1 Kings 6:2-20

2 The temple that King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty wide and thirty high.[a]
3 The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple extended the width of the temple, that is twenty cubits,[b] and projected ten cubits[c] from the front of the temple.
4 He made narrow windows high up in the temple walls.
5 Against the walls of the main hall and inner sanctuary he built a structure around the building, in which there were side rooms.
6 The lowest floor was five cubits[d] wide, the middle floor six cubits[e] and the third floor seven.[f] He made offset ledges around the outside of the temple so that nothing would be inserted into the temple walls.
7 In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.
8 The entrance to the lowest[g] floor was on the south side of the temple; a stairway led up to the middle level and from there to the third.
9 So he built the temple and completed it, roofing it with beams and cedar planks.
10 And he built the side rooms all along the temple. The height of each was five cubits, and they were attached to the temple by beams of cedar.
11 The word of the LORD came to Solomon:
12 “As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, observe my laws and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father.
13 And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel.”
14 So Solomon built the temple and completed it.
15 He lined its interior walls with cedar boards, paneling them from the floor of the temple to the ceiling, and covered the floor of the temple with planks of juniper.
16 He partitioned off twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling to form within the temple an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.
17 The main hall in front of this room was forty cubits[h] long.
18 The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; no stone was to be seen.
19 He prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the ark of the covenant of the LORD there.
20 The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty wide and twenty high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold, and he also overlaid the altar of cedar.

1 Kings 6:2-20 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 21

  • 1. Exodus 26:1; Ezekiel 41:1
  • 2. Ezekiel 40:49
  • 3. Ezekiel 40:16; Ezekiel 41:16
  • 4. ver 16,19-21; Jeremiah 35:2; Ezekiel 41:5-6
  • 5. S Exodus 20:25
  • 6. S Deuteronomy 27:5
  • 7. ver 14,38; Song of Songs 1:17
  • 8. 1 Kings 12:22; 1 Kings 13:20; 1 Kings 16:1,7; 1 Kings 17:2; 1 Kings 21:17; Jeremiah 40:1
  • 9. 1 Kings 11:10
  • 10. 2 Samuel 7:12-16; 1 Kings 2:4; 1 Kings 9:5
  • 11. Exodus 25:8; S Leviticus 26:11; S Deuteronomy 31:6; John 14:18; Hebrews 13:5
  • 12. Acts 7:47
  • 13. ver 9,38; 1 Chronicles 28:20; 2 Chronicles 5:1
  • 14. 1 Kings 7:7
  • 15. Ezekiel 41:15-16
  • 16. S Exodus 26:33; Leviticus 16:2; 1 Kings 8:6
  • 17. ver 29; 1 Kings 7:24; Psalms 74:6; Ezekiel 41:18
  • 18. 1 Kings 8:6
  • 19. S Exodus 25:10; S 1 Samuel 3:3
  • 20. Ezekiel 41:3-4
  • 21. S Exodus 30:1

Footnotes 8

  • [a]. That is, about 90 feet long, 30 feet wide and 45 feet high or about 27 meters long, 9 meters wide and 14 meters high
  • [b]. That is, about 30 feet or about 9 meters; also in verses 16 and 20
  • [c]. That is, about 15 feet or about 4.5 meters; also in verses 23-26
  • [d]. That is, about 7 1/2 feet or about 2.3 meters; also in verses 10 and 24
  • [e]. That is, about 9 feet or about 2.7 meters
  • [f]. That is, about 11 feet or about 3.2 meters
  • [g]. Septuagint; Hebrew "middle"
  • [h]. That is, about 60 feet or about 18 meters
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