40 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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, 1 Kings 6:1; gives the dimensions of it and the porch before it, 1 Kings 6:2; observes the windows in it and chambers about it, 1 Kings 6:4; and while it was building, Solomon...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt,.... The Tyrian writers (k) make it five hundred sixty years from hence; but this no doubt is tightest, which Junius reckons thus; forty years Israel were in the wilderness, seventeen under Joshua, two hundred ninety nine...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Great and long preparation had been making for the building of the temple, and here, at length, comes an account of the building of it; a noble piece of work it was, one of the wonders of the world, and taking in its spiritual significancy, one of the glories of the church. Here is, I. The time when it was built (ver. 1), and how long it was in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the house which King Solomon built for the Lord,.... For his worship, honour, and glory: the length thereof [was] threescore cubits; sixty cubits from east to west, including the holy place and the most holy place; the holy place was forty cubits, and the most holy place twenty; the same measure, as to length, Eupolemus, an Heathen writer (n),...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And for the house he made windows of narrow lights. Or "open, shut" (o), which could be both, having shutters to them, to open or shut at pleasure; windows which they could open, and look through at them, or shut when they pleased; the Targum is, "open within, and shut without;'' or, as others understand it, they were wide within, and narrow...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And against the wall of the house he built chambers round about,.... Or near it, as Jarchi interprets it, for the beams of them were not fastened in in it, 1 Kings 6:6; or rather "upon" it (p); and when they are said to be round about the house, it must be understood of the two sides, north and south, and of the west end only, for at the east end,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the nethermost chamber [was] five cubits broad,.... The nethermost row of them, which were upon the first floor: and the middle [was] six cubits broad, and the third [was] seven cubits broad; so that the middlemost was a cubit larger than the lowest, and the highest a cubit larger than that: the reason of which was, for without [in the wall]...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the house, when it was in building,.... And all the while it was building: was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither; being hewn or squared by the builders and stonesquarers of Solomon and Hiram, 1 Kings 5:18; wherefore the builders had nothing more to do than to lay them in their proper places in the building; it was built...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The door of the middle chamber [was] in the right side of the house,.... The south side of it: and they went up with winding stairs into the middle [chamber]; which were outside the chambers, and which winded about for the sake of taking up less room, and which led up to the door of the middle chamber, on the south of which they went into it;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
So he built the house, and finished it,.... The body of it, the walls of the holy and most holy place, with the chambers on the sides of them, and the porch at the end that led into them: and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar; with hollow boards, as the Targum, which formed an arch ceiling to it, and made it look very grand and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And [then] he built chambers against all the house five cubits high,.... Which some understand of the same chambers in 1 Kings 6:5; here made mention of again for the sake of giving the height of them, not before given; but they were built against, or upon the wall of the house, these against, or rather upon the whole house itself; and are the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the word of the Lord came to Solomon,.... The word of prophecy, as the Targum, foretelling what would be the case of this building, according to the obedience or disobedience of him and the people of Israel; which was brought to him either by an impulse of the Spirit of God upon him; or by the hand of a prophet, as Kimchi thinks; and some of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
[Concerning] this house which thou art in building,.... Or with respect to that, these things are to be said as from the Lord: if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; even all the laws of God, moral, ceremonial, and judicial; and this respects not only Solomon personally, but his...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And I will dwell among the children of Israel,.... In this house now building, and which was in the middle of the land, and where he would meet with them, and accept their sacrifices, not only of slain beasts, but of prayer and praise: and will not forsake my people Israel; and leave them to the mercy of their enemies, and to be carried captive by...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
So Solomon built the house, and finished it. He went on with it until he had completed it, animated and encouraged by the promise of the divine Presence in it, provided a proper regard was had to the will and ways of God. Abarbinel thinks the above message was sent him in the midst of his work, to strengthen and caution him from a dependence on...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar,.... For as yet he had only built the stone walls of it without, but now he wainscotted it with cedar boards: and not only them, but both the floor of the house, and the walls of the ceiling; or from "the floor of the house unto the walls of the ceiling"; that is, from the floor,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he built twenty cubits on the sides of the house,.... At the end or extremity of it, as the Targum; that is, he built the most holy place, which was twenty two cubits long, at the end of the holy place, which he wainscotted as the other: both the floor and the walls with boards of cedar; or from the floor, including that, to the walls on each...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the house, that [is], the temple before it,.... The holy place, which was before the of holies: was forty cubits [long]; and which, with the most holy place, being twenty cubits, as in the preceding verse, made the length of the whole house sixty cubits, as in 1 Kings 6:2.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the cedar of the house within,.... With which the inside of the place was lined: [was] carved with knops; of an oval form; so the Targum says, they had the appearance of eggs; and Ben Gersom likewise, that they were in the form of eggs: and open flowers; not in the figure of buds, but flowers blown, and open, as lilies and others; so the...