الملوك الأول ٦:١٤

The Internal Arrangements of the Temple-House. - Kg1 6:14-22. Internal covering of the house, and division into Holy and Most Holy. - Kg1 6:14 (cf. Kg1 6:9) resumes the description of the building of the temple, which had been interrupted by the divine promise just communicated. Kg1 6:15 "He built (i.e., so far as the sense is concerned, he covered) the walls of the house within with boards of cedar; from the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling he overlaid it with wood within, and overlaid the floor with cypress boards." The expression הסּפּן קירות, "walls of the ceiling," is very striking here, and renders it probable that קירות is only a copyist's error for קורות, "beams of the ceiling." The whole of the inside of the house was covered with wood, so that nothing was to be seen of the stone wall (Kg1 6:18). On the other hand, the biblical text knows nothing of any covering of the outer walls also with wood, as many have assumed. Kg1 6:16-18 "And he built אמּה את־עשׂרים, the twenty cubits (i.e., the space of twenty cubits), of the hindermost side of the house with boards of cedar," from the floor to the beams (of the roof). עד־הקּירות is to be explained from הסּפּן קירות עד in Kg1 6:15. "And built them for it (the house - לו pointing back to הבּית) into the hinder room, into the Most Holy." דּביר is more precisely defined by the apposition הקּדשׁים קדשׁ, and therefore denotes the Most Holy Place. But there is a doubt as to its derivation and true meaning. Aquila and Symmachus render it χρηματιστήριον, Jerome λαλητήριον, or in the Vulg. oraculum, so that they derive it from דּבר, to speak; and Hengstenberg adopts this derivation in Psa 28:2 : דּביר, lit., that which is spoken, then the place where the speaking takes place. Most of the more recent commentator…

Great and long preparation had been making for the building of the temple, and here, at length, comes an account of the building of it; a noble piece of work it was, one of the wonders of the world, and taking in its spiritual significancy, one of the glories of the church. Here is, I. The time when it was built (Kg1 6:1), and how long it was in the building (Kg1 6:37, Kg1 6:38). II. The silence with which it was build (Kg1 6:7). III. The dimensions of it (Kg1 6:2, Kg1 6:3). IV. The message God sent to Solomon, when it was in the building (Kg1 6:11-13). V. The particulars: windows (Kg1 6:4), chambers (Kg1 6:5, Kg1 6:6, Kg1 6:8-10), the walls and flooring (Kg1 6:15-18), the oracle (Kg1 6:19-22), the cherubim (Kg1 6:23-30), the doors (Kg1 6:31-35), and the inner court (Kg1 6:36). Many learned men have well bestowed their pains in expounding the description here given of the temple according to the rules of architecture, and solving the difficulties which, upon search, they find in it; but in that matter, having nothing new to offer, we will not be particular or curious; it was then well understood, and every man's eyes that saw this glorious structure furnished him with the best critical exposition of this chapter.

6:14-35 The focus shifts to the Temple interior. While the Temple site is not mentioned here, the Chronicler located it at the former threshing floor of Araunah (1 Chr 21:18-25; 2 Chr 3:1). This site is traditionally thought to be the location of Mount Moriah (Gen 22:2). Solomon’s Temple was in the northeastern corner of Jerusalem (now called the “old city”) in the area now associated with the Dome of the Rock.