Solomon was building his own house thirteen years. 1 Kings 7:1-12 Building God's house and one's own J. Parker, D. D. A very curious thing this, that whilst Solomon was building the temple of God he was also building his own house. It does not follow that when a man is building his own house he is also building the temple of God; but it inevitably follows that when a man is deeply engaged in promoting the interests of the Divine sanctuary, he is most truly laying the foundations of his own house, and completing the things which most nearly concern himself. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." No man loses anything by taking part in the building of the temple of God. He comes away from that sacred erection with new ideas concerning what may be made of the materials he is using in the construction of his own dwelling-place. The Spirit of God acts in a mysterious manner along all this line of human conduct. The eyes are enlightened in prayer: commercial sagacity is sharpened in the very process of studying the oracles of God: the spirit of honourable adventure is stirred and perfected by the highest speculations in things Divine, when those speculations are balanced by beneficence of thought and action in relation to the affairs of men. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) The satisfaction of completing a work Mr. Charles had a strong and ardent desire to procure a correct and indefective edition of the Bible for his Welsh countrymen; therefore his toil and labour were very great, though without any remuneration from man. While engaged in this work, he acknowledged that he had a strong wish to live until it was completed; "and then," said he, "I shall willingly lay down my head and die." He lived to see it completed; and he expressed himself very thankful to the Lord for having graciously spared him to witness the work finished; and the last words ever written by him, as it is supposed, were these, with reference to this work — "It is now finished." And he made a porch of pillars. 1 Kings 7:6 The porch Since this porch was the common place of reception for all worshippers, and the place also where they laid the beggars, it looks as if it were to be a type of the church's bosom for charity. Here the proselytes were entertained, here the beggars were relieved, and received alms. These gates were seldom shut; and the houses of Christian compassion should be always open. This therefore beautified this gate, as charity beautifies any of the churches. Largeness of heart, and tender compassion at the church door, is excellent; it is the bond of perfectness ( 1 Corinthians 12:31 ; 1 Corinthians 13:1-4 ; John 5:5, 7 ; Colossians 3:14 ). ( John Bunyan. . ) The pillars of the house of Lebanon (vers. 6-22): — These pillars were sweet-scented pillars, for they were made of cedar; but what cared the enemy for that, they were offensive to him, for that they were placed for a fortification against him. Nor is it any allurement to Satan to favour the mighty ones in the church in the wilderness for the fragrant smell of their sweet graces; nay, both he and his angels are the more beset to oppose them because they are so sweet scented. The cedars, therefore, got nothing because they were cedars at the hands of the barbarous Gentiles — for they would burn the cedars — as the angels or pillars get nothing of favour at the hands of Antichrist, because they are pillars and angels for the truth, yea, they so much the more by her are abhorred. Well, but they are pillars for all that, yea, pillars to the church in the wilderness, as the others were in the house of the forest of Lebanon. The glory of the temple lay in one thing, and the glory of this house lay in another; the glory of the temple lay in that she contained the true form and modes of worship, and the glory of the house of Lebanon lay in her many pillars and thick beams, by which she was made capable, through good management, to give check to those of Damascus when they should attempt to throw down her worship. ( John Bunyan. . ) King Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. 1 Kings 7:13, 14 Hiram, the master builder J. R. Jackson. I. HIRAM WAS A BORN MASTER BUILDER. The influence of heredity needs no more signal illustration. He combines his mother's heart and his father's mind. Strange, that in a correspondence between Eastern kings of antiquity, with whom woman's fame was of less than cypher value, Hiram's mother should be mentioned at all; stranger still, that the premier place is given to her, implying that, while both parents were eminent, the mother was pre-eminent. Who was she? "A woman of the daughters of Dan" ( 2 Chronicles 2:13, 14 ). The Danites bore the brunt of all the Sidonian incursions, until, driven from hearth and home for refuge to the hills, privation and isolation but varied the form of the disasters that dogged them. Finally, submitting to capture or surrender, they were taken across the border into Tyre to suffer further ignominy amid alien surroundings. But never did the sons and daughters of Dan forget their tribal ancestry or affinities. Their traditions and Pride became a splendid inheritance, and their faith sustained them under the sharpest persecution. Even their oppressors grew to respect them, and permitted them to thrive in their midst. Hiram's mother had the tribal grit, the unswerving courage of her people, so that when named at the Tyrian Court, it is as "a woman of the daughters of Dan." And, in his letter to Solomon, Hiram the King lets drop this bit of feminine biography that is a tribute to her fine fidelity to conscience. Do not think that this passes in the record as of no account. You can prophesy with tolerable certainty as to Hiram's future when you read his mother's story, and you can as surely anticipate as much for every child of promise whose mother is true to the form of faith that holds her to the people of God — call it what you will, whether Danism or Methodism. Keep your eyes open for these embryo workers, who are, like poets, born, not made. It is the self-constituted man we want. It is character, and not birth, that mainly tells. The river has its source in the mountain torrent, but the true test of its strength is in the assimilative power with which, while preserving its identity, it absorbs its tributaries. Therefore we judge Hiram as we would judge ourselves, at the bar of self-examination — and he emerges from the ordeal admirable. II. HIRAM THE MASTER BUILDER HAD A MASTERMIND. 1. He was a cunning man. When the Saxons said a man was "cunnen" they meant that he was knowing — that he had his wits about him. And they implied more. The root of the word obtained amongst the Latins also. It means a wedge, and we get its signification in the word cuneated, which precisely hits off the disposition of the man Hiram. He was a wedge-shaped man. Let opportunity give him but the smallest conceivable opening, and in he went, especially if the hammer of necessity but tapped home the wedge. Every Christian worker should be of wedge-shaped character. 2. Hiram, the cunning man, was endued with understanding. To have an understanding is to be able to get to the bottom of things; and to Re endued with understanding, as Hiram was, is to exercise this faculty from circumference to centre. It means that he had not only a mental bias, but also a mental equipment, thoroughly comprehensive. III. HIRAM OF THE MASTER MIND WAS ALSO A MASTER CRAFTSMAN. 1. Hiram wrought in gold, to him the most precious of metals; of supreme quality, of standard value, capable of sovereign impress, non-rusting, non-corroding. Gold is the one mineral that does not depreciate; it is immutable amid all change of time and circumstance; it is gold — always gold. This he used for overlay work, for the decoration of the holy place, and for the consecrated vessels. We, too, work in gold when we work in Divine truth. We cannot alter the material, but do we make its presentation attractive or repellant? Is the image and superscription of the King upon it? When we use it in the holy place, does it shine as the wings of a seraph or an overlaid panel would when Hiram wrought? Are the "vessels unto honour sanctified, and meet for the Master's use"? 2. Hiram wrought also in silver — fair and chaste. Silver is subject to market fluctuation, but it is increased manifold in value when it receives a sovereign impression. It is the rich man's plenty, and the poor man's wealth. We, too, work in silver, when we serve in human sympathy, that is brightened by use, and that, when beautified with the Divine likeness, as "the liquid drops of tears that you have shed," "brings ten times double gain of happiness." And, when you work your silver into the Gospel trumpet, the world will hear sounds that for thrill and cadence will rival the music of a thousand harps. 3. Hiram wrought in brass. The word is used technically for a compound of metals, that should be rendered bronze. It is a fusion of copper — the only alloy with gold — and tin. And our thoughts, like the sea, must be wide and deep, generous and cleansing. Join prayer and thought, and you will get a spiritual amalgam of the utmost use in temple service. 4. Hiram wrought in iron, that is rough, resistant, obdurate; but in his hands it became ductile, and exceeding serviceable. When we forge these our wills, we, too, toil in iron. Proud, repellant, unlovely they are; yet, when, by the grace of God, they become wrought-work, they are marvels of resource, strength, control, support. 