the shrine or innermost part of the sanctuary · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
made
וַיַּ֣עַשׂvai.Ya.'as
H6213
to do or make · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
two
שְׁנֵ֥יshe.Nei
H8147
two · noun, common both genders dual construct
cherubims
כְרוּבִ֖יםkhe.ru.Vim
H3742
a cherub or imaginary figure · noun, common masculine plural absolute
olive
שָׁ֑מֶןSha.men
H8081
grease · noun, common masculine singular absolute
tree
עֲצֵי'a.tzei-
H6086
a tree (from its firmness) · noun, common masculine plural construct
ten
עֶ֥שֶׂר'E.ser
H6235
ten (as an accumulation to the extent of the digits) · noun, common masculine singular construct
cubits
אַמּ֖וֹת'a.Mot
H520
properly · noun, common feminine plural absolute
high
קוֹמָתֽוֹko.ma.To
H6967
height · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 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
Exodus 37:7-9 And he made two cherubims of gold, beaten out of one piece made he them, on the two ends of the mercy seat;
Genesis 3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the…
Exodus 25:18-22 And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat.
2 Chronicles 3:10-13 And in the most holy house he made two cherubims of image work, and overlaid them with gold.
Psalms 18:10 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.
Psalms 80:1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.
Isaiah 37:16 O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: th…
Ezekiel 10:2-22 And he spake unto the man clothed with linen, and said, Go in between the wheels, even under the cherub, and fill thine hand with coals of f…
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 whole house he overlaid with gold - It is impossible to calculate this expense, or the quantity of gold employed in this sacred building.
John Gill on 1 Kings 6:23
And within the oracle he made two cherubim of olive tree,.... Or of the oil tree, as in Isaiah 41:19; see Nehemiah 8:15; for there are other trees besides olives, out of which oil is pressed, as pine trees, cypress trees, &c. and which some think are here meant; though the Targum interprets it of the olive tree: these cherubim are different from those made by Moses, and were besides them; these were larger than they; these were made of olive wood, they of gold; these stood on the floor of the house, they at the two ends of the mercy seat, and were made out of it, and were with it in this holy place in Solomon's temple: these two cherubim may be emblems of the angels in their greatness and gl…
The Church Fathers
"Cherubim," as the prophet Ezekiel explicitly declares, is a title of dignity, and in the singular number the form cherub is used, but cherubim in the plural. Hence the figures of the cherubim that were made in the oracle can be appropriately taken to mean the angelic retinues that always wait on their Creator in heaven. And they are properly said to have been made of olive wood because, of course, angelic virtues are anointed with the grace of the Holy Spirit lest they should ever grow arid in the love of God. For they are those fellow companions of ours of whom the prophet speaks in his praise of Christ: "God your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows." In figurative terms it was quite right that those whom their Creator later filled with the light of heavenly wisdom were made of olive wood. That is why he wanted them called cherub, which means in Latin "a great store of knowledge." And they are ten cubits high because they enjoy the denarius of eternal life having preserved ever untarnished in themselves the image of their Creator by the sanctity and uprightness and truth that they received in the first creation. For a denarius is worth ten obols and customarily bore the name and likeness of the king. Consequently, it also makes a very fitting metaphor for the kingdom of heaven where, on the one hand, the holy angels ever remain in their Creator's likeness according to which they were made, and on the other hand, the human elect receive his image that they had lost by sinning. For "we know," he says, "that when he appears we shall be like him [and] see him as he is."
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
Oil Tree — (Heb. ets shemen). The Hebrew words occur in (Nehemiah 8:15) (Authorized Version “pine branches”), (1 Kings 6:23) (“olive tree”) and in (Isaiah 41:19) (“oil tree”). From the passage in Nehemiah,…
Oil-tree — (Isa. 41:19; R.V. marg., “oleaster”), Heb. ‘etz shemen, rendered “olive tree” in 1 Kings 6:23, 31, 32, 33 (R.V., “olive wood”) and “pine branches” in Neh. 8:15 (R.V., “branches of wild olive”), was…
Olive — The fruit of the olive-tree. This tree yielded oil which was highly valued. The best oil was from olives that were plucked before being fully ripe, and then beaten or squeezed (Deut. 24:20; Isa.…
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…
Cherubim · In the temple — In the temple
Holy Of Holies · Contained: Cherubim — Contained: Cherubim
Olive · The cherubs ma — The cherubs ma
Olive Tree, The · Used for making: The cherubim in the temple — Used for making: The cherubim in the temple
Temple, The First · The oracle or most holy place: Two cherubims of gilded olive wood made within — The oracle or most holy place: Two cherubims of gilded olive wood made within
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…
In the inner sanctuary were two cherubim (see study note on 1 Chr 28:18) made of olive wood and overlaid . . . with gold. Standing like sentries facing the door (2 Chr 3:13), their combined wingspan reached from wall to wall. Along with the two smaller cherubim facing each other atop the Ark (Exod 25:17-21), they symbolized the awesome presence of the Most Holy God.
Rashi on 1 Kings 6:23
Olive wood. [Targum Yonoson rendered,] “olive wood.”35עצי שמן literally means “oil wood.” Rashi indicates they are identical. However, in Nechemya 8:15 they are listed separately.
Ten amohs high. And their legs were standing on the ground,36Unlike the cherubim that were made by Betzalel which were on the cover of the Ark and faced each other . See Shemos 37:9. one was on the north of the Ark and one on the south, covering the Ark and its poles. The length of the wings covered part (of the poles’ width) since the Ark’s length was set to the width of the Temple, and its poles were protruding at the entrance of the Holy of Holies into the curtain which was at the entrance. Its poles were set a…
