1 Kings 6:4

4 And for the house he made closed windows with fixed lattices.

1 Kings 6:4 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 6:4

And for the house he made windows of narrow lights.
] Or "open, shut" F15, which could be both, having shutters to them, to open or shut at pleasure; windows which they could open, and look through at them, or shut when they pleased; the Targum is,

``open within, and shut without;''

or, as others understand it, they were wide within, and narrow without; by being narrow without, the house was preserved from bad weather, as well as could not so easily be looked into by those without; and by being broader within, the light that was let in spread itself within the house; which some interpret only of the holy place, the most holy place having, as they suppose, no windows in it, which yet is not certain: now these windows may denote the word and ordinances of the church of God, whereby light is communicated to men; which in the present state is but narrow or small, in comparison of the new Jerusalem church state, and the ultimate glory; and especially so it was under the legal dispensation, which was very obscure; see ( Song of Solomon 2:9 ) ( Isaiah 55:8 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F15 (Mypqv Mymja) "apertas clausas", Vatablus; "perspectui accommodas, clausas", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

1 Kings 6:4 In-Context

2 And the house that king Solomon built for Jehovah was sixty cubits in length, and twenty in breadth, and thirty cubits in height.
3 And the porch, in front of the temple of the house, was twenty cubits in length, in front of the house broadways, [and] ten cubits was its breadth, in front of the house.
4 And for the house he made closed windows with fixed lattices.
5 And against the wall of the house he built floors round about, [against] the walls of the house, round about the temple and the oracle; and he made side-chambers round about.
6 The lowest floor was five cubits broad, and the middle one was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad; for in the [thickness of the wall of] the house he made resets round about outside, that nothing should be fastened in the walls of the house.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. * Or 'splayed' -- narrow without, broad within.
The Darby Translation is in the public domain.