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Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

1 Kings 6:4

Verse 1 Kings 6:4. Windows of narrow lights.] The Vulgate says, fenestras obliquas, oblique windows; but what sort of windows could such be?

The Hebrew is חלוני שקפים אטמים challoney shekuphim atumim, windows to look through, which shut. Probably latticed windows: windows through which a person within could see well; but a person without, nothing. Windows, says the Targum, which were open within and shut without. Does he mean windows with shutters; or, are we to understand, with the Arabic, windows opening wide within, and narrow on the outside; such as we still see in ancient castles? This sense our margin expresses. We hear nothing of glass or any other diaphanous substance. Windows, perhaps originally windore, a door to let the wind in, in order to ventilate the building, and through which external objects might be discerned.

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See also 1 Kings 6:4 in other biblical comments:

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    WINDOWS OF NARROW LIGHTS - Either (as in the margin) windows, externally mere slits in the wall, but opening wide within, like the windows of old castles: or, more probably, “windows with fixed lattic...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    CHAPTER 6THE DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPLE _ 1. The date of the beginning of the building (1 Kings 6:1)_ 2. The house, the porches and side chambers (1 Kings 6:2) 3. The divine charge (1 Kings 6:11) 4...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    DESCRIPTION OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. The Temple area is on the eastern hill of Jerusalem, which overlooks the valley of the Kidron, with the Mount of Olives on the opposite side. It was probably not the Z...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _windows of narrow lights_ It is not easy to explain the nature of these windows from the words used to describe them. They were apparently windows made by overlaid woodwork, either in the fashion of...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    B. THE EXTERIOR OF THE HOUSE 6:2-10 TRANSLATION (2) As for the house which King Solomon built for the LORD: sixty cubits was its length and twenty cubits its breadth and thirty cubits its height. (3)...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    _AND FOR THE HOUSE HE MADE WINDOWS OF NARROW LIGHTS._ Windows of narrow lights, х_ CHALOWNEEY_ (H2474) _ SHªQUPIYM_ (H8261)] - apertures with fixed bars, or closed lattices; i:e., the bars or lattice...

  • Darby's translation notes (1890)

    6:4 closed (c-7) * Or 'splayed' -- narrow without, broad within....

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE In shape the Temple was a rectangular hall 60 x 20 x 30 cubits (a cubit being about 18 inches). On its E. face it had a porch (forming an entrance) which extended across...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    GOD’S LESSONS FROM HISTORY 1 KINGS _PHILIP SMITH_ CHAPTER 6 THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE *TEMPLE Solomon acted as the *temple’s architect. But the plans were not his own. He used the plans that David...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    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...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    וַ יַּ֣עַשׂ לַ † בָּ֔יִת חַלֹּונֵ֖י שְׁקֻפִ֥ים...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    1 Kings 6:1; 1 Kings 7:1 THE TEMPLE 1 Kings 5:1; 1 Kings 6:1;...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    THE PLAN OF THE LORD'S HOUSE 1 Kings 6:1 The Temple was twice the size of the Tabernacle-ninety feet long by thirty feet broad, and forty-five feet high. The plan had been given to David by revelatio...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    BREAKING THREE COMMANDMENTS 1 Kings 21:1; 1 Kings 1:1; 1 Kings 2:1; 1 Kings 3:1;...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    This chapter is full of interest, as it gives a somewhat detailed description of the structure of the Temple. In all essentials its actual central building was on the pattern of the Tabernacle. It was...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    Oblique windows. Which were made slanting, that the light might be more easily communicated within. (Haydock) --- On the outside they were not so large. (Worthington) (Menochius) --- Hebrew, "windows...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    (3) And the porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; and ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house. (4) And for the...

  • Introductory Lectures - Commentary by William Kelly

    The books of First and Second Samuel show us the failure of the priesthood, and, in consequence, when a state of evident shame and dishonour overspread the face of Israel, the heart of the people desi...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    The house may be looked at in two ways-as a type of the Father's house, and as in fact the habitation of God on the earth when Jesus reigns. In the latter aspect I only look for the grand thoughts and...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    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 the...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    And for the house he made windows of narrow lights. Ver. 4. _And for the house he made windows of narrow lights._] Or, Broad within and narrow without. Or, Skewed and closed, that is, glazed, as R. J...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _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 tabern...

  • KJV Original Language Details

    1 The building of Solomons Temple. 5 The chambers thereof. 11 Gods promise vnto it. 15 The sieling and adorning of it: 23 The Cherubims. 31 The doores. 36 The court. 37 The time of building it....

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    And for the house he made windows of narrow lights, set apparently near the ceiling, with a wide opening on the inside, but gradually becoming narrower toward the outside, and covered with heavy scree...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    THE BUILDING ITSELF...

  • Leslie M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible

    THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE (vs.1-38) The date of the beginning of the temple is given specifically in verse 1 as the 480th year after Israel had left Egypt, which was the 4th year of Solomon's reign,...

  • Marginal Notes in the King James Version (1611)

    WINDOWS OF NARROW LIGHTS: Or, windows broad within and narrow without, or, skewed and closed...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    1-10 The temple is called the house of the Lord, because it was directed and modelled by him, and was to be employed in his service. This gave it the beauty of holiness, that it was the house of the...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    Narrow outward, to prevent the inconveniences of the weather; widening by degrees inward, that so the house might better receive and more disperse the light. Or, _for prospect_, i.e. to give light; ye...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    1 Kings 6:4 made H6213 (H8799) house H1004 windows H2474 beveled H331 (H8801) frames H8261 windows of narrow lights -...

  • Scofield's Bible Commentary

    WINDOWS OF NARROW LIGHTS Compare (2 Chronicles 4:20). In the holy of holies in the tabernacle no light but the shekinah glory was provided. In many ways Solomon's temple manifests the spiritual dete...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Work on the temple begun. Dimensions and materials. CHARACTERS: God, Solomon. CONCLUSION: We should not mistake noise and notoriety for spiritual progress (1 Kings 6:7). Quietness and orde...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    1 Kings 6:1. _In the four hundred and eightieth year._ The Hebrew, the Chaldaic, and most of the Greek versions read as the English; yet some difficulties occur. _Vide Poli in locum._ The following su...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _He began to build the house of the Lord._ THE TEMPLE BUILT Solomon’s temple is the most wonderful and interesting building in the world’s history. It was “the mysterious centre of Israel.” It was fa...

  • The children's great texts of the Bible by James Hastings

    NARROW LIGHTS Windows of narrow lights (RV “windows of fixed lattice-work”). 1 Kings 6:4. There seems to be a good deal of doubt as to what these windows were like. In the Authorized Version of the...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    1 KINGS—NOTE ON 1 KINGS 6:1 With preparation for the temple complete, the text describes the building and its furnishings. This is interrupted in 1 Kings 7:1 by a description of the building of Solomo...

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    THE BUILDING OF SOLOMON’S TEMPLE CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.— 1 Kings 6:1. BEGAN TO BUILD THE HOUSE OF THE LORD—The chronological year is carefully noted, and no criticism supplies reason for cha...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION SOLOMON'S TEMPLE.—The preparations for the building of the Temple having been related in the preceding chapter, the historian now proceeds to describe the edifice. He begins his narrative...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    So in chapter six he began to build the temple. In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, and in the fourth year of Solomon's reign, in t...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    1 Kings 6:4; Ezekiel 40:16; Ezekiel 41:26; Song of Solomon 2:9...

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    Narrow — Narrow outward, to prevent the inconveniences of the weather; widening by degrees inward, that so the house might better receive, and more disperse the light....

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