1 Kings 6

Chap. VI. Ver. 1—38. Solomon builds the temple in about seven years. Its dimensions, form, and furniture.—The temple itself appears to have been nearly in the same form as the tabernacle, (see the plate,) but it was twice the size; the tabernacle being 30 cubits by 10, and the temple 60 cubits by 20. The former had an open court around it, 100 cubits by 50; but the temple was surrounded with small chambers, and also had three courts. 1. The inner court, or that of the priests, wherein stood the great altar, and brazen sea, or laver; this was surrounded with a low parapet wall. 2. The court of Israel, which was surrounded with porticoes, or piazzas, over which were store rooms, and chambers for the priests.

3. The court of the Gentiles, not so divided, but surrounded also with piazzas and chambers over them. Without these was a third wall, which enclosed all the ground belonging to the temple, and which is calculated to have occupied a square plot of ground of 600 cubits, or about half an English mile. The temple, it should be recollected, was not built on even ground, but on the side of mount Moriah, northeast of mount Sion, which occasioned the foundations in some parts to be very deep and massive, and greatly increased the labour and expense of building. We cannot here enter into the minutiae of this description; nor could we hope, at this distance of time, to explain the particulars: we shall therefore only offer two or three general remarks.

4. This temple is rather to be considered as a palace for the residence of the Most High, than as a place adapted for public worship, in the modern use of that term. They had no preaching nor prayers till after the exile, and then they formed the service of the synagogue. Even the psalms chanted in the temple, could be attended only by a few of the elders, beside the priests and Levites, for it was only 40 cubits by 20. On great occasions, and on the offering of the burnt-offerings, the music was performed chiefly in the inner court, and the trumpets continued sounding, (according to the Rabbins,) until the victim was consumed. So numerous did the priests become, that in the time of Solomon they were divided into twelve courses, to officiate alternately, and even one of them afterwards increased to the number of five thousand.

Infinite is therefore the advantage which we enjoy, as Christians, under the new dispensation. We, instead of one temple, have thousands of places of worship, and none are excluded from uniting in the service. Beside which, we have his presence with us, whose body is the true temple in which Deity resides, and who is himself “God manifest in the flesh.” 2. It is mentioned as a peculiar circumstance, that though the building was of such magnitude and splendour, that neither “hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron, was heard in the house while it was building;” the reason of which was, that both stones and timber, pillars and doors, were all manufactured by Hiram’s labourers, assisted by those of Solomon, before they were forwarded to Jerusalem.

This points to another circumstance worthy of remark, that heathens, and even Canaanites, were employed to prepare the temple of Jehovah: an intimation, as some pious divines have suggested, that many may be employed in forwarding the designs of God in his providence, and even in the propagation of the gospel, who have no personal interest in it. It may also, with no less pertinency, be remarked, that there was a court of the Gentiles in which all who renounced idolatry might worship; and which may be considered as anticipating another state of things, in which the Gentile church should be admitted to equal privileges with the Jews.

3. We must notice the splendid embellishments of this shape extending from wall to wall, across the whole of the oracle, or most holy place.

It is very remarkable, however, that neither the prophet here, nor Moses, in describing those of the tabernacle, gives us any delineation of their form. We shall find some intimations in the Psalms and in Isaiah, but the only representation at all particular and distinct, is in Ezekiel, ((1 Kings 1)) to which we shall therefore defer inquiry; only, as we have before remarked the general design and import of the mystical furniture of the tabernacle, (see exposition on (Exodus 25)) so we may here add, that the splendid and gigantic figures here exhibited, may be designed to intimate, that while these sublime ministers of providence are employed to fulfil the will of God to mortals, so also are they placed here, as the cherubim at the gate of paradise, to intimate that “the blessed the sanguinary perspiration in Gethsemane, and the more bloody scene on Calvary then, and not till then, did they fly, as a guard of honour, to escort him before the throne ineffable.

(See (Psalms 18:17-18).)

Notes on the verses

Chap. VI. Ver. 2. Threescore cubits.—The Hebrew cubit, according to Bp. Cumberland and others, was one foot, nine inches, and three fourths; sixty cubits, therefore, would be about 109 feet long, and its breadth 36. Ver. 4. Windows of narrow lights.—See Margin. The Targum says, “open within, and shut without.” Dr. Clarke says, “probably latticed windows;” but Dr. Boothroyd renders it, “windows which might be opened or shut.” The difference is perplexing, but of small importance. Ver. 5. Chambers.—{Heb. floors. These appear to have been what we should now call corridors or galleries; in which were apartments for the use of the priests. They consisted of three stories; and increased one cubit in breadth in every story, the wall of the temple being two cubits thicker at the bottom than at the top; and where the wall diminished a rest was thus formed for the beams of the chambers to lodge upon.

}— Bagster. Ver. 6. Narrowed rests.—“By this (says Dr. Wail) one would take it, that the wall of the house had, at five cubits, a rebatement in its thickness of one cubit; at ten, another; at fifteen, another; and that the beams of the chambers, though they did not go into the wall, did rest on ‘rebated places.’” Ver. 8. Middle chamber.—LXX. “Ground chamber:” Boothroyd, ‘Lower.’ Compare ver. 6. Ver. 9. Covered the house with beams and boards of cedar.—See Margin. Mth custom is very different from ours; we ceil with plaster, they with Ver. 15. Both the floor of the house.—{That is, he lined, or wainscotted, the walls with cedar; the floor being covered with planks of fir; the marginal ease in this verse is preferable, as it removes every difficulty and obscurity.] — Bagster.

Ver. 16. The oracle.—[The oracle was the sanctuary, or holy of holies, in which there was nothing but the ark of the covenant, including the tables of the law, and into which the high-priest alone was to enter but once a year.]— Ver. 18. Knops and open flowers.—See Margin. [“Artificial knops,” in the shape of colocynths, or wild gourds, as the word denotes, (see note on (2 Kings 4:39).) the full-blown flowers of which must have been very ornamental.]—Bagster. Ver. 20. Pure gold.—Probably beaten or hammered gold, which was kept shut up in rolls, like sheet lead. Ver. 23. Of olive tree.—Namely, the oleaster, or wild olive. Ver. 29. Palm trees.—[Heb. tamar, in Ethiopic tamart, the palm tree, is so called, says Parkhurst, from its straight vertical growth, for which it seems more remarkable than any other tree, and which sometimes rises to more than 100 feet. The trunk is remarkably straight and lofty; and it is crowned at the top with a large tuft of springing leaves about four feet in length, which never fall off, but always continue in the same flourishing verdure. The stalks are generally full of rugged knots, which are vestiges of decayed leaves; for the trunk of the tree is not solid, but its centre is filled with pith, round which is a tough bark full of strong fibres when young, which as the tree becomes old, hardens and becomes ligneous. To this bark the leaves are closely joined, which in the centre rise erect, but after they are advanced above the vagina which surrounds them, they expand very wide on every side of the stem, and as the older leaves decay, the stalk advances in height.

The leaves, when the tree has grown to a size for bearing fruit, are 6 or 8 feet long, and very broad when expanded. The fruit, called the date, grows below the leaves in clusters.]—Bagster. Ver. 36. Three rows of hewed stone, and a row of cedar beams.—This is supposed to mean a parapet wall round the inner court, covered with planks of cedar, where the people laid their offerings, but were not permitted to come within a.