5. He worked upon stone, rugged and hard; but, by patient continuance in well-doing, he formed the useful block that helped to make the temple, and brought out upon it the artistic form and beauty of the sculptured decoration. This is just what we do. 6. Hiram wrought upon timber, that supported the roof, that panelled the holy place, that formed the tables for the shewbread, which was the symbol for the bread of life. 7. Hiram wrought upon textiles, and in their subdued colours he could see mysteries. Perhaps only mysteries; whereas, to you and me, the mysteries seem revealed. But, small blame to the worker Hiram. It was the purpose of his dispensation to make the marvel, and sustain it. IV. HIRAM HAD THE MASTER SPIRIT. He came to Solomon a man skilful "to grave every manner of graving, and to find out every manner of device." Nothing issues from his master mind that is not a sublimely pure conception; the Divine touch glorifies everything he fashions. That is true sacrifice; it is the master art, and you know it to be true, for it is your Master's art. V. FOR SUCH SERVICE AS HIRAM'S, WHAT WAS THE REWARD? No man labours as he did without recognition, for no man serves God for naught. The upraised temple; its outer ornamentation; its inner splendour; its acknowledgment of the people; the accepted sacrifice, and the consummate approval of the Divine presence — surely these tokens were enough? Shall we each be a master builder? Then let us remember that he who would seek to fulfil this high calling must have a master mind; that he who would have the master mind must have the Master's spirit; that he who would have the Master's spirit must be much in the presence of the Master. There, amid the silences, he will hear the Master's voice: there are the hidden victories that overcome the world. ( J. R. Jackson. ) Upon the top the pillars was lily-work. 1 Kings 7:22 Lily-work E. Mellor, D. D. 1. Strength. These pillars were deemed of such importance as to deserve a name, a name for each. The one was called Jachin, which means "He will establish"; and the other was called Boaz, which means "in strength." The two ideas are near akin, and together express stable strength. Why these names were given we are not told; whether to indicate the magnitude and fixedness of the pillars, or the stability of the religion which was to be represented in that temple, we cannot say. But we read — and probably in allusion to these pillars with their crowns of lily-work — "strength and beauty are in His sanctuary." These pillars are symbolic, or may be considered as symbolic, of truth, not merely in the world of grace, but in the world of nature. The world in which we live may be justly regarded as a temple reared gradually and progressively through long ages under the ever-active hand of the Divine Architect. But look at the order. It did not begin with what we call beauty. No doubt every atom of it was beautiful to Him whose eye seeth all things, but relatively to us the beauty was not at the beginning. The strength and firmness came first. "The world is established that it cannot be moved." "The earth He hath established for ever." Here, indeed, you have the Jachin and Boaz of our text, the two kindred and complementary ideas of "strength" and "stability." You have the firm, deep, compact rock, hidden for the most part beneath your feet, or piled in massive mountains. Then in due time come the living things, which could only live on firm foundations. Let the foundations be destroyed, and all the beauty will perish with them; as when an earthquake swallows in its devouring abyss gardens and orchards which were laden with the richest flowers and the sweetest perfumes. Now man is a temple, as the earth may be viewed as a temple. He is designed to be the temple of the Holy Ghost; and in this temple are meant to be strength and beauty, the pillars of Jachin and Boaz, and on their top "lily-work." And the religion of Christ starts with the conceptions of strength and stability. Its very first notion and foundation-idea is that of "a stone laid in Zion, a sure foundation-stone, a stone elect and precious." It is a rock on which God builds His Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Great pains are taken to set forth this as the first idea, on which all the others depend. The same idea in another form is found in the fact that the Gospel is called a kingdom and therefore a thing of power and strength. The Christian, therefore, is to be, and must be in proportion as he is a Christian, a man in whom strength and stability are to be found in conspicuous force and play. For he is in a world in which he cannot hold his ground without them. It is not an uncommon thing for men of the world to look on the Christian Church as if it were a refuge for the weaklings of the race. What is it that the Christian does which shows his weakness? He confesses his sins; but is that weakness or is it strength when a man is a sinner and brazens it out before the face of Almighty God? He asks for mercy; but is that weakness when to ask for mercy is to acknowledge the righteous claims of God? He seeks for Divine guidance; but is that a weakness in a world like this in which it is so easy to err and lose oneself, and in which "it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps"? And what are these robuster graces, these rocky principles of the Christian life? There must be truth, the lip that will not lie. There must be honour and justice, which will not swerve to the right hand or left from fear or for reward. These things there must be as the primary formation at the basis of a Christian life. The pillar of the Christian character must be upright whatever else it be, and sound in its structure from base to capital and from side to side. Jachin and Boaz were of this character. 2. Beauty. We have looked at the elements of strength, let us now glance at the elements of beauty as set forth in the lily-work which crowned and glorified the heads of the two columns. As we have seen, the world itself has grown up from strength to beauty. Hiram did not invent his decorations. They were furnished to his hand from another and more skilful hand. "Behold the lilies of the field, how they grow," etc. He borrowed his art from nature, that is, from God, from whom, indeed, all the noblest and purest art has ever been borrowed, and must be to the end of time. The Greeks, pagan though they were, seem to have seized this secret with a firm hand, for their name for the world was "Beauty." They saw beauty everywhere, and they saw it because it was there. They saw what God had seen before them, and had put there that it might be seen by them. Oh, what infinite beauty there must be in the Divine nature, seeing that all the beauty of the world comes from it as from a fountain, and still comes from year to year! And just as the world has grown from strength to beauty, and just as the pillars of Jachin and Boaz were not finished till their capitals bloomed, as it were, in "lily-work," so must it be with a true human life and character. This is not completed without its capital, a capital which need not be of lily-work, but must be the reproduction of some Divine flower. It is a still more mournful imperfection and defect when men are dead to the sense of what is beautiful in the moral and religious life. And some are thus dead. They believe, and they do well to believe, in the sterner qualities of that life. They believe in the firm grit of character, granitic compactness and strength. They like the heroic nerve which never shakes, the eye which blenches at no danger, the tongue which can utter boldly unwelcome words to an age which needs them though it hates them, the valiant courage which dares not lie, but dares to die. These are the only forms of character for which they care. They have a touch about them of stern sublimity, like bold headlands that shatter the waves into spray, or mountains that challenge and defy the storms of heaven. Still it must be repeated that Christian character is very incomplete until it rises up to the efflorescence which crowns strength with beauty. It may be thought that the two are incompatible, that you may have your choice between men whose characteristics are those of strength or those of beauty, but you cannot have them both in one. But this is a mistake. We have them both in one, and in perfect union and harmony in Him who is the Son of man, and the type of that perfect humanity which by His redemptive work He came to create. The full, true man was Christ, and to become a perfect man in Christ is to become transformed into His image, and to re-embody in ourselves all the elements of His character. And what were these elements? Were they not strength and beauty? Now, the more tender, gracious, and softer aspects of the Christian life are to find their authority, inspiration, and nourishment in the example and work of our blessed Lord. And if you read the Epistles carefully, you will observe how deeply their writers had drunk into the spirit of their Lord. The strength is there, and also the beauty. We are not to lie, to defraud; we are to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul; we are to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ; we are to put on the whole armour of God, to watch, to stand in the evil day, and having done all to stand, These ideas form the pillar of the Christian life. But the lily-work is also set forth again and again. "Be kind one to another, tender-hearted, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, even as God in Christ hath forgiven you." "Above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves, which is the bond of perfectness." "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." "Be courteous." "Use hospitality one towards another without grudging." It is not enough to speak the truth, we must speak it in love. It is not enough to be just, the justice must be tempered with compassion. ( E. Mellor, D. D. ) Lily-work David Brook, M. A. In the porch of this building were two pillars, strength and "beauty." Even they, besides their immediate purpose, would suggest meanings to the reverent observer. Solomon was not what we should call a utilitarian. The pillars could and Should be made beautiful as well as useful. People might say, "Why this waste?" But he did not think it waste at all, and he was right. God has given to some men special genius for things of beauty, men like Aholiab and Bezaleel and Hiram. And such genius can hardly be better employed than in making God's house beautiful. But the temple was used by prophets and by apostles as a type of the great spiritual church. And do not these pillars, divinely designed, in the material temple, bring home to ministers and all church officers, the pillars of our churches, some qualities which they also should possess? I. ESSENTIAL QUALITIES. 1. Strength. The pillars had to uphold, to give security to the building. They must be strong enough to sustain the weight which is to rest upon them. So pillars of the church should be strong men, with a faith in God which makes them upright, reliable characters. They should be men who do not need propping and persuading, but with an independent and tenacious strength. 2. Soundness. Some hidden flaw in a pillar might one day be the cause of disaster to the whole edifice. The discovery of a serious flaw in the moral character of a leading man in a church has sometimes wrought irremediable mischief. 