1 Kings 7:2

2 One of Solomon’s buildings was called the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon. It was 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. There were four rows of cedar pillars, and great cedar beams rested on the pillars.

1 Kings 7:2 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 7:2

He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon
Besides the temple, his own palace, and the queen's; so called, not because it was built on Mount Lebanon, which lay at the northern border of the land, at a great distance from Jerusalem, whereas this was both a magazine of arms, and a court of judicature, ( 1 Kings 7:7 ) ; see ( 1 Kings 10:17 ) ( Isaiah 22:8 ) ; neither of which can be supposed to be far from Jerusalem; but because not only it was built of the cedars of Lebanon, but in a situation, and among groves of trees which resembled it; it seems to have been a summer house; and so the Targum calls it, a royal house of refreshment:

the length thereof [was] an hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof
fifty and the height thereof thirty cubits;
so that it was in every measure larger than the temple; and, there was good reason for it, since into that only the priests entered; whereas into this went not only Solomon's family but his courtiers and nobles, and all foreign ambassadors, and whoever had any business with him, which required various rooms to receive them in:

upon four rows of cedar pillars;
or piazzas:

with cedar beams upon the pillars;
which laid the floor for the second story.

1 Kings 7:2 In-Context

1 Solomon also built a palace for himself, and it took him thirteen years to complete the construction.

2 One of Solomon’s buildings was called the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon. It was 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. There were four rows of cedar pillars, and great cedar beams rested on the pillars.

3 The hall had a cedar roof. Above the beams on the pillars were forty-five side rooms, arranged in three tiers of fifteen each.

4 On each end of the long hall were three rows of windows facing each other.

5 All the doorways and doorposts had rectangular frames and were arranged in sets of three, facing each other.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew 100 cubits [46 meters] long, 50 cubits [23 meters] wide, and 30 cubits [13.8 meters] high.