1 Kings 7:18 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
1 Kings 7:18
And he made the pillars, and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters that were upon the top, with pomegranates: and so did he for the other chapiter.
the capital of a column · 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).
Cross-references
Exodus 28:14 And two chains of pure gold at the ends; of wreathen work shalt thou make them, and fasten the wreathen chains to the ouches.
Exodus 28:22 And thou shalt make upon the breastplate chains at the ends of wreathen work of pure gold.
Exodus 28:24-25 And thou shalt put the two wreathen chains of gold in the two rings which are on the ends of the breastplate.
Exodus 39:15-18 And they made upon the breastplate chains at the ends, of wreathen work of pure gold.
2 Kings 25:17 The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and the chapiter upon it was brass: and the height of the chapiter three cubits; and the w…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Kings 7:13-47
We have here an account of the brass-work about the temple. There was no iron about the temple, though we find David preparing for the temple iron for things of iron, Ch1 29:2. What those things were we are not told, but some of the things of brass are here described and the rest mentioned.
I. The brasier whom Solomon employed to preside in this part of the work was Hiram, or Huram (Ch2 4:11), who was by his mother's side an Israelite, of the tribe of Naphtali, by his father's side a man of Tyre, Kg1 7:14. If he had the ingenuity of a Tyrian, and the affection of an Israelite to the house of God (the head of a Tyrian and the heart of an Israelite), it was happy that the blood of the two nati…
nets of checker work--that is, branch-work, resembling the branches of palm trees, and
wreaths of chain-work--that is, plaited in the form of a chain, composing a sort of crown or garland. Seven of these were wound in festoons on one capital, and over and underneath them were fringes, one hundred in a row. Two rows of pomegranates strung on chains (Ch2 3:16) ran round the capital (Kg1 7:42; compare Ch2 4:12-13; Jer 52:23), which, itself, was of a bowl-like or globular form (Kg1 7:41). These rows were designed to form a binding to the ornamental work--to keep it from falling asunder; and they were so placed as to be above the chain work, and below the place where the branch-work was.
Adam Clarke on 1 Kings 7:15
He cast two pillars - eighteen cubits high - That is, about thirty feet in English measure.
A line of twelve cubits - In circumference. It would be difficult even now to procure a founder who could cast such massive pillars, whether solid or hollow.
John Gill on 1 Kings 7:18
And he made the pillars,.... Or adorned them in this manner:
and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters that were upon the top, with pomegranates; that is, there were two rows of figures like pomegranates upon the net or branch work that covered the chapiters that were on the top of the pillars; and Kimchi owns, that some copies so read, on the top of the pillars, instead of pomegranates, though he thinks it a mistake:
and so did he for the other chapiter; put two rows about that also.
The Church Fathers
True, there were two rows of networks right around the capital, but both rows were repeated seven times over until the capital was encircled and the row rejoined itself after going full circle. Nor is the figure of the mystery obscured by the fact that there are two rows of network since it is well known that the virtue of love consists of two distinct aspects, namely, when we are bidden to love God with our whole heart, our whole mind and our whole strength and our neighbor as ourselves. But both of those rows have seven rows of nets because without the grace of the Holy Spirit neither God nor the neighbor can be loved. For the statement "because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" remains true. But where the love of God is, there, assuredly, the love of the neighbor also is poured into the hearts of the faithful because, of course, the one cannot be had without the other. Furthermore, these networks were made to cover the capitals, that is, to encircle them completely, because, rightly understood, every page of holy Scripture echoes throughout with the sound of the grace of love and peace. For the capitals are indeed the volumes of the divine Word, the networks are the bonds of mutual love, and the capitals are covered with networks when the sacred words, if I may say so, are shown on all sides to be clothed with the gift of love. For even in the things that we do not understand in the Scriptures, love is abundantly in evidence.
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
Jachin and Boaz — The names of two brazen columns set up in Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 7:15-22). Each was eighteen cubits high and twelve in circumference (Jer. 52:21, 23; 1 Kings 7:17-21). They had doubtless a…
Pomegranate — I.e., “grained apple” (pomum granatum), Heb. rimmon. Common in Egypt (Num. 20:5) and Palestine (13:23; Deut. 8:8). The Romans called it Punicum malum, i.e., Carthaginian apple, because they received…
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…
Brass · .Altar, vessels, and other articles of the tabernacle and temple — .Altar, vessels, and other articles of the tabernacle and temple
Carving · Hiram — Hiram
Chapiter · Head of a pillar — Head of a pillar
Hiram · of the interior of the temple — of the interior of the temple
Master Workman · .Hiram — .Hiram
Mechanic · .Hiram — .Hiram
Pillar · Of — Of
Pillars · Two, placed in the temple porch — Two, placed in the temple porch
Pomegranate · General references — General references
Pomegranate Tree, The
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Kings 7:15-22
The brazen pillars of the porch (compare Ch2 3:15-17). - He formed the two brazen pillars, which were erected, according to Ch2 3:15, "before the (temple) house, i.e., in front of the hall of the temple. One was eighteen cubits high, and a thread of twelve cubits surrounded (spanned) the other pillar." The statement of the height of the one pillar and that of the circumference of the other is to be understood as an abbreviated expression, signifying that the height and thickness mentioned applied to the one as well as to the other, or that they were alike in height and circumference. According to the Chronicles, they were thirty-five cubits long; which many expositors understand as signifyin…
The two bronze pillars were probably free-standing since the narrator describes them here rather than in the earlier discussion of the Temple structure (6:3-6).
Rashi on 1 Kings 7:18
And two rows. Of pomegranates and of copper; the pomegranates were inserted into the chain [work] which encircled the crowns, thus is this explained in Divrei Hayomim28See II Divrei Hayomim 3:16. and in the Mishnah of “Forty-Nine Measurements.”
To cover the crowns that were on top of the pomegranates. [The text of] this verse is in a disarranged order.29Alternatively, the verse can be explained according to its literal translation. The crowns were on the columns and the pomegranates were on the crowns. There were also other crowns which were on the pomegranates.—Radak. Or, the pomegranates were located on the lower bowl of the crown and the word על means “near” rather than “on top of.” [It…
· Representations of its fruit: On the pillars of the temple
— Representations of its fruit: On the pillars of the temple
Temple, The First · The porch of: Pillars of, with their chapiters described — The porch of: Pillars of, with their chapiters described
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).
