1 Kings 6:20

20 And God's answering place had twenty cubits of length, and twenty cubits of breadth, and twenty cubits of height (And the Inner Temple was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in height); and he covered (it), and clothed it with purest gold; but also he clothed the altar with cedar.

1 Kings 6:20 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 6:20

And the oracle in the forepart
Which stood in the forepart of the temple, before a man's face as he entered into it, and went on; or the forepart of the holy of holies, next to the holy place, was of the dimensions as follows, when the back part of it might be higher at least, and be equal to the holy place, even thirty feet; the forepart being lower, and left open to let in the light of the candlesticks, and the smoke of the incense, out of the holy place: this

[was] twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty
cubits in the height thereof:
and was a perfect square, and as the most holy place may be an emblem of the church triumphant, it may denote the perfection of its heavenly state; so the new Jerusalem is a foursquare, ( Revelation 21:16 ) ;

and he overlaid it with pure gold;
make it rich, glorious, and magnificent, and may denote the glory of the heavenly state, ( Revelation 21:21 ) ; and so Florus ^F26, the Roman historian, calls it the golden heaven, as it were, into which Pompey went, and saw the great secret of the Jewish nation, the ark:

and [so] covered the altar [which was of] cedar;
the altar of incense, which is here mentioned, because it was near the most holy place, ( 1 Kings 6:22 ) ; this altar by Moses was made of shittim wood, but Solomon's was of cedar it seems; unless, as the words will bear to be rendered, "he covered the altar with cedar" ^F1; though made of shittim wood, it had a covering of cedar over it; or if of stone, such a covering was on it, that it might better receive the gold which was afterwards put upon it.

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 De Gest. Roman. l. 3. c. 5.
F1 (zra Puy) "operuit cedro", Montanus.

1 Kings 6:20 In-Context

18 And all the house within was clothed with cedar, and had his smoothnesses, and his joinings made subtly, and gravings appearing above; all things were clothed with boards of cedar, and utterly a stone might not appear in the wall. (And all the House within was covered with cedar, and had carvings of knops, or of gourds, and open flowers; everything was covered with cedar boards, and no stone appeared, or was visible, utterly anywhere on the wall.)

19 And Solomon made God's answering place in the midst of the house, in the inner part, that he should set there the ark of (the) bond of peace of the Lord (where he would put the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord).

20 And God's answering place had twenty cubits of length, and twenty cubits of breadth, and twenty cubits of height (And the Inner Temple was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in height); and he covered (it), and clothed it with purest gold; but also he clothed the altar with cedar.

21 Also he covered with purest gold the house before God's answering place, or the oracle, and he fastened the plates with golden nails. (And he covered the inside of the Temple all around the Inner Temple, or the oracle, with the purest gold; and he fastened plates to the walls with gold nails.)

22 Nothing was in the temple that was not covered with gold; but also he covered with gold all the altar of God's answering place. (There was nothing in the Temple that was not covered with gold; and he also covered all of the altar for the Inner Temple with gold.)