1 Kings 6:21

21 So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold; and he made a partition by the chains of gold before the oracle, and he overlaid it with gold.

1 Kings 6:21 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 6:21

So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold
The inside of the holy of holies with fine gold, which gold amounted to six hundred talents, ( 2 Chronicles 3:8 ) ; and these to 7,332,000 ducats of gold, or 3,045,000 pounds sterling:

and he made a partition by the chains of gold before the oracle;
between the holy and the most holy, and were instead of a vail in the tabernacle of Moses between them; here was also a vail beside the partition made by chains of gold across the oracle; for the partition was a wall of the thickness of a cubit, as Maimonides ^F2 says; and in ( 2 Chronicles 3:14 ) express mention is made of a vail of blue and in imitation of this had the Heathens their deities within vails ^F3:

and he overlaid it with gold;
the partition wall.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 Hilchot Beth Habechirah, c. 4. sect. 2.
F3 Apulei Metamorph. l. xi. p. 176.

1 Kings 6:21 In-Context

19 And the oracle he prepared in the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of the LORD.

20 And the oracle in the forepart was twenty cubits in length and twenty cubits in breadth and twenty cubits in the height thereof; and he overlaid it with pure gold, and so covered the altar which was of cedar.

21 So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold; and he made a partition by the chains of gold before the oracle, and he overlaid it with gold.

22 And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the house; also the whole altar that was by the oracle he overlaid with gold.

23 And within the oracle he made two cherubims of olive tree, each ten cubits high.