And there were windows in three rows,.... Both in the second and third stories, east, north, and south, there being none in the west, where the porch stood: and light was against light in three ranks; or the windows, through which light was let, answered to each other.
And all the doors and posts were square with the windows,.... The doors into the several stories and apartments, and the posts and lintel of them, and the windows over them, were all square: and light was against light in three ranks; they answered one another as before.
And he made a porch of pillars,.... At the west end of the house: and the length thereof was fifty cubits; answerable to the breadth of the house: and the breadth thereof thirty cubits: which, added to the length of the house, made it one hundred and thirty: and the porch was before them; the four rows of cedar pillars of the house, 1 Kings 7:2...
Then he made a porch for the throne,.... The ivory throne on which he sat to hear and try causes, 1 Kings 10:18, where he might judge, even the porch of judgment: which had its name from thence; this was either in his house in the forest of Lebanon, or in his palace at Jerusalem; the former seems best: and it was covered with cedar from one side...
And his house where he dwelt,.... Which was properly his dwellingplace, that part of the house where he usually resided: [had] another court within the porch, which [was] of the like work; a court between that and the porch, called the inner court, 2 Kings 20:4. Solomon made also a house for Pharaoh's daughter, whom he had taken to wife; see 1...
All these were of costly stones,.... Marble, porphyry, c. according to the measure of hewed stones, sawed with saws, within and without they were all hewed, and squared, and polished, and so they appeared both on the inside of the building, and without: even from the foundation unto the coping; from the bottom to the top: and so on the outside...
And the foundation was of costly stones, even great stones,.... Of a great price, and very large: stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits some of one measure, and some of another; not so many cubits square, but of solid measure; they were so many in length.
And above were costly stones,.... Above the foundation, from thence to the top of the buildings; the whole walls were made of such right up to the ceiling: after the measure of hewed stones; which, according to the Rabbins, as Kimchi says, were five hands breadth: and cedars; beams of cedars over them, or these, both the foundation and the walls,...
And the great court round about,.... Which surrounded Solomon's house: [was] with three rows of hewed stones, and a row of cedar beams; these rows were one upon another, and were a wall to the court, which were either topped with a row of cedar wood, or that was a lining to the stones for the inner court of the house of the Lord; or rather as, or...
And King Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. Not the king of Tyre, but an artificer in it, after described, whom Solomon had heard and upon his request Huram sent him to him, 2 Chronicles 2:13 his name is called Hyperon by Clemens of Alexandria (l). (l) Stromat. l. 1. p. 332.
He was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali,.... In 2 Chronicles 2:14, his mother is said to be of the daughters of Dan, as she might be, and yet her son of the tribe of Naphtali; for either she was of the city of Dan, which is placed in the tribe of Naphtali (m), or her mother was of the tribe of Dan; and therefore she is said to be of the...
For he cast two pillars of brass, eighteen cubits high apiece,.... In 2 Chronicles 3:15 they are said to be thirty five cubits high, which must be understood of the length or height of them both; and whereas that would allow but seventeen cubits and a half to a pillar, either the round number of eighteen is used, or half a cubit in each may be...
And he made two chapiters of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars,.... These were large ovals in the form of a crown, as the word signifies; or like two crowns joined together, as Ben Gersom; or bowls, as they are called, 1 Kings 7:41, the height of the one chapiter was five cubits, and the height of the other chapiter was five...
And nets of checker work, and wreaths of chain work, for the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars,.... These were the ornaments of the chapiters; the former being like thick branches of trees, with their boughs and leaves curiously wrought, as the word signifies, and the latter like fringes, such as the Jews wore at the skirt of their...
And he made the pillars,.... Or adorned them in this manner: and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters that were upon the top, with pomegranates; that is, there were two rows of figures like pomegranates upon the net or branch work that covered the chapiters that were on the top of the pillars; and Kimchi owns, that...
And the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars were of lily work in the porch,.... Or such as was in the porch of the temple; the work was like that wrought in the form of the flower of lilies open: four cubits; of the five cubits of which the chapiters consisted, four of them were of lily work, the two rows of pomegranates taking up the...
And the chapiters upon the two pillars had pomegranates also above, over against the belly which was by the network,.... The supplement is needless, according to Dr. Lightfoot; the sense being only, that the chapiters were above the lily work, which wrought out as far as the belly of the chapiters, or the middle cubit of them, which the...
And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple,.... Not at the door or entrance into the temple, as Jarchi, but at the entrance into the porch: and he set up the right pillar; or the pillar on the right hand as you went in, which was on the north, the front being east: and called the name thereof Jachin; which signifies "he will establish",...
And upon the top of the pillars was lily work,.... Which seems to be repeated from 1 Kings 7:19 and confirms that: and so was the work of the pillars finished; in the manner described.
And he made a molten sea,.... A large vessel made of molten brass, which, because of the great quantity of water it held, is called a sea; as it was usual with the Jews to call a large collection of waters a sea, as the sea of Tiberius and Galilee. This was made by the man of Tyre, as the pillars, by the order of Solomon, and answered to the...