1 Kings 6

Solomon Builds the Temple

1 In the four hundred and eightieth^[a] year after the Israelites came out 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 temple of the LORD.

2 The temple that King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty wide and thirty high.^[b]

3 The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple extended the width of the temple, that is twenty cubits,^[c] and projected ten cubits^[d] from the front of the temple.

4 He made narrow windows high up in the temple walls.

5 Against the walls of the main hall and inner sanctuary he built a structure around the building, in which there were side rooms.

6 The lowest floor was five cubits^[e] wide, the middle floor six cubits^[f] and the third floor seven.^[g] He made offset ledges around the outside of the temple so that nothing would be inserted into the temple walls.

7 In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.

8 The entrance to the lowest^[h] floor was on the south side of the temple; a stairway led up to the middle level and from there to the third.

9 So he built the temple and completed it, roofing it with beams and cedar planks.

10 And he built the side rooms all along the temple. The height of each was five cubits, and they were attached to the temple by beams of cedar.

11 The word of the LORD came to Solomon:

12 “As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, observe my laws and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father.

13 And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel.”

14 So Solomon built the temple and completed it.

15 He lined its interior walls with cedar boards, paneling them from the floor of the temple to the ceiling, and covered the floor of the temple with planks of juniper.

16 He partitioned off twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling to form within the temple an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.

17 The main hall in front of this room was forty cubits^[i] long.

18 The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; no stone was to be seen.

19 He prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the ark of the covenant of the LORD there.

20 The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty wide and twenty high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold, and he also overlaid the altar of cedar.

21 Solomon covered the inside of the temple with pure gold, and he extended gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, which was overlaid with gold.

22 So he overlaid the whole interior with gold. He also overlaid with gold the altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary.

23 For the inner sanctuary he made a pair of cherubim out of olive wood, each ten cubits high.

24 One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long, and the other wing five cubits—ten cubits from wing tip to wing tip.

25 The second cherub also measured ten cubits, for the two cherubim were identical in size and shape.

26 The height of each cherub was ten cubits.

27 He placed the cherubim inside the innermost room of the temple, with their wings spread out. The wing of one cherub touched one wall, while the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched each other in the middle of the room.

28 He overlaid the cherubim with gold.

29 On the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer rooms, he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers.

30 He also covered the floors of both the inner and outer rooms of the temple with gold.

31 For the entrance to the inner sanctuary he made doors out of olive wood that were one fifth of the width of the sanctuary.

32 And on the two olive-wood doors he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid the cherubim and palm trees with hammered gold.

33 In the same way, for the entrance to the main hall he made doorframes out of olive wood that were one fourth of the width of the hall.

34 He also made two doors out of juniper wood, each having two leaves that turned in sockets.

35 He carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers on them and overlaid them with gold hammered evenly over the carvings.

36 And he built the inner courtyard of three courses of dressed stone and one course of trimmed cedar beams.

37 The foundation of the temple of the LORD was laid in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv.

38 In the eleventh year in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was finished in all its details according to its specifications. He had spent seven years building it.

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1 Kings 6 Commentary

Chapter 6

The building of Solomon's temple. (1-10) Promise given concerning the temple. (11-14) Particulars respecting the temple. (15-38)

Verses 1-10 The temple is called the house of the Lord, because it was directed and modelled by him, and was to be employed in his service. This gave it the beauty of holiness, that it was the house of the Lord, which was far beyond all other beauties. It was to be the temple of the God of peace, therefore no iron tool must be heard; quietness and silence suit and help religious exercises. God's work should be done with much care and little noise. Clamour and violence often hinder, but never further the work of God. Thus the kingdom of God in the heart of man grows up in silence, ( Mark 5:27 ) .

Verses 11-14 None employ themselves for God, without having his eye upon them. But God plainly let Solomon know that all the charge for building this temple, would neither excuse from obedience to the law of God, nor shelter from his judgments, in case of disobedience.

