1 Kings 6:8-23

8 The entrance for the lowest^[a] story was on the south side of the house, and one went up by stairs to the middle story, and from the middle story to the third.

9 ¹So he built the house and finished it, and he made the ceiling of the house of beams and planks of cedar.

10 He built the structure against the whole house, five cubits high, and it was joined to the house with timbers of cedar.

11 Now the word of the LORD came to Solomon,

12 "Concerning this house that you are building, ²if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, ³which I spoke to David your father.

13 And ⁴I will dwell among the children of Israel ⁵and will not forsake my people Israel."

14 ⁶So Solomon built the house and finished it.

15 He lined the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar. From the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood, ⁷and he covered the floor of the house with boards of cypress.

16 ⁸He built twenty cubits of the rear of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the walls, and he built this within as an inner sanctuary, as ⁹the Most Holy Place.

17 The house, that is, the nave in front of the inner sanctuary, was forty cubits long.

18 The cedar within the house was carved in the form of ¹⁰gourds and open flowers. All was cedar; no stone was seen.

19 The inner sanctuary he prepared in the innermost part of the house, to set there the ark of the covenant of the LORD.

20 The inner sanctuary^[b] was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high, and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid^[c] an altar of cedar.

21 And Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold, and he drew chains of gold across, in front of the inner sanctuary, and overlaid it with gold.

22 And he overlaid the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. ¹¹Also the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold.

23 ¹²In the inner sanctuary ¹³he made two cherubim of olivewood, each ten cubits high.

1 Kings 6:8-23 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Cross References

• 1. ver. 14, 38
• 2. 1 Kings 9:4; [1 Kings 2:4]
• 3. 2 Samuel 7:13; 1 Chronicles 22:10
• 4. Exodus 25:8
• 5. Deuteronomy 31:6, 8; Joshua 1:5
• 6. ver. 9, 38
• 7. [1 Kings 7:7]
• 8. 2 Chronicles 3:8
• 9. 1 Kings 7:50; 1 Kings 8:6; Exodus 26:33, 34; 2 Chronicles 3:8; Ezekiel 45:3; Hebrews 9:3
• 10. 1 Kings 7:24
• 11. Ex. 30:1, 3, 6
• 12. For ver. 23-27, see 2 Chronicles 3:10-12
• 13. Exodus 37:7-9

Footnotes

• [a]. Septuagint, Targum; Hebrew middle
• [b]. Vulgate; Hebrew and before the inner sanctuary
• [c]. Septuagint made