1 Kings 7

Chap. VII. Ver. —51. Solomon builds his own palace, and makes farther additions to the embellishments of the temple.— Though three buildings seem here named, we think the conjecture of Dr. Clarke very probable, that they were all in Jerusalem, all contiguous, and, in fact, formed one vast pile of building; and we beg leave to suggest an opinion, that the house of Lebanon was his own palace, so called not only from the vast quantity of cedar made use of in the building, but probably from the pillars with their beams being so grouped and ornamented, as to give the whole a semblance to that cele- modern term is)—was a porch, in the centre of which was his throne of judgment, and the whole building, probably, was occupied as a senate house for the nobles and elders of the house of Israel.

Another porch, of the like dimensions, seems to have formed a wing on the other side of the building, designed for his harem, and here called the house of Pharaoh’s daughter, who was the principal, and, we conceive, the first of the wives of Solomon. The quantity of massive marble here used, seems to imply, that here were the pleasure baths, the stones of which were costly, both from the beauty of the marble, and from their immense size. ~ Solomon, we are now informed, having heard of a celebrated founder at Tyre, named Hiram, (of the same name as the king himself,) employed him to cast two immense pillars, eighteen cubits high, and twelve in circumference, to ornament the meaning together, “He shall establish (it) in strength;”

or, as Dr. Boothroyd renders it, “It shall stand in strength speak firmly:” meaning, that God would now establish both the house and throne. The chapiters on the tops of these pillars, afford another curious subject of inquiry. The ingenious Hutchinson laboured to prove that these were a kind of orreries, representation of the revolutions of the various planets and the sun, of which he supposes the lily also to be an emblem, (as it unquestionably is of light,) in confirmation of which, he refers to machines of this nature, mentioned by Geass and some others. This idea agrees very well with the opinion of Josephus and Philo, that the temple at Jerusalem was a figurative representation of the universe; but the New Testament writers lead us rather to an evangelical than a philosophical application of these images; and as Christ crucified is the soul and substance of the Christian system, so the pious Israelites had a more or less distant view, through all their sacrifices and ceremonies, of that seed of the woman, and of Abraham, in whom all the nations of the earth shall eventually be blessed.

Thus Abraham saw his “id was glad, and David hailed at a distance (as we have the rising of the Sun of righteousness, with Sola (or ion) in his wings.” ((2 Samuel 22:4). (Malachi 4:1-2).)

Chap. VIII. Ver. 1-27. Solomon brings up the ark, and dedicates the temple, which is consecrated by the divine presence.—Archbishop Usher thinks that the dedication of the temple was deferred to the year following its completion, because that was the year of jubilee—the ninth jubilee, opening the fourth millenary of the world; i.e. the year 3,001. (See note on ver. 1.) It required also some time to bring together the prodigious quantity of cattle required for sacrifice, and to feast the vast multitude that such a festival would bring up to the capital; “sheep and oxen that could not be told nor numbered for multitude.”

It must be remembered, however, that but a small part of the sacrifices were actually consumed by fire. (See Levit. (1 Kings 6)) The greater part of them went to support the priests, and feast the offerers. And this seems to have been the grandest festival ever kept in Israel; it lasted fourteen days, seven for the feast of tabernacles, and other seven for the dedication of the temple. During the former, the ark was brought up, with great solemnity, out of the city of David, and also, as appears by the parallel history, the tabernacle, with all the sacred vessels pertaining to it. The former (the ark) was then placed, with great reverence, beneath the spreading wings of the gigantic cherubim which had been made by Solomon, the smaller cherubim of gold, made by Moses, being still attached to the mercy-seat.

On this occasion, the whole company of the priests, the Levites, and the singers, were on duty; one hundred and twenty of the former, with trumpets, which were sounded over the sacrifices, and in the grand chorus of praise. To these were united all the other instruments, and the whole choir of singers, which was doubtless very numerous. And “it came to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and (other) instruments of music, and praised the Lord (saying,) ‘For he is good; for his mercy endureth forever;’ that then the house was filled with a cloud, (even) the house of the Lord; so that the priests, having deposited the ark in its appointed place, were not able to stay to perform any other service “by reason of the cloud,”