3. Suitable and staunch material. Any substance will not do for a pillar. Wood will not. It is not stern enough, and it is liable to catch fire. But it would be madness to use unseasoned wood for such a purpose. So all members are not made for pillars. There needs endurance and firmness. A pillar must always be there — should uphold his church in good report and evil report, should be present when. ever possible, night as well as morning, week-night as well as Sunday. This steadiness and fidelity is an invaluable quality in a pillar. Between the pillars Hiram made five mouldings in imitation of pomegranates. There should be a connection of mutual trust and reciprocal courtesies between the officers of a church. Now on the top of the pillars was lily-work. II. NON-ESSENTIAL BUT VERY DESIRABLE QUALITIES. The lily-work did not add to the strength of the pillar. There have been very useful pillars of the church who had little enough lily-work about them. But these men would have been still more useful if their characters had been winsome too. A church is not like a prison. It needs to attract men. For this it should be beautiful as well as strong. ( David Brook, M. A. ) Strength and beauty M. G. Pearse. I. GOD FINDS ROOM FOR STRENGTH AND BEAUTY. Is it not by these that God makes the world what it is to us? The rugged rock affords a home for the soft mosses and the plumes of ferns as if these things paid for board and lodging by their adorning. The trees with roots thrust deep into the earth, with thick black branches, stretching into heaven — how are they decked with the leaves, and how are they now gay with blossoms and now rich with fruit, Strength and beauty. Is it not the very picture and the very perfection of the home? Here comes the man stained and soiled by his day's toil; and here is she who keeps home sweet and clean, and makes his heart bless her as he sets foot within the place. Strength and beauty — yet more complete if possible as the toiling father and the busy mother bend over the little one that looks and laughs its music at them. So God blesses the world with strength and beauty. II. FIRST STRENGTH, THEN BEAUTY. The constant emblem of our religion is the rock. The house built upon the rock, against which the winds blow and rains beat, but the house abides, for that its foundation standeth sure. The Church of God is built upon the rock, the Rock of Ages, that abideth for ever. Religion is not a matter of sentiment, of feeling, of changeful emotion. It is rooted and grounded in the everlasting Word of the living God. What triumphant strength is begotten within the soul when it can cry, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." That first, always and everywhere — strength. Is there any. thing in the world more miserable than religion without any bones, a thing that you can squeeze into any shape you like? — religious sentiment that can talk piously and yet is not exact in its sayings and doings, that can be particular about its creed, and yet slipshod in business? There are some people who affect to despise beauty, and consider it a weakness. "Give me a brass pillar," say they, "solid and substantial. I don't want any nonsensical lily-work about the top of it." Now such people may do much harm in the world — more harm than good. Strength and beauty — how shall we combine the two? In one way, and in one way only. Love is both. He that loveth hath the secret. For is there any strength like love? Is there any endurance like love's? Is there any defiance like the defiance of love? Love is strength and love is beauty. And love is ours as nothing else could make it ours but the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here is love compelling love that sustains our strongest service and our tenderest thought. How graciously are these two combined in that word concerning Jesus Christ: "As many as received Him to them gave He power to become the children of God." Authority and strength to become children, simple, trustful, loving, obedient. Strong that we may be made beautiful. Thus doth our God seek to make us pillars in His temple, strong with His strength, beautiful with the beauty of the Lord our God. ( M. G. Pearse. ) Strength and beauty W. Clarkson. I. THE HANDIWORK OF GOD in the wide field of nature. The rocky steeps of the mountain are belted with pines; the rivers that fertilise the soft nourish the flowers which grow on their banks; "the great wide sea" is often surpassingly lovely on its surface, and there are beautiful-corals in its depths, brilliant shells on Its shores; on the broad, unmeasured plains and moors are the blue-bell and the purple heather. If this earth be a temple in which God manifests His presence, His wisdom, and His power, then are the mighty and massive objects upon it the pillars of that temple, and all exquisite and delicate things are the flowers His hand has fashioned upon them. We have it also in — II. THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. In the Gospel are many mighty and massive truths which may be said to be the very pillars of the sacred edifice: such as the leading truth that "God Is a Spirit," etc.; but in close connection with these great and solid truths is that which is exquisite, delicate, beautiful. Such is the truth that the faintest whisper of prayer that comes from the lips of the little child may enter the ear and touch the hand of God, and bring down His benediction; or that the first sigh of the relenting human spirit is dearer to the Father's heart than the finest anthems of the angels; or that the cherishing of a pure feeling of forgiveness or the doing one act of real peace-making brings us further into the likeness and childhood of God than would the accomplishment of the most brilliant intellectual achievement. III. CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. We have in our churches strong men, helpful, influential, sustaining — men who are pillars. They may be strong in virtue of adventitious aids, or of natural endowments, or of acquired, powers, or of spiritual acquisition: and these "pillars" may be either as beams m a mine, rude, rough, unpolished; or they may be as the fluted columns of a cathedral, as these pillars of Solomon's temple with lily-work on the top of them. IV. CHRISTIAN SERVICE. The worship of God, the service of Jesus Christ, is the power for good in human society; it upholds the goodness and the happiness of the world. Its strength and its beauty are determined partly by the stage to which we here come in our Christian course. 1. The strength of service in age is in submission, willingness to decline, to take the lower place, to be of diminishing account; and the beauty of submission is cheerfulness of spirit. 2. The strength of service in prime is in activity, in usefulness, in putting out our "talents" for the glory of Christ and the well-being of the world; and the beauty of activity is thoroughness, regularity, punctuality, heartiness, doing effectively and continuously what has been undertaken. 3. The strength of service in childhood and youth is obedience and self-denial; and the beauty of this is alacrity, promptness, rendering it not tardily and reluctantly, but readily and sweetly, with willing feet and cheerful voice. It is well to have strength and beauty in our Christian buildings; it is far better, in the estimate of Christ, to have these two harmoniously combined in the character we are forming and the life we are living. ( W. Clarkson. ) Strength and beauty in character R. W. Davis. In this divinely planned structure I know of nothing outside the Holy of Holies more impressive than the pillars built by Hiram. These were of the finest brass, of great height, splendid in symmetry and crowned with lilies. It is a law of art that the most perfect and enduring effects are produced by the combination of things unlike each other. A painter throws into his picture the darkest shadows that he may intensify his clearest lights. A sculptor carves for the top of his columns capitals of delicate design, An architect relieves the heavy masonry of his walls with items of exquisite device and forms of sculptured beauty. God Himself is our original teacher; for whilst He "setteth fast the mountains, being girded with power," He hath woven around their summits tender vines and rooted in their crevices sweet scented flowers that warmly clasp and colour the cold grey cliffs. That widow's son from Tyre was not a stranger to this alliance, and so wrought his pillars as to adorn the sanctuary of the Highest with both strength and beauty. Observe that the strength was first and the beauty of lilies afterward. We have here the uplifting of those two qualites which are worshipped by the soul of man the world over. Power and beauty alike win his homage, but not unfrequently he yields himself to that which is but the sham of strength, and renders service to that which has but the semblance of beauty; to power ungifted with love, and to beauty unadorned by holiness. It is the lie of the world, often uttered and often believed, that the righteous must needs be the weak and the pure the uncomely. God declares the right to be the only strong, and the good, the only beautiful. The power that enters human life to rule it within and without must be a power of conquest, having the inherent qualities of stability. Man is born in battle. His cradle is rocked by his own strugglings. His history is that of a shifting factor in a shifting world. He can neither command himself nor control his surroundings. Antagonisms swarm on his path. Struggling alone, he can have but one experience: the shame that comes of perpetual impotency and the confusion that arises from continued defeat. Sooner or later he learns this truth, that "all power is of God," and that the strength that conquers for the spiritual — that takes hold of eternal things and abides, that elevates life into firmness of character and adorns it with real beauty, is possible only through the patient, helpful, regenerative ministry of Jesus Christ. ( R. W. Davis. ) Strength and beauty F. L. Goodspeed, A. B. , S. T. B. 1. The Divinity of labour. Hiram, who wrought these pillars, was the son of a widow in Tyre. To him labour was a divinely ordered force, which a man took into his life and into his faculties, and which taught him that he was a workman, not simply for himself, or for some taskmaster, who was set over him to watch him; but that he was a workman for God, and that the fidelity of his toil must represent the purity of his worship. Whether he sculptured a column, carved lilies, drove a nail, or set the plough in the furrow, he believed he was doing a Divine thing. The curse of labour to-day is that men have lost God out of it. The highest conception of Christianity is the idea that Christianity can get itself down into the ordinary processes of life, can find a God there, and, grasping the details of things, can change them and beautify them as life goes on; that no matter what our work may be, it is worship, and if faithfully done, every day that comes and goes will leave behind it something in the reservoir of life, some deposit of character which, when all days are over, shall constitute our treasure laid up in heaven. 2. Beauty without strength. In our day there is a great desire for the lily work without the pillars, a vain longing for the graces of life and for the beauties of character without the supporting power of truth and duty. There are thousands of men who would like the virtues of the fathers, but who do not want the faith w