Verses 15-38 See what was typified by this temple. 1. Christ is the true Temple. In him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead; in him meet all God's spiritual Israel; through him we have access with confidence to God. 2. Every believer is a living temple, in ( 1 Corinthians. 3:16 ) built upon Christ as its Foundation, and will be perfect in due time. 3. The gospel church is the mystical temple. It grows to a holy temple in the Lord, enriched and beautified with the gifts and graces of the Spirit. This temple is built firm, upon a Rock. 4. Heaven is the everlasting temple. There the church will be fixed. All that shall be stones in that building, must, in the present state of preparation, be fitted and made ready for it. Let sinners come to Jesus as the living Foundation, that they may be built on him, a part of this spiritual house, consecrated in body and soul to the glory of God.

Taken from Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise)

Cross References 32

1. Ezra 3:8
2. Ezra 5:11; Acts 7:47
3. Exodus 26:1; Ezekiel 41:1
4. Ezekiel 40:49
5. Ezekiel 40:16; Ezekiel 41:16
6. ver 16,19-21; Jeremiah 35:2; Ezekiel 41:5-6
7. S Exodus 20:25
8. S Deuteronomy 27:5
9. ver 14,38; Song of Songs 1:17
10. 1 Kings 12:22; 1 Kings 13:20; 1 Kings 16:1,7; 1 Kings 17:2; 1 Kings 21:17; Jeremiah 40:1
11. 1 Kings 11:10
12. 2 Samuel 7:12-16; 1 Kings 2:4; 1 Kings 9:5
13. Exodus 25:8; S Leviticus 26:11; S Deuteronomy 31:6; John 14:18; Hebrews 13:5
14. Acts 7:47
15. ver 9,38; 1 Chronicles 28:20; 2 Chronicles 5:1
16. 1 Kings 7:7
17. Ezekiel 41:15-16
18. S Exodus 26:33; Leviticus 16:2; 1 Kings 8:6
19. ver 29; 1 Kings 7:24; Psalms 74:6; Ezekiel 41:18
20. 1 Kings 8:6
21. S Exodus 25:10; S 1 Samuel 3:3
22. Ezekiel 41:3-4
23. S Exodus 30:1
24. S Exodus 37:1-9
25. S Genesis 3:24; S Exodus 25:18; Exodus 25:20; Exodus 37:9; 1 Kings 8:7; 2 Chronicles 5:8
26. S ver 18
27. ver 32,35; Ezekiel 41:18,25
28. Ezekiel 41:23
29. 2 Chronicles 4:9
30. 1 Kings 7:12; Ezra 6:4
31. 1 Chronicles 28:19
32. Exodus 25:9; Hebrews 8:5

Footnotes 9

[a]. Hebrew; Septuagint "four hundred and fortieth"
[b]. That is, about 90 feet long, 30 feet wide and 45 feet high or about 27 meters long, 9 meters wide and 14 meters high
[c]. That is, about 30 feet or about 9 meters; also in verses 16 and 20
[d]. That is, about 15 feet or about 4.5 meters; also in verses 23-26
[e]. That is, about 7 1/2 feet or about 2.3 meters; also in verses 10 and 24
[f]. That is, about 9 feet or about 2.7 meters
[g]. That is, about 11 feet or about 3.2 meters
[h]. Septuagint; Hebrew "middle"
[i]. That is, about 60 feet or about 18 meters

Chapter Summary

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, 1Ki 6:1; gives the dimensions of it and the porch before it, 1Ki 6:2,3; observes the windows in it and chambers about it, 1Ki 6:4-10; and while it was building, Solomon had a word from the Lord relative to it, 1Ki 6:11-14; and then the account goes on concerning the walls of the house, and the flooring of it, 1Ki 6:15-18; and the oracle in it, and the cherubim in that, 1Ki 6:19-30; and the doors into it, and the carved work of them, 1Ki 6:31-36; and the chapter is concluded with observing the time when it was begun and finished 1Ki 6:37,38.