which was evidently a dense and dark cloud, irradiated, perhaps, with supernatural glory; for now “the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.” (2 Chron. (1 Kings 5)) The scene before us unites all the splendour and magnificence of earth, with a miraculous glory sent down from heaven: it unites all the hilarity and joy of mortals with a spirit of devotion, enkindled from above in a 100,000, perhaps, of human souls. In short, it beggars all description, and it baffles all conception. Behold now Solomon, placed upon a scaffold of brass, with the elders of Israel standing round him, stretches forth his hands; and, inspired with sentiments and feelings worthy of the scene, thus addresses the immense auditory now before him: ‘The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness;”

so he did at Sinai, and in the wilderness—and behold him now present, attended by his own chosen symbol! Then, raising his eyes to heaven in a rapture of devout feeling, he addresses the present Deity: ‘I have surely built thee a house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in for ever.” Again, suddenly “turning his face about” toward the people, who were all standing absorbed in admiration and attention, he blessed them, and that in the only way that mortals can ever bless each other, by calling upon the Lord to bless them: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which spake with his mouth unto David my father, and hath with his hand fulfilled” all that he promised.

After having, in a few words, expatiated on this subject, he then spread forth his hands, and exclaimed, “Lord God of Israel! there is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath! And now, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified, which thou sware unto David my father.” And then, as if suddenly recollecting himself, he exclaims, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded!” No paraphrase is needed to elucidate this language, and we know of none which can possibly heighten the effect; none, indeed, but must necessarily debase it.

Ver. 28—66. Solomon’s prayer.—We have already noticed the sublime manner in which Solomon introduces his prayer, by marking the infinite condescension of Deity, in deigning to reside on earth, when he has a throne in heaven, surrounded by innumerable holy, happy, and exalted spirits; nay more, while he is encompassed with the sublime songs of praise that angels offer, that he should stoop to listen to the prayers and cries of mortal sinners in distress, and in distress wherein they had been involved by their own transgressions.

First, Solomon implores the guardian care of the Almighty over this house of prayer, erected to his honour, both by day and night, whenever any unhappy Israelite should address his prayer in or toward the holy temple—‘then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place; and when thou hearest, forgive.’ The royal prophet then supposes seven particular cases of emergency, wherein the people might be involved, and in which he implores divine pity and assistance. 1. A case of trespass between two Israelites, when, by a solemn oath, the Almighty shall be appealed to, and in which he implores the divine interference on behalf of the injured party. 2. He supposes a case of national defeat, when, on account of their transgressions, they might be smitten before their enemies.

3. In the case of drought, which may threaten famine, through the want of rain. The 4th case is more general and comprehensive; “If there be in the land famine, pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities;” that is, in their frontier or fortified towns, “‘whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be; what prayer and supplication be made by any man, or by all the people of the land;” then hear thou from heaven, even from thy dwelling-place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;) that they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.”

4. He supposes a case of captivity, when the people shall be taken away captive into a strange land, and there shall “pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name;” then hear thou from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

5. He supposes a case of famine, pestilence, or any other calamity, which may befall the land or the people, and in which the people shall “return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their captivity;” then hear thou from heaven, their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

6. Lastly, he supposes a case of enemies who shall “smite the land, and the people which are in it, and shall turn their heart to evil in the land of their captivity;” then hear thou from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

The prayer closes with a solemn invocation of the divine name, and a petition that the Lord would “perform the words which he hath promised, and build up his word which he hath spoken; that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else.”

Lastly, as every Israelite was directed to turn his eyes to the sacred oracle, and to the holy temple in which the Lord was pleased to place his name, so is every Christian directed to look to the divine Logos, the great Messiah, therein, the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” (Colossians ii. 9.)

Notes on the verses

Chap. VII. Ver. 2,3. Four rows of cedar pillars.—Fifteen in a row—make sixty instead of forty-five. Either here is some mistake, or the text refers to two stories of the building; the lower supported by four rows of pillars, and the upper by three.

Ver. 5. The doors and posts were square.—We suppose the meaning to be, that the doors and windows were uniform, and so arranged as to give a prospect through the house.

Ver. 10. Even great stones.—(Reckoning the cubit at 21 inches, the ten cubits are seventeen feet and a half, and the eight cubits are 14 feet. The magnitude of these stones were certainly extraordinary; but let us hear M. Volney, rise will no longer be fixed on these stones, but be transferred from and our 8 the e!

