a cedar tree (from the tenacity of its roots) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
house
הַבַּ֙יִת֙ha.Ba.yit
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
within
פְּנִ֔ימָהpe.Ni.mah
H6441
faceward · adverb
carved
מִקְלַ֣עַתmik.La.'at
H4734
a sculpture (probably in bas-relief) · noun, common feminine singular construct
knops
פְּקָעִ֔יםpe.ka.'Im
H6497
a semi-globe · noun, common masculine plural absolute
open
וּפְטוּרֵ֖יu.fe.tu.Rei
H6362
to cleave or burst through · conjunction + verb, qal passive participle, masculine plural construct
flowers
צִצִּ֑יםtzi.Tzim
H6731
properly · noun, common masculine plural absolute
cedar
אֶ֔רֶז'E.rez
H730
a cedar tree (from the tenacity of its roots) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
stone
אֶ֖בֶן'E.ven
H68
a stone · noun, common feminine singular absolute
seen
נִרְאָֽהnir.'Ah
H7200
to see · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
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).
Cross-references
1 Kings 7:24 And under the brim of it round about there were knops compassing it, ten in a cubit, compassing the sea round about: the knops were cast in…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
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 6:18
And the cedar of the house within,.... With which the inside of the place was lined:
was carved with knops; of an oval form; so the Targum says, they had the appearance of eggs; and Ben Gersom likewise, that they were in the form of eggs:
and open flowers; not in the figure of buds, but flowers blown, and open, as lilies and others; so the Targum:
all was cedar; the wainscotting of the house, the sides of it at least, if not the floor, and the carved work of it; and this was done, that the gold might be laid upon it, which could not be done on stone as on wood: and all was so covered, that
there was no stone seen; of which the outward walls were built: all this denotes the inward beauty…
The Church Fathers
We have said of cedarwood that it betokened the unsurpassable beauty of the virtues. Now the entire house is covered inside with this wood when the hearts of the righteous begin to shine with nothing but the love of good works, and the house has its turnings made of cedar boards and its joints skillfully wrought when these elect are joined to each other by the most beautiful bond of charity so that, though the multitude of the faithful is innumerable, they can nevertheless, with good reason, be said to have one heart and one soul on account of the community of the faith and love they share. For the turnings that were attached to the joints of the planks in order that they might all make one partition are the very services of charity by which the holy brotherhood is bound together and formed into one house of Christ all over the world. Moreover, this house has carvings standing in relief when, far from covering and hiding their works of virtue, the saints, by a clear outward expression, show forth to all, as an example for living, what they themselves are like and what they do, as did the apostle Paul who not only by preaching Christ to the Gentiles and by personally suffering for Christ showed how outstanding he was, but also in his letters addressed to the churches declared how many perils he underwent for Christ and by what great revelations he was raised aloft in a blessed glorification. And when he said to his listeners without any hesitation, "Be imitators of me, just as I am of Christ," what did he show them but the carvings standing in relief in the house of the Lord, which by the exceptional eminence of his virtue showed itself to be within the power of all to imitate?
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
Carve — The arts of engraving and carving were much practised among the Jews. They were practised in connection with the construction of the tabernacle and the temple (Ex. 31:2, 5; 35:33; 1 Kings 6:18, 35;…
Carving — The arts of carving and engraving were much in request in the construction of both the tabernacle and the temple. (Exodus 31:5; 35:33; 1 Kings 6:18,35; Psalms 74:6) as well as in the ornamentation of…
Knop — Some architectural ornament. (1.) Heb. kaphtor (Ex. 25:31-36), occurring in the description of the candlestick. It was an ornamental swell beneath the cups of the candlestick, probably an imitation…
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…
Arts Of The · Carver — Carver
Carving · cherubim, and palm trees — cherubim, and palm trees
Flowers · Representations of, on the: Wood work of the temple — Representations of, on the: Wood work of the temple
Temple, The First · Cedar of, carved with flowers, &c — Cedar of, carved with flowers, &c
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).
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 6:18
The cedar of the inside of the Beis Hamikdosh was carved with designs. This means, that those cedar boards which he made for the inside of the building to cover the stone walls, were carved with figured carvings and forms of fragments resembling knobs; פקעים are imosjjls, in O.F.
Of buds and blossoming flowers. [Targum] Yonoson rendered, “and cords and flowers,” in the form of chains.
Buds. [פטורי is] an expression of cords in the language of the Talmud, as in, “as the rope through the loophole.”26Maseches Berachos 8a.
Blossoming flowers. [צצים is] an expression of flowers, as in, “and it bloomed [ויצץ] buds [ציץ],”27Bamidbar 17:23. cords and blossoms. But Menachem related פטורי as an exp…
