1 Kings 5:17

17 At the king's command, they quarried out great, costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stones.

1 Kings 5:17 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 5:17

And the king commanded, and they brought great stones
Not in quality, but in quantity, large stones, fit to lay in the foundation; strong, and durable against all the injuries of time, as Josephus says ^F9:

costly stones;
not what are commonly called precious stones, as gems, pearls but stones of value, as marble, porphyry, &c.

[and] hewed stones;
not rough as they were taken out of the quarry, but hewed, and made smooth:

to lay the foundation of the house;
which, though out of sight, was to be laid with goodly stones for the magnificence of the building; so the church of Christ, its foundation is said to be laid even with sapphires and other precious stones, see ( Isaiah 54:11 ) ( Revelation 21:19 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F9 Antiqu. l. 8. c. 3. sect. 2.

1 Kings 5:17 In-Context

15 Solomon also had seventy thousand burden-bearers and eighty thousand hewers of stone in the hill country,

16 besides Solomon's three thousand three hundred chief officers who were over the work, who had charge of the people who carried on the work.

17 At the king's command, they quarried out great, costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stones.

18 So Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the men of Gebal did the hewing and prepared the timber and the stone to build the house.