274

Solomon's Temple.

9. So he built the house, and finished it; and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar.

10. And then he built chambers against all the house, five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.

II. And the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying,

12. Concerning this house which thou art in building, if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then will I perform my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father:

13. And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.

14. So Solomon built the house, and finished it.

15. And he built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar, both the floor of the house, and the walls of the cieling: and he covered them on the inside with wood, and covered the floor of the house with planks of fir.

16. And he built twenty cubits on the sides of the house, both the floor and the walls with boards of

The building and enclosures were on different levels, or graduated platforms. First came the 'court of the Gentiles'; then, on a higher level, the 'court of the Israelites'; and above this again, 'the court of the priests.'

3. The porch, or vestibule, faced the east. According to 2 Chron. iii. 4, it was 120 cubits high, and might thus resemble the tower or spire of a modern church. The meaning of the passage, however, is doubtful a.

4. This is given in the margin 'broad within, and narrow without'; like the windows of a Gothic church. But it should probably be rendered, as in R. V., ‘windows of fixed lattice work.'

5, 6. There were three stories. These chambers were probably used as residences for the priests, and for storing the furniture and supplies for the Temple.

7. The law had forbidden the use of hewn stones in building an altar (Exod. xx. 25; Deut. xxvii. 5). In a like spirit of reverence, the stones and timber for the Temple were prepared beforehand (ch. v. 17, 18); so that the site might not be desecrated with the noise of manual labour o.

'No workmen's steel, no ponderous axes rung; Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprung.'

(Heber.)

11-13. This blessing anticipates that given at the formal consecration of the Temple (ch. ix. 3-9). The solemn promises made to David are renewed (2 Sam. vii. 12-16); and to these is added the earlier promise made to Moses, that God

d Dean Stanley says (J. C. ii. 207), 'On the eastern side was a colonnade or cloister, which formed the only barrier. The later kings continued it all round; but this alone was ascribed to Solomon, and its name therefore lingered on the spot long afterwards, and even in the time of the second Temple, gave to it or the cloisters built upon its ruins the title of "Solomon's Portico "' (John x. 23; Acts iii. 11, v. 12).

• This silent erection of the Temple has been regarded as a figure of the silent building up of the Church of Christ; that spiritual house, of which we are 'lively stones' (1 Pet. ii. 5).

276

Solomon's Temple.

cedar he even built them for it within, even for the oracle, even for the most holy place.

17. And the house, that is, the temple before it, was forty cubits long.

18. And the cedar of the house within was carved with knops and open flowers: all was cedar; there

was no stone seen.

19. And the oracle he prepared in the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of the LORD.

20. And the oracle in the forepart was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height thereof: and he overlaid it with pure gold; and so covered the altar which was of cedar.

21. So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold and he made a partition by the chains. of gold before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold.

22. And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the house: also the whole altar that was by the oracle he overlaid with gold.

would dwell among His people (Exod. xxv. 8). This is the promise which was fulfilled in a higher sense, when One came, whose name should be called 'Emmanuel,' God with us (Isa. vii. 14; Matt. i. 23); when 'the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us' (John i. 14); and which is to be yet again fulfilled in the new Jerusalem, where 'the tabernacle of God' shall be 'with men, and He will dwell with them' (Rev. xxi. 3).

17. The word for 'knops f' is elsewhere translated' gourds' (2 Kings iv. 39). We read of 'knops' again in ch. vii. 24. 'Many kinds of wild gourd are found in Palestine.' It was like a wild vine. Jonah's 'gourd' (Jonah iv. 5-9) was a shrub of a different kind (Helps to Study of Bible, § xlvi. art. 'Gourd').

19-21. The Holy of Holies is here called 'the oracle 8.' The chains were probably placed across the opening in the partition, which divided the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place, so as to prevent any intrusion into the former.

22. The altar' here is the altar of incense. It was immediately in front of the entrance into the Holy of Holies. The passage should probably be, as in R. V., 'that belonged to the oracle'; this altar, though actually standing in the Holy Place, being regarded as part of the furniture of the sanctuary itself.

f 'Knop' probably means here a carved imitation of the bud of a flower; the same word as 'knob.'

It resembled the 'adytum' (ädvтov, from a and dúw, not to be entered') in a heathen temple. But its mysterious vacancy was a contrast to all other sacred buildings of antiquity. No idol, statue, or sacred animal profaned it. The pure spirituality of Jehovah was sublimely indicated by the absence of any symbol of His presence' (Geikie, iii. p. 463).

Tacitus remarks, as a peculiarity of the Jews, that they have purely mental conceptions of Deity; they conceive Him to be supreme and eternal, incapable of representation or decay, and so allow no images of Him in their cities, much less in their temples (Tac. Hist. v. 5).

278 The Holy of Holies-Solomon's Palace.

29. THE TEMPLE (continued). SOLOMON'S

PALACE.

I KINGS Vİ. 23-vii.

As in the tabernacle, the oracle or Holy of Holies is for 'the ark of the covenant of the Lord' alone. Here again there are two cherubims 1; not now of gold, but of olive wood overlaid with gold. They are much larger than the original ones, and apparently do not face each other as before, but face the entrance, their wings meeting in the centre. The walls and doors are covered with carved representations of these cherubims, and of palms and open flowers. The inner court 2' is then built round the Temple itself, and the whole is completed. The work has occupied 'seven,' or rather seven and a half years.

The building of Solomon's 'house' or palace is next described. This takes thirteen years 3, so that the two works extend from the fourth to the twenty-fourth year of his reign. Besides his own house, he builds 'the house of the forest of Lebanon,' and 'a house for Pharaoh's daughter.' These are probably not separate buildings; the former being 'state apartments' adjoining the royal residence, and named from the pillars of cedar which came from that mountain, and which made it resemble the forest of Lebanon itself (Speaker's Commentary). The latter are the queen's apartments. In front of the former is 'the porch of judgement,' where the king may administer justice, as in old times was done at the gate of the city. These are all built of 'costly stones,'

with beams of cedar.

4

For making the furniture of the Temple, an artificer called Hiram is brought from Tyre. He 'casts' the two magnificent pillars of brass, called Jachin and Boaz 5. He also constructs the 'molten sea,' to take the place of the old laver of brass (Exod. xxx. 18). This, which is of great size,