1 Kings 6:8-23

8 The doorway for the lowest side chamber was on the right side of the house; and they would go up by winding stairs to the middle story, and from the middle to the third.

9 So ¹he built the house and finished it; and he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar.

10 He also built the stories against the whole house, each five cubits high; and they were fastened to the house with timbers of cedar.

11 Now the word of the LORD came to Solomon saying,

12 "Concerning this house which you are building, ²if you will walk in My statutes and execute My ordinances and keep all My commandments by walking in them, then I will carry out My word with you which I spoke to David your father.

13 "³I will dwell among the sons of Israel, and ⁴will not forsake My people Israel."

14 ⁵So Solomon built the house and finished it.

15 Then he ⁶built the walls of the house on the inside * with boards of cedar; from the floor of the house to the ceiling * he overlaid the walls on the inside * with wood, and he overlaid the floor of the house with boards of cypress.

16 ⁷He built twenty cubits on the rear part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the ceiling; he built them for it on the inside * as an inner sanctuary, even as ⁸the most holy place.

17 The house, that is, the nave in front of the inner sanctuary, was forty cubits long.

18 There was cedar on the house within, carved in the shape of ⁹gourds and open flowers; all was cedar, there was no stone seen.

19 Then he prepared an inner sanctuary within the house in order to place there the ark of the covenant of the LORD.

20 The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits in length, twenty cubits in width, and twenty cubits in height, and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid the altar with cedar.

21 So Solomon overlaid the inside * of the house with pure gold. And he drew chains of gold across the front of the inner sanctuary, and he overlaid it with gold.

22 He overlaid the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. Also ¹⁰the whole altar which was by the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold.

23 ¹¹Also in the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high.

1 Kings 6:8-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST KINGS 6

This chapter gives an account of the building of the temple, for which preparations were before made and begins with the time of its building, 1Ki 6:1; gives the dimensions of it and the porch before it, 1Ki 6:2,3; observes the windows in it and chambers about it, 1Ki 6:4-10; and while it was building, Solomon had a word from the Lord relative to it, 1Ki 6:11-14; and then the account goes on concerning the walls of the house, and the flooring of it, 1Ki 6:15-18; and the oracle in it, and the cherubim in that, 1Ki 6:19-30; and the doors into it, and the carved work of them, 1Ki 6:31-36; and the chapter is concluded with observing the time when it was begun and finished 1Ki 6:37,38.

Cross References

• 1. 1 Kings 6:14, 38
• 2. 2 Samuel 7:5-16; 1 Kings 9:4
• 3. Exodus 25:8; Exodus 29:45; Leviticus 26:11
• 4. Deuteronomy 31:6; Joshua 1:5; Hebrews 13:5
• 5. 1 Kings 6:9, 38
• 6. 1 Kings 7:7
• 7. 2 Chronicles 3:8
• 8. Exodus 26:33, 34; Leviticus 16:2; 1 Kings 8:6; Hebrews 9:3
• 9. 1 Kings 7:24
• 10. Ex 30:1, 3, 6
• 11. Exodus 37:7-9; 2 Chronicles 3:10-12

Footnotes

• [a]. So with Gr and versions; M.T. "middle"
• [b]. Lit "rows"
• [c]. I.e. One cubit equals approx 18 in.
• [d]. Lit "took hold"
• [e]. Lit "walls of ceiling"
• [f]. Lit "walls"
• [g]. I.e. One cubit equals approx 18 in.
• [h]. Lit "before"