1 Kings 6:2. The house which king Solomon built for the Lord, the length thereof was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits.
The idea of the temple did not originate with Solomon, but with David, who was not permitted to carry out his intention because he had been a man of war (1 Chron. 28:2-3). God gave him a plan for the temple, as he had previously given Moses the plan for the tabernacle. This plan David communicated to Solomon, directing him to erect the building (1 Chron. 28:11-19).
It was built on Mount Moriah, on the site of the altar which David erected on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite (2 Sam. 24:21-25; 2 Chron. 3:1). It stood on the boundary line of Judah and Benjamin. According to Jewish authorities, the greater space of the courts was in Judah, but the temple and altar were in Benjamin. The hill being uneven, the top was leveled, and walls were built on the sloping sides up to a level with the summit, the intervening space being filled partly with vaults and partly with earth.
The temple had the same general arrangements as the tabernacle, being designed for the same purpose; the difference between the two structures being mainly such as would be suggested by the fact that the tabernacle was merely temporary and movable, while the temple was permanent and fixed. The dimensions of the temple were double those of the tabernacle. Like that, it faced the east, having the Most Holy Place in the west.
Its length (including the porch) was seventy cubits. Of this length the porch had ten cubits, the Holy Place forty, and the Most Holy Place twenty (I Kings 6:3,17,20). The width of the building on the ground was twenty cubits, but to this there was added to the house proper a width of five cubits, for three stories of chambers which were built adjoining all the walls of the temple, excepting the porch. At the height of every five cubits the temple wall receded a cubit until half the height was reached; thus making each story of chambers a cubit wider than the one below it (1 Kings 6:5-6,10). The chambers on the west side must also have added five cubits to the length. The height of the building varied in different parts. The chambers were fifteen cubits high, the Most Holy Place twenty, the Holy Place thirty, and the porch one hundred and twenty (1 Kings 6:3,20; 2 Chron. 3:4). It is thought by some critics that this last measurement is an error in the copying of some ancient manuscript. Eighty has been suggested by some as the correct reading, and twenty by others.
In the porch were the two celebrated pillars called Jachin and Boaz. These were made of brass and highly ornamented (1 Kings 7:15-22). It is not definitely stated that they were placed in the porch as a support to that part of the building, but this would seem to be probable, though it is denied by some. Crossing the porch, which was ten cubits by twenty, we find folding doors of fir or cypress, having posts of olive wood. These doors were ornamented with carved cherubim, palm trees, and flowers, all of which were covered with gold (1 Kings 6:33-35). Within the doors was the Holy Place, forty cubits long, twenty wide, and thirty high. There were windows in this, probably of lattice work (1 Kings 6:4). These windows must have been in the upper part of the room, since the three stories of the chambers reached on the outside half way up the height. The stone walls were completely covered on the inside with wainscoting of cedar. The floor was made of cedar covered with cypress, which in turn was covered with gold (1 Kings 6:15,30). The ceiling was cypress overlaid with gold (2 Chron. 3:5). The sides were elegantly carved with cherubim, palms, and flowers, covered over with gold (1 Kings 6:18; 2 Chron. 3:7).
In the Holy Place there were ten golden candlesticks, five on each side, and ten tables of show-bread, arranged in a similar way (2 Chron. 4:7-8). It is supposed by some that only one candlestick and one table were in use at a time. See 2 Chronicles 13:11; 29:18; where the words are in the singular number. There were snuffers, tongs, basins, and all other necessary articles, also of gold (1 Kings 7:50). The altar of incense, which was in this part of the temple, was made of cedar and covered with gold. 1 Kings 6:20.
Between the Sanctuary, or Holy Place and the Oracle, or Most Holy Place, there was a partition, in which were double doors made of olive-wood carved and overlaid with gold (1 Kings 6:31-32). There was also a rich veil of embroidery at this doorway (2 Chron. 3:14). The Oracle, like the Most Holy Place of the tabernacle, was a perfect cube. It was twenty cubits in length, breadth, and height (1 Kings 6:20). Floor, sides, and ceiling were of wood, with carved cherubim, palm-trees, and flowers, all overlaid with gold (1 Kings 6:29-30). There were no windows here; Jehovah dwells in “thick darkness” (1 Kings 8:12). Two gigantic cherubim, made of olive-wood and covered with gold, were in the Oracle. They were ten cubits high, and their outstretched wings, touching each other at the tips, reached entirely across the width of the room (1 Kings 6:23-28). They were in a standing position, and had their faces turned toward the veil (2 Chron. 3:10-13). The ark of the covenant, which had been in the tabernacle, was put into the Oracle under the wings of the cherubim after the temple was finished (1 Kings 8:6). No doubt the original cherubim and the mercy-seat accompanied it, though this is nowhere expressly stated. It may be inferred, however, from the fact that after the temple was built Jehovah is represented, as in the days of the tabernacle, “dwelling between the cherubim.” Compare 1 Samuel 4:4; 2 Samuel 6:2; Psalm 80:1; 99:1 with 2 Kings 19:15; Isaiah 37:16.
No definite account is given of the court or courts surrounding the temple. In 1 Kings 6:36 the “inner court” is spoken of. This was doubtless the space immediately around the sacred edifice. Its dimensions are not given, nor is it certain what is meant by the text just referred to: “He built the inner court with three rows of hewed stone, and a row of cedar beams.” Some commentators suppose this to mean that the inner court was surrounded by a wall consisting of three courses of stone capped with cedar beams. Others suppose that the inner court was a raised platform elevated to the height of three courses of stone with a coping of cedar, and they refer to Jeremiah 36:10, where this is called “the higher court.”
This court, which was also called the “Court of the priests” (2 Chron. 4:9) contained the brazen altar of burnt offering, which was much larger than the one in the court of the tabernacle, being twenty cubits in length and in breadth, and ten in height. There was also here a circular “molten sea,” ten cubits in diameter and five in height. It stood on twelve brazen oxen, three facing each point of the compass. On each side of the altar there were five brazen lavers (2 Chron. 4:1-6).
Around this court was another and a larger one, called the “Great Court” in 2 Chronicles 4:9; the “Outer Court” in Ezekiel 46:21; and the “Court of the Lord’s House” in Jeremiah 19:14; 26:2. This was the Court of the People and was surrounded by strong walls in which were gates of brass (2 Chron. 4:9).
The foregoing description of Solomon’s temple coincides in the main with the accounts usually given by commentators. It is proper, however, to notice the ingenious theory advanced by the T. O. Paine, in his Solomon’s Temple, already referred to in the note on Exodus 40:2 (#141). Mr. Paine has evidently studied the subject with much care, and has given the results of his investigations in an interesting monograph. He assumes that the description given by Ezekiel in chapter 40 following chapters is not the description of an ideal temple, but of Solomon’s temple as it actually appeared before its destruction; and that it is designed to be a complement to the account given in the books of Kings and Chronicles, the one narrative detailing points omitted by the other. He asserts that the building, contrary to the usual opinion, was wider at the top than at the bottom, and refers to Ezekiel 41:7 for proof, that the “chambers” mentioned as running around the building were galleries, and that these were supported by columns, the galleries increasing in distance from the temple-wall as they rose. He contends that “all pictures of the temple which represent it as widest on the ground and narrower upward are bottom upward” (Solomon’s Temple, p. 2). (See the engravings on the opposite page.)