1 Kings 6:8

8 The door to the stairs was at the south side of the temple. Winding stairs went up to the second floor and from there to the third floor.

1 Kings 6:8 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 6:8

The door of the middle chamber [was] in the right side of the
house
The south side of it:

and they went up with winding stairs into the middle [chamber];
which were outside the chambers, and which winded about for the sake of taking up less room, and which led up to the door of the middle chamber, on the south of which they went into it; according to the Vulgate Latin and Tigurine versions, they went up in the forth of a cockle, or the shell of a snail; in like manner as was the ascent of the temple of Pan at Alexandria, as Strabo ^F21 relates:

and out of the middle into the third;
the third chamber, and by winding stairs up to that; and the like might be on the north side, though not expressed, and on the west: the Jews say ^F23, that in the second temple, these winding stairs went from the northeast to the northwest, whereby they went up to the roof of the chambers, and so to the south and west; with this compare ( Ezekiel 41:7 ) ; and which may represent the windings and turnings of God's people in this present state, their many afflictions and tribulations, through which they pass from one state to another.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F21 Geograph. l. 17. p. 547.
F23 Misn. Middot, c. 4. sect. 5. See Lightfoot's Prospect of the Temple c. 12. p. 1071.

1 Kings 6:8 In-Context

6 The lower walls were seven and a half feet wide. At the second floor the walls were nine feet wide, and at the third floor they were ten and a half feet wide. He made niches around the outside of the temple so the beams wouldn't be inserted into the temple walls.

7 When the temple was built, they did all the stonecutting at the quarry. No hammers, axes, or any iron tools were heard in the temple during its construction.

8 The door to the stairs was at the south side of the temple. Winding stairs went up to the second floor and from there to the third floor.

9 He completed the temple with a roof of cedar beams and cross-planks.

10 Then he built the side rooms all around the temple. They were seven and a half feet high. He attached them to the temple with cedarwood.