Benson Commentary 1 Kings 7:1 But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house. 1 Kings 7:1 . Solomon was building his own house — The royal palace, for himself and for his successors, which he did not begin to build till he had finished the house of God, that nothing might hinder that holy work, 1 Kings 9:10 . Thirteen years — Almost double the time to that in which the temple was built; because, neither were the materials so far provided and prepared for this as they were for the temple, nor did either he or his people use the same diligence in this as in the other work, to which they were quickened by God’s express command. 1 Kings 7:2 He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon; the length thereof was an hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars. 1 Kings 7:2 . He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon — The house mentioned in the foregoing verse was in Jerusalem, and was probably the place of Solomon’s residence during the winter. This seems to have been built for his summer residence, on some cool, shady mountain near Jerusalem, and to have been called the house of the forest of Lebanon, because it was situated in a lofty place, bearing some resemblance to mount Lebanon, and probably was surrounded with many tall cedars, such as grew there. That it was near Jerusalem, and not on mount Lebanon, properly so called, seems evident, because there was the throne of judgment, ( 1 Kings 7:7 ,) which it was most proper should be in the place of his constant and usual residence; and because there was the chief magazine of arms, ( Isaiah 22:8 ,) and Solomon’s golden shields were placed there, ( 1 Kings 10:17 ; 1 Kings 14:25-28 ,) which no wise prince would have put in a place at the extremity of his kingdom, and at such a distance from his royal city as mount Lebanon was from Jerusalem. The length thereof — Of the principal mansion; to which, doubtless, other buildings were adjoining. Was a hundred cubits — Which was not longer than the house of God, if we take in all the courts belonging thereto. The height thereof thirty cubits — The same as the height of the holy place in the temple. Upon four rows of cedar pillars — Which supported the building, and between which there were four stately walks. With cedar beams upon the pillars — Which were laid for the floor of the second story. 1 Kings 7:3 And it was covered with cedar above upon the beams, that lay on forty five pillars, fifteen in a row. 1 Kings 7:3-5 . Fifteen in a row — So in this second story there were only three rows of pillars, which were sufficient for the ornament of the second and for the support of the third story; and we may conjecture from hence that there were threescore pillars below. Light was against light — One directly opposite to another, as is usual in well-contrived buildings. In three ranks — One exactly under another in three rows. All the doors, &c., were square with the windows — That is, the figures of the doors and windows were one and the same, namely, square. And light was against light, &c. — This is meant of the smaller windows or lights which were over the door, and which were also square. 1 Kings 7:4 And there were windows in three rows, and light was against light in three ranks. 1 Kings 7:5 And all the doors and posts were square, with the windows: and light was against light in three ranks. 1 Kings 7:6 And he made a porch of pillars; the length thereof was fifty cubits, and the breadth thereof thirty cubits: and the porch was before them: and the other pillars and the thick beam were before them. 1 Kings 7:6 . And he made a porch of pillars — That is, supported by divers pillars: this was for his guard, and for people to walk in who came upon business, as well as for the more magnificent entrance into the house. Upon this also it is probable there were other rooms built as in the house. The porch was before them — That is, before the pillars of the great house before spoken of. And the other pillars, &c. — Or, and pillars, that is, fewer and lesser pillars for the support of the porch. Were before them — Or, according to them; (see the margin;) that is, they were directly opposite one to another. 1 Kings 7:7 Then he made a porch for the throne where he might judge, even the porch of judgment: and it was covered with cedar from one side of the floor to the other. 1 Kings 7:7 . He made a porch for the throne, even the porch of judgment — So it was called, because here he sat to judge and determine the causes that were brought before him. But some think it unlikely that this porch was adjoining to the house of the forest of Lebanon. They judge it more probable that it was built in some place near the royal palace in Jerusalem, and is here mentioned because the writer was speaking of other porches. And it was covered, &c., from one side of the floor to the other — Hebrew, from floor to floor; from the lower floor on the ground, to the upper floor which covered it. 1 Kings 7:8 And his house where he dwelt had another court within the porch, which was of the like work. Solomon made also an house for Pharaoh's daughter, whom he had taken to wife , like unto this porch. 1 Kings 7:8 . His house where he dwelt had another court within the porch — That is, between the porch and the house, called therefore the middle court, 1 Kings 20:4 . Solomon made also a house for Pharaoh’s daughter — Of which, see 2 Chronicles 2:11 . Like unto this porch — Not for form or size, but for the materials and workmanship, the rooms being covered with cedar and the like ornaments. 1 Kings 7:9 All these were of costly stones, according to the measures of hewed stones, sawed with saws, within and without, even from the foundation unto the coping, and so on the outside toward the great court. 1 Kings 7:9 . All these were of costly stones — Namely, the buildings described here, and in the former chapter. According to the measures of hewed stones — Either, 1st, Which were hewed in such measure and proportion, as exact workmen use in hewing ordinary stones: or, 2d, As large as hewed stones commonly are, which are often very great. Sawed them with saws, within and without — Both on the inside of the buildings, which were covered with cedar, and on the outside also. From the foundation unto the coping — From the bottom to the top of the building. So on the outside toward the great court — Not only on the outside of the front of the house, which, being most visible, men are more careful to adorn, but also of the other side of the house, which looked toward the great court belonging to the king’s house. 1 Kings 7:10 And the foundation was of costly stones, even great stones, stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits. 1 Kings 7:10-11 . The foundation was of costly stones — By costly stones, mentioned here, and in the foregoing and following verses, are not meant precious stones, but stones that, being larger, firmer, and better polished than others, were of greater price: probably they were large blocks of marble, squared and polished on all sides. Stones of ten cubits — Not ten cubits square, which would have been unnecessary, and would have rendered them unportable and unmanageable, but of such measure as is generally used in measuring stones and timber; and thus also the following eight cubits are to be understood. And above — That is, in the roof, or upper part; for this is opposed to the foundation. Were costly stones and cedars — Intermixed the one with the other. Thus the roof was finished after the same manner with the lower parts. 1 Kings 7:11 And above were costly stones, after the measures of hewed stones, and cedars. 1 Kings 7:12 And the great court round about was with three rows of hewed stones, and a row of cedar beams, both for the inner court of the house of the LORD, and for the porch of the house. 1 Kings 7:12 . And the great court — Namely, of Solomon’s palace, mentioned 1 Kings 7:8 . Was with three rows of hewed stones, &c. — Just like the inner court of the Lord’s house, ( 1 Kings 6:36 ,) and so the following words are to be understood. Both, for the inner court — Or, rather, as for the inner court, &c. for so the particle ? , vau, sometimes signifies. And for the porch of the house — Namely, Solomon’s own house. 1 Kings 7:13 And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. 1 Kings 7:13-14 . Solomon sent and fetched Hiram — Though he was an Israelite by birth, yet he dwelt at Tyre; and, it is likely, had the privileges of that city, and so was one of King Hiram’s subjects. And therefore ( 2 Chronicles 2:13 ) that king says he had sent him to Solomon, that is, had granted Solomon’s request, who had requested that this man might come and serve him. His father was a man of Tyre — Whom his mother, when a widow, had married. A worker in brass — And in gold, and stone, and purple, and blue, 2 Chronicles 2:14 . But his skill in brass is only mentioned here, because he speaks only of the brazen things which he made. And he was filled with wisdom, &c. — He had an excellent genius for and great skill in this work. 1 Kings 7:14 He was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass: and he was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass. And he came to king Solomon, and wrought all his work. 1 Kings 7:15 For he cast two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece: and a line of twelve cubits did compass either of them about. 1 Kings 7:15-16 . He cast two pillars of brass — Of which see 2 Kings 25:16-17 ; Jeremiah 52:21 . Of eighteen cubits high apiece — It is said, 2 Chronicles 3:15 , that these pillars were thirty-five cubits high, which relates to the height of both of them together without their pedestals, whereas the height of each is given here with its pedestal. A line of twelve cubits did compass either of them — The diameter, therefore, was four cubits, which, considering the chapiter of five cubits, added to the height of each pillar, ( 2 Chronicles 3:15 ,) was only in due proportion to the height. In 2 Kings 25:17 , indeed, it is said, that the height of the chapiter was only three cubits. But it must be observed, that the word chapiter may either be taken more largely for the whole, in which case, it was five cubits; or more strictly, either for the pommels, as they are called, 2 Chronicles 4:12 ; or for the cornice or crown, and so it was but three cubits, to which the pomegranates being added, made it four cubits, as it is 1 Kings 7:19 , and the other work upon it took up one cubit more, which in all made five cubits. 1 Kings 7:16 And he made two chapiters of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars: the height of the one chapiter was five cubits, and the height of the other chapiter was five cubits: 1 Kings 7:17 And nets of checker work, and wreaths of chain work, for the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars; seven for the one chapiter, and seven for the other chapiter. 