*H And Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, in mount Moria, which had been shewn to David his father, in the place which David had prepared in the thrashingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Ver. 1. Moria, which signifies vision; (C.) the place pointed out to Abraham, (Gen. xxii. 2. S. Aug. de C. xvi. 32.) and to David. 1 Par. xxi. 15. and xxii. 1.
* Footnote * 3_Kings 6 : 1
And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of the reign of Solomon over Israel, in the month Zio, (the same is the second month) he began to build a house to the Lord.* Footnote ** 2_Kings 24 : 25
And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered holocausts and peace offerings: and the Lord became merciful to the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.* Footnote ** 1_Paralipomenon 21 : 26
And he built there an altar to the Lord: and he offered holocausts, and peace offerings, and he called upon the Lord, and he heard him by sending fire from heaven upon the altar of the holocaust.*H And he began to build in the second month, in the fourth year of his reign.
Ver. 2. Second. Heb. adds, (D.) "in the second day of the second month." Prot. &c. H.
*H Now these are the foundations, which Solomon laid, to build the house of God, the length by the first measure sixty cubits, the breadth twenty cubits.
Ver. 3. By the first, or ancient measure, used before the captivity. The Babylonian cubit was a hand smaller, as Ezechiel (xl. 3.) intimates. C. — Solomon used the same cubit as Moses, but doubled the proportions. M.
*H And the porch in the front, which was extended in length according to the measure of the breadth of the house, twenty cubits: and the height was a hundred and twenty cubits: and he overlaid it within with pure gold.
Ver. 4. A hundred. The Arab. and some copies of the Sept. read only twenty. Capellus and Toinard would substitute, ten cubits. A small change in the Heb. might occasion these variations. C. — In 3 K. vi. 2. we find the height was thirty cubits: but that might be only to the first floor. Many think that the temple was 120 cubits high: but Salien (A. 3024) explains it of the four-square tower, (M.) in the front. C.
*H And the greater house he ceiled with deal boards, and overlaid them with plates of fine gold throughout: and he graved in them palm trees, and like little chains interlaced with one another.
Ver. 5. House, between the most holy place and the porch, (T.) or it may comprise all but the porch. Heb. "he covered (or boarded) all this great house." C. — Deal boards interspersed with those of cedar. 3 K. vi. 9. T. — Fine, (obrizi.) Heb. "of Parvaim, which is probably the same as Sepharvaim, Ophir, &c. not far from Media and Colchis. C.
*H He made also the house of the holy of holies: the length of it according to the breadth of the temple, twenty cubits, and the breadth of it in like manner twenty cubits: and he overlaid it with plates of gold, amounting to about six hundred talents.
Ver. 8. Amounting to about, is not in Heb. H.
*H He made also nails of gold, and the weight of every nail was fifty sicles: the upper chambers also he overlaid with gold.
Ver. 9. Sicles. This weight seems enormous for each nail. Mariana supposes every nail weighed one sicle. But who will believe that only fifty were used? Heb. "And the weight of the nails was fifty," &c. The Syr. and Arab. omit this verse entirely. — Chambers, or rather "the ceiling."
*H He made also in the house of the holy of holies two cherubims of image work: and he overlaid them with gold.
Ver. 10. Work. Heb. "of the work of young men," or resembling them. Munster — Sept. "the work of wood." Vulg. lit. "of sculpture work," (H.) as Le Clerc renders the original. Some moderns translate, "of a work like men in motion." Mariana, Buxtorf — The cherubims were in an erect posture.
*H The wings of the cherubims were extended twenty cubits, so that one wing was five cubits long, and reached to the wall of the house: and the other was also five cubits long, and reached to the wing of the other cherub.
Ver. 11. Cubits, comprising the breadth of their body. Each occupied ten cubits.
*H So the wings of the two cherubims were spread forth, and were extended twenty cubits: and they stood upright on their feet, and their faces were turned toward the house without.
Ver. 13. Toward. Heb. "inward;" looking at each other, (Ex. xxv. 20.) or towards the altar of holocausts.
*H He made also a veil of violet, purple, scarlet, and silk: and wrought in it cherubims.
Ver. 14. A veil. Abulensis places it between the court and the holy: but Jansenius would have it before the holy of holies. It seems rather that there was a veil in both places, (Barad. t. ii. b. iii. 23. M.) as Josephus (viii. 2. and xii. 10.) clearly intimates; and S. Paul speaks of the second veil. Heb. ix. 3. It is not certain which of them was torn at the death of Jesus Christ. Matt. xxvii. 51. Cherubims; extraordinary figures. C.
* Footnote * Matthew 27 : 51
And behold the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top even to the bottom: and the earth quaked and the rocks were rent.*H He made also before the doors of the temple two pillars, which were five and thirty cubits high: and their chapiters were five cubits.
Ver. 15. Five. 3 K. vii. 15. we read each was eighteen cubits. It is probable that each was 17½ and the other half was for the crown, (C.) or cornice. H.
* Footnote * Jeremias 52 : 20
And the two pillars, and one sea, and twelve oxen of brass that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made in the house of the Lord: there was no weight of the brass of all these vessels.*H He made also as it were little chains in the oracle, and he put them on the heads of the pillars: and a hundred pomegranates, which he put between the little chains.
Ver. 16. In, or "as in." Sa. M. — Protestants supply as. H. — Hundred, for one row, or 200 for both. 3 K. D.
*H These pillars he put at the entrance of the temple, one on the right hand, and the other on the left: that which was on the right hand, he called Jachin: and that on the left hand, Booz.
Ver. 17. Booz. "Stability and strength" are derived from God alone. Thus Solomon designed to insinuate that God established the harmony of the universe. H. — An orrery, or globe, was therefore placed on each of these pillars. Parkhurst, in con.