1 Kings 6:3

3 The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple was twenty cubits ^[a] long, extending across the width of the temple and projecting out ten cubits ^[b] in front of the temple.

1 Kings 6:3 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 6:3

And the porch before the temple of the house
Which stood at the east end of it:

twenty cubits [was] the length thereof, according to the breadth of the
house;
which was from north to south, and of the same dimension, so that they exactly answered each other:

[and] ten cubits [was] the breadth thereof before the house;
which being added to it, make the whole of the building, most holy place, holy place, and porch, seventy cubits; the height of the porch is not here given, but in ( 2 Chronicles 3:4 ) ; where it is said to be an hundred twenty cubits high, equal to the height of the house, with the chambers over it; but there the breadth of the porch is not given, as it is here; by these dimensions we may observe the difference between the tabernacle and the temple; the temple was twice as long, and as broad, and thrice as high as that, see ( Exodus 26:8 Exodus 26:16 ) . This fabric was an emblem of the church of God, sometimes called an holy temple, and the temple of the living God, ( 2 Corinthians 6:16 ) ( Ephesians 2:21 ) .

1 Kings 6:3 In-Context

1 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the house of the LORD.

2 The house that King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.

3 The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple was twenty cubits long, extending across the width of the temple and projecting out ten cubits in front of the temple.

4 He also had narrow windows framed high in the temple.

5 Against the walls of the temple and the inner sanctuary, Solomon built a chambered structure around the temple, in which he constructed the side rooms.

Footnotes

• [a]. 20 cubits is approximately 30 feet or 9.1 meters; also in verses 16 and 20.
• [b]. 10 cubits is approximately 15 feet or 4.6 meters; also in verses 23–26.