:
and he made a partition by the chains of gold before the oracle; between the holy and the most holy, and were instead of a vail in the tabernacle of Moses between them; here was also a vail beside the partition made by chains of gold across the oracle; for the partition was a wall of the thickness of a cubit, as Maimonides {b} says; and in 2Ch 3:14 express mention is made of a vail of blue, &c.; and in imitation of this had the Heathens their deities within vails {c}:
and he overlaid it with gold; the partition wall.
{b} Hilchot Beth Habechirah, c. 4. sect. 2. {c} Apulei Metamorph. l. xi. p. 176.
1 Kings 6:22
Ver. 22. And the whole house he overlaid with gold,.... Both the holy place, and the most holy place:
until he had finished all the house; in this splendid and glorious manner:
also the whole altar that [was] by the oracle; the altar of incense, which stood just before the entrance into the oracle, or most holy place:
he overlaid with gold; he overlaid it all over with gold; hence it is called the golden altar, and was an emblem of the excellent and effectual mediation and intercession of Christ, Re 8:3. Agreeably to this account Eupolemus, an Heathen writer {d} testifies, that the whole house, from the floor to the tool, was covered with gold, as well as with cedar and cypress wood, that the stonework might not appear; and so the capitol at Rome, perhaps in imitation of this temple, its roofs and tiles were glided with gold {e}; a magnificent temple, like this, was at Upsal in Switzerland, as Olaus Magnus relates {f}.
{d} Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 34. p. 450. {e} Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 33. c. 3. Vid. Rycquium de Capitol. Roman. c. 16. {f} De Ritu Gent. Septent. l. 3. c. 5.
1 Kings 6:23
Ver. 23. And within the oracle he made two cherubim [of] olive tree,.... Or of the oil tree, as in Isa 41:19; see Ne 8:15; for there are other trees besides olives, out of which oil is pressed, as pine trees, cypress trees, &c.; and which some think are here meant; though the Targum interprets it of the olive tree: these cherubim are different from those made by Moses, and were besides them; these were larger than they; these were made of olive wood, they of gold; these stood on the floor of the house, they at the two ends of the mercy seat, and were made out of it, and were with it in this holy place in Solomon's temple: these two cherubim may be emblems of the angels in their greatness and glory, who are always in the presence of God, behold his face, and wait to do his will; or it may be rather of the two witnesses, said to be the two olive trees standing before the God of the whole earth, Re 11:3; who have boldness to enter into the holiest of all, and have sight and knowledge of the mysteries of the ark and mercy seat; have their commission from heaven, and speak according to the oracles of God; these are said to be of image work, 2Ch 3:10; that is, of various forms, as the thee of a man, a lion, an ox, and eagle, Eze 1:10. Dr. Lightfoot thinks {g} they resembled the two Testaments, which in their beginning and end reach the two sides of the world, the creation and the last judgment, and in the middle do sweetly join the one to the other:
[each] ten cubits high; half as high as the most holy place; emblems either of the high angels, those thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, or of men of uncommon size as to their gifts and grace.
{g} Prospect of the Temple, c. 15. sect. 4.
1 Kings 6:24
Ver. 24. And five cubits [was] the one wing of the cherub,.... When stretched out on one side:
and five cubits the other wing of the cherub; on the other side him:
from the uttermost part of the one wing, to the uttermost part of the other wing, [were] ten cubits