1 Kings 7:17-19 . Nets of checker-work, &c., for the chapiters — Which chapiters those nets and wreaths encompassed, either covering, and, as it were, receiving and holding the pomegranates, or being mixed with them. And he made — Or, so he made, or framed, or perfected, the pillars, and two rows round about — Of pomegranates, or some other curious work, which took up one of the five cubits, whereof the chapiter consisted. And the chapiters, &c., were of lily-work — Were made in imitation of lilies. In the porch — Or, as in the porch; such work as there was in the porch of the temple, in which these pillars were set, ( 1 Kings 7:21 ,) that so the work of the tops of these pillars might agree with that in the top of the porch. 1 Kings 7:18 And he made the pillars, and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters that were upon the top, with pomegranates: and so did he for the other chapiter. 1 Kings 7:19 And the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars were of lily work in the porch, four cubits. 1 Kings 7:20 And the chapiters upon the two pillars had pomegranates also above, over against the belly which was by the network: and the pomegranates were two hundred in rows round about upon the other chapiter. 1 Kings 7:20 . Over against the belly — So he calls the middle part of the chapiter, which jetted farthest out. The pomegranates were two hundred — They are said to be ninety and six on the side of a pillar, in one row, and in all a hundred, ( Jeremiah 52:23 ,) four pomegranates between the several checker-works being added to the first ninety-six. And it must needs be granted that there were as many on the other side of the pillar, or in the other row, which makes them two hundred upon a pillar, as is here said, and four hundred upon both pillars, as they are numbered, 2 Chronicles 4:13 . 1 Kings 7:21 And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin: and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz. 1 Kings 7:21 . He set up the pillars in the porch — Where they were placed for mere ornament and magnificence, for they supported nothing. Called the name thereof Jachin — Which signifies, He, that is, God, shall establish, his temple, and church, and people: and Boaz signifies, in it, or rather, in him (to answer the he in the former name) is strength. So these pillars, being eminently strong and stable, were types of that strength which was in God, and would be put forth by God for the defending and establishing of his temple and people, if they were careful to observe the conditions required by him on their parts. 1 Kings 7:22 And upon the top of the pillars was lily work: so was the work of the pillars finished. 1 Kings 7:23 And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about. 1 Kings 7:23 . He made a molten sea — He melted the brass, and cast it into the form of a great vessel, for its vastness called a sea, which name is given by the Hebrews to all great collections of waters. The use of it was for the priests to wash their hands and feet, or other things, as occasion required, with the water which they drew out of it. It was round all about — Of a circular form. Its height was five cubits — Besides the height of the oxen whereon it stood. A line of thirty cubits did compass it — For the diameter being ten cubits, thirty must be the circumference of it. This sea was filled with water by the Gibeonites, who were afterward called Nethinims. 1 Kings 7:24 And under the brim of it round about there were knops compassing it, ten in a cubit, compassing the sea round about: the knops were cast in two rows, when it was cast. 1 Kings 7:24 . There were knops compassing it — Molten figures: for the word ????? , pekagnim, signifies pictures or figures of all sorts, as gourds, flowers, beasts, &c. — Ten in a cubit — So there were three hundred of these knops in all, the sea being thirty cubits round. The knops were cast in two rows when it was cast — They were not carved afterward, but cast at first when the sea was molten. And, there being two rows of them, Abarbinel thence concludes there were six hundred in all, one under another. 1 Kings 7:25 It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east: and the sea was set above upon them, and all their hinder parts were inward. 1 Kings 7:25-26 . It stood upon twelve oxen — Of solid brass, which was necessary to bear so great a weight. Probably the water was drawn by cocks out of the mouths of these oxen. It contained two thousand baths — That is, five hundred barrels, the bath being a measure of the same bigness with the ephah, each containing about eight gallons. It appears from 2 Chronicles 4:5 , that if filled up to the brim, it would receive three thousand baths. But it is probable they were not wont to put so much in it, lest, with the wind, it should run over; and that two thousand was the quantity usually kept in it. 1 Kings 7:26 And it was an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths. 1 Kings 7:27 And he made ten bases of brass; four cubits was the length of one base, and four cubits the breadth thereof, and three cubits the height of it. 1 Kings 7:27-29 . He made ten bases of brass — Upon which stood ten lavers mentioned below, ( 1 Kings 7:38 ,) in which they washed the parts of the sacrifices, 2 Chronicles 4:6 . They had borders — Broad brims, possibly for the more secure holding of the lavers. Upon the ledges there was a base above — This is very obscurely expressed; hut probably by the base above is meant the uppermost part of the base; which, though it was above, yet was a base to the laver, which stood upon it. Certain additions — Either as bases for the feet of the said lions and oxen, or only as further ornaments. 1 Kings 7:28 And the work of the bases was on this manner : they had borders, and the borders were between the ledges: 1 Kings 7:29 And on the borders that were between the ledges were lions, oxen, and cherubims: and upon the ledges there was a base above: and beneath the lions and oxen were certain additions made of thin work. 1 Kings 7:30 And every base had four brasen wheels, and plates of brass: and the four corners thereof had undersetters: under the laver were undersetters molten, at the side of every addition. 1 Kings 7:30 . Every base had four brazen wheels — Whereby the bases and lavers might be removed from place to place, as need required. Undersetters — Hebrew, shoulders; fitly so called, because they supported the lavers, that they should not fall from their bases, when the bases were removed, together with the lavers. 1 Kings 7:31 And the mouth of it within the chapiter and above was a cubit: but the mouth thereof was round after the work of the base, a cubit and an half: and also upon the mouth of it were gravings with their borders, foursquare, not round. 1 Kings 7:31 . The mouth of it — So he calls that part in the top of the base which was left hollow, that the foot of the laver might be let into it. Within the chapiter — Within the little base, which he calls the chapiter, because it rose up from, and stood above the great base. And above — Above the chapiter; for the mouth went up and grew wider like a funnel. Was a cubit — In height, ( 1 Kings 7:35 ,) whereof half a cubit was above the chapiter or little base, and the other half below it. A cubit and half — In compass. Four-square — So the innermost part, called the mouth, was round, but the outward part was square, as when a circle is made within a quadrangle. 1 Kings 7:32 And under the borders were four wheels; and the axletrees of the wheels were joined to the base: and the height of a wheel was a cubit and half a cubit. 1 Kings 7:33 And the work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel: their axletrees, and their naves, and their felloes, and their spokes, were all molten. 1 Kings 7:33-37 . Were all molten — Cast together with the bases. The undersetters were of the very base — Not only of the same matter, but of the same piece, being cast with it. According to the proportion of every one — Hebrew, ???? , chemagnar, according to the nakedness, or, empty space of every one, that is, according to the extent of the spaces left empty for them, namely, that these figures were as large as the void plates would admit. All of them had one casting, &c. — They were cast in the same mould, and of the same size. 1 Kings 7:34 And there were four undersetters to the four corners of one base: and the undersetters were of the very base itself. 1 Kings 7:35 And in the top of the base was there a round compass of half a cubit high: and on the top of the base the ledges thereof and the borders thereof were of the same. 1 Kings 7:36 For on the plates of the ledges thereof, and on the borders thereof, he graved cherubims, lions, and palm trees, according to the proportion of every one, and additions round about. 1 Kings 7:37 After this manner he made the ten bases: all of them had one casting, one measure, and one size. 1 Kings 7:38 Then made he ten lavers of brass: one laver contained forty baths: and every laver was four cubits: and upon every one of the ten bases one laver. 1 Kings 7:38-39 . He made ten lavers of brass — Which were to stand upon the bases before mentioned. One laver contained forty baths — See 1 Kings 7:26 ; from whence it will appear, that each of these lavers contained ten barrels of water. And every laver was four cubits — Some think they were of this height. But it is more likely that these words relate to the diameter of them, which was four cubits, and then their compass was twelve cubits. He put five bases on the right side — That is, on the south side. See 1 Kings 6:8 . Of the house — Of the court where the priests ministered, and where, as occasion required, they washed either their hands or feet, or the parts of the sacrifices. Five on the left side of the house — That is, on the north side of that court, which is here opposed to the right or south side. Over against the south — That is, in the south-east part, where the offerings were prepared. So that, as soon as the priests entered, which they did at the east gate, they might have water to wash their hands and their feet. 1 Kings 7:39 And he put five bases on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house: and he set the sea on the right side of the house eastward over against the south. 1 Kings 7:40 And Hiram made the lavers, and the shovels, and the basons. So Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he made king Solomon for the house of the LORD: 1 Kings 7:40 . Hiram made the lavers, &c. — These seem to have been the last things that he made. For he now finished all his work, most or all the particulars of which are recapitulated, with the addition of some others not mentioned before: shovels, for instance, wherewith they cleansed the altar from the ashes, and basins, wherein the priests received the blood of the sacrifices that were offered. 