VI. Chapter s 6 and 7 form a section almost technically descriptive of the Temple and other building works of Solomon, (_a_) The general account of the building of the Temple occupies 1 Kings 6; (_b_) to this succeeds a briefer description of the other works of Solomon (1 Kings 7:1); (_c_) lastly, w... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE FOURTH YEAR. — This date, given with marked precision, forms a most important epoch in the history of Israel, on which, indeed, much of the received chronology is based. In the LXX., 440 is read for 480, possibly by an interchange of two similar Hebrew letters, or, perhaps, by reckoning from... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LENGTH. — By comparison with Exodus 26:16, we find that the Temple itself was in all its proportions an exact copy of the Tabernacle, each dimension being doubled, and the whole, therefore, in cubical contents, eight times the size. It was, therefore — whatever measure we take for the cubit — a... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PORCH was thirty feet wide and fifteen feet deep. The height is not here given; but in the present text of 2 Chronicles 3:4 (followed by some MSS. of the LXX., and by Josephus) it is made 120 cubits, or 180 feet. This height is hardly in accordance with anything else known on ancient architectur... [ Continue Reading ]
WINDOWS OF NARROW LIGHTS. — The marginal reading, “windows broad within and narrow without” — splayed as in ordinary Gothic architecture — is supported by very good authorities; but the most probable meaning is “windows with fixed beams” — that is, with fixed lattices, like jalousies, useful for ven... [ Continue Reading ]
(5-10) The general meaning of these verses is clear, though some of the words are doubtful. Round three sides of the Temple was built a kind of aisle, opening, however, outwards and not into the Temple, having three storeys of low chambers (each only five cubits high), so arranged that the beams of... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE CARVED. — If we take this literally, we must suppose that this carving of the cherubim and the palm-trees, in addition to the general decoration of the “gourds and open flowers,” was spread over all the “walls of the house.” Otherwise we might have supposed it confined to the Oracle “within,”... [ Continue Reading ]
DOORS. — The two doors of olive wood, from the Holy place into the Oracle, which as a rule stood open, showing the veil and the golden chains, were of moderate size. If our version (as is probable) is correct, the outside measure of the lintel and post was a fifth part of the wall, that is, four cub... [ Continue Reading ]
THE TWO DOORS. — Those into the Holy place from the porch, of cypress wood, were naturally made larger. The posts were a fourth of the wall. Hence, according as the wall is taken to be 20 cubits square, or 30 cubits high by 20 wide, the height would be 5 cubits (7½ feet), or 7½ cubits (11¼ feet). Th... [ Continue Reading ]
THE INNER COURT (probably the “higher court” of Jeremiah 35:10) is described as built round the Temple proper, evidently corresponding to the outer court of the Tabernacle. As this was (see Exodus 27:9) 50 cubits by 100, it may be inferred, that by a duplication similar to that of all dimensions of... [ Continue Reading ]
ZIF (the “brightness of flowers”) corresponds to about May;... [ Continue Reading ]
BUL (the month of “rain”) to about November. The whole time occupied was, therefore, seven years and a half.... [ Continue Reading ]