‘ous stones which compose the sloping wall. To the west the second layer is formed of stones which are from 28 to 35 feet long, by about nine in height. Over this layer, at the north west angle, there are three stones, which alone occupy a space of 175 feet, and a half; viz. the first, 68 feet 7 inches; the second, 58 feet 11 inches, and the third, exactly 58 feet: and each of these is 12 feet thick. These stones are of white granite, with large shining flakes, like gypsum; there is a quarry of this kind of stone under the whole city, and another in the adjacent mountains which is open in several places. On the right, as we approach the city, there is still lying there a stone hewn on three sides as near perfect 2 inches long, 12 feet 10 inches broad, and 13 feet 3 inches in thickness.’’]—Bagster.

Ver. 14. Of the tribe of Naphtali.—(The mother of Hiram (not the Tyrian king mentioned before, but an intelligent coppersmith, of Jewish extraction by his mother’s side) in Chronicles, is said to have been of “the daughters of Dan; and she might have been of Naphtali by her father, and of Dan by her mother: or, she might originally be of the tribe of Dan, and have been first married to a man of the tribe of Naphtali; and, in either case, she might be indifferently called “of the tribe of Naphtali,” or of “the daughters of Dan.”)

Ver. 15. Eighteen cubits high.—(That is, nearly thirty feet English measure. But in the parallel place in Chronicles, these pillars are said to be thirty-five cubits high.

Tremellius reconciles this difference by observing, that the common cubit was but one half of the cubit of the sanctuary; so that eighteen of the one would make [thirty-five] of the other, from which, if we deduct one cubit for the base, there will remain thirty-five.)—Bagster. Taylor reconciles this, by confining the eighteen cubits to the shaft of the pillar, and allowing seventeen more cubits for the pedestal and chapiters. These pillars were doubtless hollow, though very substantial.

Ver. 17. And nets of checker work, &c.—A fruitful imagination, like that of Bunyan, might easily allegorize all the particulars here, as he, in fact, has done; but we have neither time nor talent for these sports of fancy, which are not authorized either by inspired authority or example.

The writer’s object was, doubtless, by these descriptions, to impress the reader with the labour and expense and skill bestowed upon this magnificent building, even to its minutest parts.

Ver. 21. Jachin and Boaz.—These pillars are famous; they were molten, that is, cast in brass. [Notwithstanding the names of these pillars, they seem to have supported no part of the building; and appear to have been formed for ornament; and were no doubt also emblematical.]—Bagster.

Ver. 23. He made a molten sea.—This was eighteen feet diameter. The Hebrews called every large collection of waters a sea. In the Moorish palace of Grenada, is “the Fountain of the Lions,” probably made in imitation of this; the basin is supported by lions instead of oxen.—Orient.

Ver. 26. Two thousand baths.—(This immense laver, called a sea from its magnitude, held, at a moderate computation, 16,000 gallons. Besides this great brazen laver, there were in the temple ten lavers of a less size, which moved on wheels, and were ornamented with the figures of various animals, having, probably, always some relation to the cherubim. These lavers were to hold water for the use of the priests in their sacred office, particularly to wash the victims that were to be offered as a burnt-offering, as we learn from (2 Chronicles 4:6).; but the brazen sea was for the priests to wash in. The knops are supposed to have been in the form of an ox’s head, ((2 Chronicles 4:3).;) and some think the water flowed out at their mouths.)—Bagster.

Ver. 27. Ten bases.—Pedestals, or rather “laver-stands,” as Dr. Boothroyd calls them, for the ten lavers mentioned ver. 38.

Ver. 30. Undersetters.—(It is probable that these undersetters were so many strong legs, somewhat shorter than the wheels, and were intended to prevent the laver from tilting or falling, in case of any accident.)—Bagster.

Ver. 32. Under the borders were four wheels.—So that these bases were, in fact, carriages for the lavers, whereby they might be moved to any part of the court, for the purpose of washing the sacrifices.

Ver. 46. Did the king cast them.—(Zarthan is supposed to have been situated in the tribe of Manasseh, west of Jordan, near Jezreel and Bethshan or Scythopolis, and not far from the Jordan.

Succoth we know was situated east of Jordan in the tribe of Gad, and according to Jerome in the district of Scythopolis: hence the “plain of Jordan,” where Hiram cast the brazen vessels, must be the plain in which that river runs, Zarthan and Succoth being, probably, nearly opposite each other: but whether the precise spot of his operations was on this side or on the other side is uncertain. In this place he found that particular clay that was proper for his purpose: and it being a considerable distance from Jerusalem, that city would not be annoyed by the smoke and noxious vapours necessarily occasioned by the process.)—Bagster.

Ver. 51. Things, the silver and the gold, even the vessels,—i.e. the sacred vessels of silver and gold.