1 Kings 7:41 The two pillars, and the two bowls of the chapiters that were on the top of the two pillars; and the two networks, to cover the two bowls of the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars; 1 Kings 7:42 And four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, even two rows of pomegranates for one network, to cover the two bowls of the chapiters that were upon the pillars; 1 Kings 7:43 And the ten bases, and ten lavers on the bases; 1 Kings 7:44 And one sea, and twelve oxen under the sea; 1 Kings 7:45 And the pots, and the shovels, and the basons: and all these vessels, which Hiram made to king Solomon for the house of the LORD, were of bright brass. 1 Kings 7:45-47 . And the pots — Or caldrons rather. These were vessels in which they boiled those sacrifices, or parts of sacrifices, which were divided between the priests and the people that offered them; that is, the peace-offerings, that they might eat them before the Lord. In the clay- ground — Hebrew, In the thickness of the ground. That is, in earth that was stiff and glutinous, and therefore more fit for making moulds of all kinds. And in a plain country such moulds were more easily fixed than on the sides of hills, or steep places. Solomon left all the vessels unweighed — Because the weighing of them would have been troublesome, and to no purpose. Neither was the weight of the brass found out — Hebrew, ???? , nechkar, investigated, or inquired into. Much less was an exact account taken of it. 1 Kings 7:46 In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarthan. 1 Kings 7:47 And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed , because they were exceeding many: neither was the weight of the brass found out. 1 Kings 7:48 And Solomon made all the vessels that pertained unto the house of the LORD: the altar of gold, and the table of gold, whereupon the shewbread was , 1 Kings 7:48 . All the vessels that pertained to the house of the Lord — Such as God, by the mouth of Moses, had commanded to be made for his house and service, and such as Moses had made for the tabernacle; only these for the temple were larger, richer, and more in number; according to the difference, as to size and splendour, between the temple and the tabernacle, and between Solomon’s vast riches and the poverty of Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness. The altar of gold — That is, overlaid with gold. For it was made of cedar, as that of Moses was of shittim-wood, and it was only covered with gold, 1 Kings 6:20 . This was the altar of incense which stood in the holy place, and is mentioned 1 Chronicles 28:18 , as one of the holy things for which David left gold. And the table of show- bread — Under which, by a synecdoche, are comprehended, both all the utensils belonging to it, and the other ten tables, which were made at the same time, 2 Chronicles 4:7-8 . 1 Kings 7:49 And the candlesticks of pure gold, five on the right side , and five on the left, before the oracle, with the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs of gold, 1 Kings 7:49 . And the candlesticks — Which were ten, according to the number of the tables, whereas Moses made but one: whereby might be signified the progress of the light of sacred truth, which was now grown clearer than it was in Moses’s time, and should shine brighter and brighter until the perfect day of gospel light. Of pure gold — Of massy and fine gold. Before the oracle — In the holy place. Flowers — Wrought upon the candlesticks, as had formerly been the case. Tongs of gold — Wherewith to take coals from the altar of burnt-offering. 1 Kings 7:50 And the bowls, and the snuffers, and the basons, and the spoons, and the censers of pure gold; and the hinges of gold, both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, to wit , of the temple. 1 Kings 7:50 . The bowls and the snuffers, &c. — The use of the different articles here named is manifest. The bowls were to contain oil for the lamps, the snuffers to trim them: the basins, which were a hundred, as we learn 2 Chronicles 4:8 , were to receive the water of sprinkling, and the blood of the sacrifices, which was sometimes brought into the most holy place. The spoons served to take up the oil. The censers were for offering incense. The hinges of gold, &c. — This shows the vast riches of Solomon, and his great piety, which made him spare no cost to beautify the house of God, and all things belonging to it. 1 Kings 7:51 So was ended all the work that king Solomon made for the house of the LORD. And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated; even the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, did he put among the treasures of the house of the LORD. 1 Kings 7:51 . Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated — The silver and gold, and other things which David had provided for erecting this temple, and which had not been expended in the house itself, or its furniture, Solomon laid up in the treasury belonging to it, for repairs, exigences, and the constant charge of the temple-service. Although this splendid edifice had cost him immense sums, besides what David had prepared for building it, he would not repay himself in any degree by diverting from their intended purpose, and transferring to his own secular use, these devoted, or, as they are termed in the margin, holy things of David. “What parents have dedicated to God,” says Henry, here, “the children ought by no means to alienate or recall; but cheerfully confirm what was intended for pious and charitable uses, that they may with their estates inherit the blessing.” And the vessels did he put among the treasures of, &c. — With those which David had dedicated, he laid up the altar of Moses, and some other of the old utensils which belonged to the tabernacle, as being of no further use, far better being provided in their room. Indeed, the tabernacle itself was thus laid up, for which, as the temple was now built, there was no further occasion; and yet it was proper to preserve the parts of so sacred a structure, which had been formed, in all respects, by divine direction, and had long been holy to the Lord. So was ended all the work — “Concerning this temple, we may observe, upon the whole, that the glory of it did not consist in its bulk or largeness, (for in itself it was but a small pile of building, no more than one hundred and fifty feet in length, and one hundred and five in breadth, taking the whole together, and is exceeded by many of our parish churches,) but its chief grandeur and excellence lay in its out-buildings and ornaments, in its workmanship, which was everywhere very curious, and in its overlayings, which were vast and prodigious. The overlaying of the holy of holies only, which was a room but thirty feet square and twenty high, amounted to six hundred talents of gold, which comes to four millions three hundred and twenty thousand pounds of our sterling money. ‘The whole frame,’ says Josephus, ‘was raised upon stones, polished to the highest degree of perfection, and so artificially put together, that there was no joint to be discerned, no sign of any working-tools having been upon them, but the whole looked more like the work of providence and nature, than the product of art and human invention. And as for the inside, what carving, gilding, embroidery, rich silks, and fine linen could do, of these there was the greatest profusion. The very floor of the temple was overlaid with beaten gold; the doors were large, and proportioned to the height of the walls, twenty cubits broad, and still gold upon gold.’ Antiq., lib. 8. chap. 2. In a word, it was gold all over, and nothing was wanting, either within or without, that might contribute to the glory and magnificence of the work.” — Dr. Dodd. Some have intimated, that one principal reason why Solomon bestowed all this outward splendour and glory on the temple of the one living and true God, probably was that he might keep the people from idolatry, knowing how much they were taken with such things. Certainly none of the idol temples were to be compared to it for riches and magnificence. Indeed, there was nothing like it in the whole world. But if this were any part of his design, the event showed how far it was from being answered thereby, and how little the expedient availed. Multitudes of the Israelites, and those not only of the more distant tribes, but even of the tribe of Judah itself, in the very midst of whom this most splendid and sumptuous fabric stood, soon relapsed into that most unreasonable and stupid of all sins. Nearly the whole Hebrew nation, even, became idolatrous. Nay, what is more astonishing, Solomon himself, who erected this most costly and superb edifice, was drawn away from the worship of that God to whose honour he had raised it, and was turned in his heart after other gods, 1 Kings 11:4 ; so true it is, that nothing merely external, whether in the place or ceremonies of God’s worship, however sumptuous or dazzling, can engage or secure the attachment of fallen man to him and his service. An acquaintance with his spiritual and holy nature and infinite perfections, and his love shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us, can only effect this; which blessings if we would receive and retain, we must keep our hearts with all diligence, and not suffer their desires to wander after vain things, which cannot profit. Had Solomon continued to attend to this, his own advice, the glory of his youth would not have suffered so dreadful an eclipse in his declining years; but the bright example of his wisdom and piety would have continued to shine with undiminished, nay, with increasing lustre, to the credit of the true religion, and the edification of millions, while he himself, in soul and body would have remained a temple of the living God, a habitation of Jehovah through the Spirit, a fabric unspeakably more glorious than that which, with such immense expense of treasure, time, and labour, he had erected in Jerusalem. