a house (in the greatest variation of applications · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
temple
הַהֵיכָ֥לha.hei.Khal
H1964
a large public building · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
before
לִפְנַיliphnay
H3942
anterior
forty
וְאַרְבָּעִ֥יםve.'ar.ba.'Im
H705
forty · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural absolute
cubits
בָּאַמָּ֖הba.'a.Mah
H520
properly · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Kings 6:15–end
Here, I. We have a particular account of the details of the building.
1. The wainscot of the temple. It was of cedar (Kg1 6:15), which was strong and durable, and of a very sweet smell. The wainscot was curiously carved with knops (like eggs or apples) and flowers, no doubt as the fashion then was, Kg1 6:18.
2. The gilding. It was not like ours, washed over, but the whole house, all the inside of the temple (Kg1 6:22), even the floor (Kg1 6:30), he overlaid with gold, and the most holy place with pure gold, Kg1 6:21. Solomon would spare no expense necessary to make it every way sumptuous. Gold was under foot there, as it should be in all the living temples: the abundance of it lessened its w…
THE CEILING AND ADORNING OF IT. (Kg1 6:15-22)
he built the walls of the house within--The walls were wainscotted with cedar-wood; the floor, paved with cypress planks; the interior was divided (by a partition consisting of folding doors, which were opened and shut with golden chains) into two apartments--the back or inner room, that is, the most holy place, was twenty cubits long and broad; the front, or outer room, that is, the holy place, was forty cubits. The cedar-wood was beautifully embellished with figures in relievo, representing clusters of foliage, open flowers, cherubims, and palm trees. The whole interior was overlaid with gold, so that neither wood nor stone was seen; nothing m…
The walls of the ceiling - See the note on Kg1 6:9.
John Gill on 1 Kings 6:17
And the house, that is, the temple before it,.... The holy place, which was before the of holies:
was forty cubits long; and which, with the most holy place, being twenty cubits, as in the preceding verse, made the length of the whole house sixty cubits, as in 1 Kings 6:2.
The Church Fathers
We have said that the temple itself before the doors of the oracle was a type of the present church. Hence it was rightly forty cubits long, for this number is often used to signify the present labor of the faithful, just as the number fifty stands for the rest and peace to come. For the number ten contains the precepts, the observance of which leads to life. Likewise the number ten signifies that very eternal life that we desire and for which we live. But the world in which we strive to attain that life is a square. Hence too the psalmist, foreseeing the church that was to be assembled from the nations said, "He has gathered them out of the countries from the rising and from the setting of the sun, from the north and from the sea." Now ten multiplied by four makes forty. Hence the people liberated from Egypt as a figure of the present church were subjected to many hardships for forty years in the desert, but at the same time they were also regaled with heavenly bread, and in this way they finally reached the land promised them of old. They were subjected to trials for forty years in order to draw attention to the hardships with which the church contends throughout the whole world in observing the law of God; they were fed on manna from heaven for those forty years to demonstrate that the very sufferings that the church endures in the hope of the heavenly denarius, that is, of eternal happiness, are to be alleviated when those "who now hunger and thirst for righteousness will have their fill," and as the same church sings to its Redeemer, "But as for me, I will appear before your sight in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when your glory shall appear." In the same way then the people of God is both subjected to adversities and regaled with manna to confirm the saying of the apostle: "Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation." In this figure too our Lord fasted forty days before his bodily death and feasted forty more with his disciples after his bodily resurrection "appearing to them by many proofs and speaking of the kingdom of God, and eating together with them." For by fasting he showed in himself our toil, but by eating and drinking with his disciples he showed his consolation in our midst. While he was fasting he was crying out, as it were, "Take heed lest perhaps your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the cares of this…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Temple — First used of the tabernacle, which is called “the temple of the Lord” (1 Sam. 1:9). In the New Testament the word is used figuratively of Christ’s human body (John 2:19, 21). Believers are called…
Temple, Solomon’s — Before his death David had “with all his might” provided materials in great abundance for the building of the temple on the summit of Mount Moriah (1 Chr. 22:14; 29:4; 2 Chr. 3:1), on the east of the…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Kings 6:14-35
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…
paneled with wood: The interior walls were paneled with cedar from floor to ceiling so that no exterior stones could be seen. The effect was exquisitely beautiful, reflecting painstaking care and great expense.
Rashi on 1 Kings 6:17
That is the Sanctuary before it. In front of the partition towards the outside.