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary 1 Kings 7:1 But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house. ; 1 Kings 6:1-38 ; 1 Kings 7:1-51 THE TEMPLE 1 Kings 5:1-18 ; 1 Kings 6:1-38 ; 1 Kings 7:1-51 "And his next son, for wealth and wisdom famed, The clouded Ark of God, till then in tents Wandering, shall in a glorious temple enshrine." -Paradise Lost, 12:340. AFTER the destructive battle of Aphek, in which the Philistines had defeated Israel, slain the two sons of Eli, and taken captive the Ark of God, they had inflicted a terrible vengeance on the old sanctuary at Shiloh. They had burnt the young men in the fire, and slain the priests with the sword, and no widows were left to make lamentation. {Psa 78:58-64} It is true that, terrified by portents and diseases, the Philistines after a time restored the Ark, and the Tabernacle of the wilderness with its brazen altar still gave sacredness to the great high place at Gibeon, to which apparently it had been removed. Nevertheless, the old worship seems to have languished till it received a new and powerful impulse from the religious earnestness of David. He had the mind of a patriot-statesman as well as of a soldier, and he felt that a nation is nothing without its sacred memories. Those memories clustered round the now-discredited Ark. Its capture, and its parade as a trophy of victory in the shrine of Dagon, had robbed it of all its superstitious prestige as a fetish; but, degraded as it had been, it still continued to be the one inestimably precious historic relic which enshrined the memories of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and the dawn of its heroic age. As soon as David had given to his people the boon of a unique capital, nothing could be more natural than the wish to add sacredness to the glory of the capital by making it the center of the national worship. According to the Chronicles, David-feeling it a reproach that he himself should dwell in palaces celled with cedar and painted with vermilion while the Ark of God dwelt between curtains-had made unheard-of preparations to build a house for God. But it had been decreed unfit that the sanctuary should be built by a man whose hands were red with the blood of many wars, and he had received the promise that the great work should be accomplished by his son. Into that work Solomon threw himself with hearty zeal in the month Zif of the fourth year of his reign, when his kingdom was consolidated. It commanded all his sympathies as an artist, a lover of magnificence, and a ruler bent on the work of centralization. It was a task to which he was bound by the solemn exhortation of his father, and he felt, doubtless, its political as well as its religious importance. With his sincere desire to build to God’s glory was mingled a prophetic conviction that his task would be fraught with immense issues for the future of his people and of all the world. The presence of the Temple left its impress on the very name of Jerusalem. Although it has nothing to do with the Temple or with Solomon, it became known to the heathen world as Hierosolyma , which, as we see from Eupolemos (Euseb., Praep. Evang. , 9:34), the Gentile world supposed to mean "the Temple ( Hieron ) of Solomon." The materials already provided were of priceless value. David had consecrated to God the spoils which he had won from conquered kings. We must reject, as the exaggerations of national vanity, the monstrous numbers which now stand in the text of the chronicler; but a king whose court was simple and inexpensive was quite able to amass treasures of gold and silver, brass and iron, precious marbles and onyx stones. Solomon had only to add to these sacred stores. He inherited the friendship which David had enjoyed, with Hiram, King of Tyre, who, according to the strange phrase of the Vatican Septuagint, sent his servants "to anoint" Solomon. The friendliest overtures passed between the two kings in letters, to which Josephus appeals as still extant. A commercial treaty was made by which Solomon engaged to furnish the Tyrian king with annual revenues of wheat, barley, and oil; {Comp. Eze 27:17 Act 12:20} and Hiram put at Solomon’s disposal the skilled labor of an army of Sidonian wood-cutters and artisans. The huge trunks of cedar and cypress were sent rushing down the heights of Lebanon by schlittage, and laboriously dragged by road or river to the shore. There they were constructed into immense rafts, which were floated a hundred miles along the coast to Joppa, where they were again dragged with enormous toil for thirty-five miles up the steep and rocky roads to Jerusalem. For more than twenty years, while Solomon was building the Temple and his various royal constructions, Jerusalem became a hive of ceaseless and varied industry. Its ordinary inhabitants must have been swelled by an army of Canaanite serfs and Phoenician artisans to whom residences were assigned in Ophel. There lived the hewers and bevellers of stone; the cedar-cutters of Gebal or Biblos; the cunning workmen in gold or brass; the bronze-casters who made their moulds in the clay ground of the Jordan valley; the carvers and engravers; the dyers who stained wool with the purple of the murex, and the scarlet dye of the trumpet fish; the weavers and embroiderers of fine linen. Every class of laborer was put into requisition, from the descendants of the Gibeonite Nethinim , who were rough hewers of wood and drawers of water, to the trained artificers whose beautiful productions we’re the wonder of the world. The "father," or master-workman, of the whole community was a half-caste, who also bore the name of Hiram, and was the son of a woman of Naphtali by a Tyrian father. Some writers have tried to minimize Solomon’s work as a builder, and have spoken of the Temple as an exceedingly insignificant structure which would not stand a moment’s comparison with the smallest and humblest of our own cathedrals. Insignificant in size it certainly was, but we must not forget its costly splendor, the remote age in which the work was achieved, and the truly stupendous constructions which the design required. Mount Moriah was selected as a site hallowed by the tradition of Abraham’s sacrifice, and more recently by David’s vision of the Angel of the Pestilence with his drawn sword on the threshing-floor of the Jebusite Prince Araunah. But to utilize this doubly consecrated area involved almost superhuman difficulties, which would have been avoided if the loftier but less suitable height of the Mount of Olives could have been chosen. The rugged summit had to be enlarged to a space of five hundred yards square, and this level was supported by Cyclopean walls, which have long been the wonder of the world. The magnificent wall on the east side, known as "the Jews’ wailing-place," is doubtless the work of Solomon, and after outlasting "the drums and tramplings of a hundred triumphs," it remains to this day in uninjured massiveness. One of the finely beveled stones is 38 1/2 feet long and 7 feet high, and weighs more than 100 tons. These vast stones were hewn from a quarry above the level of the wall, and lowered by rollers down an inclined plane. Part of the old wall rises 30 feet above the present level of the soil, but a far larger part of the height lies hidden 80 feet under the accumulated debris of the often captured city. At the southwest angle, by Robinson’s arch, three pavements were discovered, one beneath the other, showing the gradual filling up of the valley; and on the lowest of these were found the broken voussoirs of the arch. In Solomon’s day the whole of this mighty wall was visible. On one of the lowest stones have been discovered the Phoenician paint-marks which indicated where each of the huge masses, so carefully dressed, edge-drafted, and beveled, was to be placed in the structure. The caverns, quarries water storages, and subterranean conduits hewn out of the solid rock, over which Jerusalem is built, could only have been constructed at the cost of immeasurable toil. They would be wonderful even with our infinitely more rapid methods and more powerful agencies; but when we remember that they were made three thousand years ago we do not wonder that their massiveness has haunted the imagination of so many myriads of visitors from every nation. It was perhaps from his Egyptian father-in-law that Solomon, to his own cost, learnt the secret of forced labor which alone rendered such undertakings possible. In their Egyptian bondage the forefathers of Israel had been fatally familiar with the ugly word Mas , the labor wrung from them by hard task-masters. {Exo 1:2} In the reign of Solomon it once more became only too common on the lips of the burdened people. 1 Kings 4:6 ; 1 Kings 5:13-14 ; 1 Kings 5:17-18 ; 1 Kings 9:15 ; 1 Kings 21:12-18 . Four classes were subject to it. 1. The lightest labor was required from the native freeborn Israelites ( ezrach ). They were not regarded as bondsmen yet 30,000 of these were required in relays of 10,000 to work, one month in every three, in the forest of Lebanon. 2. There were strangers, or resident aliens ( Gerim ), such as the Phoenicians and Giblites, who were Hiram’s subjects and worked for pay. 3. There were three classes of slaves-those taken in war, or sold for debt, or home-born. 4. Lowest and most wretched of all, there were the vassal Canaanites ( Toshabim ), from whom were drawn those 70, 000 burden-bearers, and 80, 000 quarry-men, the Helots of Palestine, who were placed under the charge of 3600 Israelite ofricers. The blotches of smoke are still visible on the walls and roofs of the subterranean quarries where there poor serfs, in the dim torchlight and suffocating air "labored without reward, perished without pity, and suffered without redress." The sad narrative reveals to us, and modern research confirms, that the purple of Solomon had a very seamy side, and that an abyss of misery heaved and moaned under the glittering surface of his splendor. {1Ki 5:13; 1Ki 9:22 2Ch 8:9} (Omitted in the LXX) Jerusalem during the twenty years occupied by his building must have presented the disastrous spectacle of task-masters, armed with rods and scourges, enforcing the toil of gangs of slaves, as we see them represented in the tombs of Egypt and the palaces of Assyria. The sequel shows the jealousies and discontents even of the native Israelites, who felt themselves to be "scourged with whips and laden with heavy burdens." They were bondmen in all but name, for purposes which bore very little on their own welfare. But the curses of the wretched aborigines must have been deeper, if not so loud. They were torn from such homes as the despotism of conquest still left to them, and were forced to hopeless and unrewarded toil for the alien worship and hateful palaces of their masters. Five centuries later we find a pitiable trace of their existence in the 392 Hierodouloi , menials lower even than the enslaved Nethinim , who are called "sons of the slaves of Solomon"-the dwindling and miserable remnant of that vast levy of Palestinian serfs. Apart from the lavish costliness of its materials the actual Temple was architecturally a poor and commonplace structure. It was quite small-only 90 feet long, 35 feet broad, and 45 feet high. It was meant for the symbolic habitation of God, not for the worship of great congregations. It only represented the nascent art and limited resources of a tenth-rate kingdom, and was totally devoid alike of the pure and stately beauty of the Parthenon and the awe-inspiring grandeur of the great Egyptian temples with their avenues of obelisks and sphinxes and their colossal statues of deities and kings "Staring right on with calm, eternal eyes." When Justinian, boastfully exclaimed, as he looked at his church, "I have vanquished thee, O Solomon," and when the Khalif Omar, pointing to the Dome of the Rock, murmured, "Behold, a greater than Solomon is here," they forgot the vast differences between them and the Jewish king in the epoch at which they lived and the resources which they could command. The Temple was built in "majestic silence." "No workman’s axe no ponderous hammer rung. Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprung." This was due to religious reverence. It could be easily accomplished, because each stone and beam was carefully prepared to be fitted in its exact place before it was carried up the Temple hill. The elaborate particulars furnished us of the measurements of Solomon’s Temple are too late in age, too divergent in particulars, too loosely strung together, too much mingled with later reminiscences, and altogether too architecturally insufficient, to enable us to reconstruct the exact building, or even to form more than a vague conception of its external appearance. Both in Kings and Chronicles the notices, as Keil says, are "incomplete extracts made independently of one another." and vague in essential details. Critics and architects have attempted to reproduce the Temple on Greek, Egyptian, and Phoenician models, so entirely unlike each other as to show that we can arrive at no certainty. It is, however, most probable that, alike in ornamentation and conception, the building was predominantly Phoenician. Severe in outline, gorgeous in detail, it was more like the Temple of Venus-Astarte at Paphos than any other. Fortunately the details, apart from such dim symbolism as we may detect in them, have no religious importance, but only a historic and antiquarian interest. The Temple-called Baith or Hekal -was surrounded by the thickly clustered houses of the Levites, and by porticoes through which the precincts were entered by numerous gates of wood overlaid with brass. A grove of olives, palms, cedars, and cypresses, the home of many birds, probably adorned the outer court. This court was shut from the "higher court," {Jer 36:10} afterwards known as "the Court of the Priests," by a partition of three rows of hewn stones surmounted by a cornice of cedar beams. In the higher court, which was reached by a flight of steps, was the vast new altar of brass, 15 feet high and 30 feet long, of which the hollow was filled with earth and stones, and of which the blazing sacrifices were visible in the court below. Here also stood the huge molten sea, borne on the backs of twelve brazen oxen, of which three faced to each quarter of the heavens. It was in the form of a lotus blossom, and its rim was hung with three hundred wild gourds in bronze, cast in two rows. Its reservoir of eight hundred and eighty gallons of water was for the priestly ablutions necessary in the butcheries of sacrifice, and its usefulness was supplemented by ten brazen caldrons on wheels, five on each side, adorned like "the sea," with pensile garlands and cherubic emblems, Whether "the brazen serpent of the wilderness," to which the children of Israel burnt incense down to the days of Hezekiah, was in that court or in the Temple we do not know. On the western side of this court, facing the rising sun, stood the Temple itself, on a platform elevated some sixteen feet from the ground. Its side chambers were "lean-to" annexes (Hebrews, ribs ; Vulg., tabulata ) in three stories, all accessible by one central entrance on the outside. Their beams rested on rebatements in the thickness of the wall, and the highest was the broadest. Above these were windows "skewed and closed," as the margin of the A.V. says; or "broad within and narrow without"; or, as it should rather be rendered, "with closed crossbeams," that is, with immovable lattices, which could not be opened and shut, but which allowed the escape of the smoke of lamps and the fumes of incense. These chambers must also have had windows. They were used to store the garments of the priests and other necessary paraphernalia of the Temple service, but as to all details we are left completely in the dark. Of the external aspect of the building in Solomon’s day we know nothing. We cannot even tell whether it had one level roof, or whether the Holy of Holies was like a lower chancel at the end of it; nor whether the roof was flat or, as the Rabbis say, ridged; nor whether the outer surface of the three-storeyed chambers which surrounded it was of stone, or planked with cedar, or overlaid with plinths of gold and silver; nor whether, in any case, it was ornamented with carvings or left blank; nor whether the cornices only were decorated with open flowers like the Assyrian rosettes. Nor do we know with certainty whether it was supported within by pillars or not. In the state of the records as they have come down to us, all accurate or intelligible descriptions are slurred over by compilers who had no technical knowledge and whose main desire was to impress their countrymen with the truth that the holy building was-as indeed for its day it was-"exceeding magnifical of fame and of glory throughout all countries." In front of or just within the porch were two superb pillars, regarded as miracles of Tyrian art, made of fluted bronze, 27 feet high and 18 feet thick. Their capitals of 7 1/2 feet in height resembled an open lotus blossom, surrounded by double wreaths of two hundred pensile bronze pomegranates, supporting an abacus, carved with conventional lily work. Both pomegranates and lilies had a symbolic meaning. The pillars were, for unknown reasons, called Jachin and Boaz. Much about them is obscure. It is not even known whether they stood detached like obelisks, or formed Propylaea; or supported the architraves of the porch itself, or were a sort of gateway, surmounted by a melathron with two epithemas, like a Japanese or Indian toran. The porch ( Olam ), which was of the same height as the house ( i.e . 45 feet high), was hung with the gilded shields of Hadadezer’s soldiers which David had taken in battle, and perhaps also with consecrated armor, like the sword of Goliath, {2Sa 8:7, 1Ch 18:7} to show that "unto the Lord belongeth our shield," {Psa 89:18} and that "the shields of the earth belong unto God." {Psa 47:9} A door of cypress wood, of two leaves, made in four squares, 7 1/2 feet broad and high, turning on golden hinges overlaid with gold, and carved with palm branches and festoons of lilies and pomegranates, opened from the porch into the main apartment. This was the Mikdash , Holy Place, or Sanctuary, and sometimes specially called in Chaldee "the Palace" ( Hekal , or Birah ). {Ezr 5:14-15, etc.} Before it, as in the Tabernacle, hung an embroidered curtain ( Masak ). It was probably supported by four pillars on each side. In the interspaces were five tables on each side, overlaid with gold, and each encircled by a wreath of gold ( zer ). On these were placed the cakes of shewbread. At the end of the chamber, on each side the door of the Holiest, were five golden candlesticks with chains of wreathed gold hanging between them. In the center of the room stood the golden altar of incense, and somewhere (we must suppose) the golden candlestick of the Tabernacle, with its seven branches ornamented with lilies, pomegranates, and calices of almond flowers. Nothing which was in the darkness of the Holiest was visible except the projecting golden staves with which the Ark had been carried to its place. The Holy Place itself was lighted by narrow slits. The entrance to the Holiest, the Debir , or oracle, which corresponded to the Greek adytum , was through a two-leaved door of olive wood, 6 feet high and broad, overlaid with gold, and carved with palms, cherubim, and open flowers. The partition was of cedar wood. The floor of the whole house was of cedar overlaid with gold. The interior of this "Oracle," as it was called-for the title "Holy of Holies" is of later origin-was, at any rate in the later Temples, concealed by an embroidered veil of blue, purple, and crimson, looped up with golden chains. The Oracle, like the New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse, was a perfect cube, 30 feet broad and long and high, covered with gold, but shrouded in perpetual and unbroken darkness. No light was ever visible in it save such as was shed by the crimson gleam of the thurible of incense which the high priest carried into it once a year on the Great Day of Atonement. In the center of the floor must apparently have risen the mass of rock which is still visible in the Mosque of Omar, from which it is called Al Sakhra , "the Dome of the Rock." Tradition pointed to it as the spot on which Abraham had laid for sacrifice the body of his son Isaac, when the angel restrained the descending knife. It was also the site of Araunah’s threshing-floor, and had been. therefore hallowed by two angelic apparitions. On it was deposited with solemn ceremony the awful palladium of the Ark, which had been preserved through the wanderings and wars of the Exodus and the troublous days of the Judges. It contained the most sacred possession of the nation, the most priceless treasure which Israel guarded for the world. This treasure was the Two Tables of the Ten Commandments, graven (in the anthropomorphic language of the ancient record) by the actual finger of God; the tables which Moses had shattered on the rocks of Mount Sinai as he descended to the backsliding people. The Ark was covered with its old "Propitiatory," or "Mercy-seat," overshadowed by the wings of two small cherubim; but Solomon had prepared for its reception a new and far more magnificent covering, in the form of two colossal cherubim, 15 feet high, of which each expanded wing was 7 1/2 feet long. These wings touched the outer walls of the Oracle, and also touched each other over the center of the Ark. Such was the Temple. It was the "forum, fortress, university, and sanctuary" of the Jews, ‘and the transitory emblem of the Church of Christ’s kingdom. It was destined to occupy a large share in the memory, and even in the religious development, of the world, because it became the central point round which crystallized the entire history of the Chosen People. The kings of Judah are henceforth estimated with almost exclusive reference to the relation in which they stood to the centralized worship of Jehovah. The Spanish kings who built and decorated the Escurial caught the spirit of Jewish annals when, in the Court of the Kings, they reared the six colossal statues of David the originator, of Solomon the founder, of Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Josiah, and Manasseh ‘the restorers or purifiers of the Temple worship. It required the toil of 300, 000 men for twenty years to build one of the pyramids. It took two hundred years to build and four hundred to embellish the great Temple of Artemis of the Ephesians. It took more than five centuries to give to Westminster Abbey its present form. Solomon’s Temple only took seven and a half years to build; but, as we shall see, its objects were wholly different from those of the great shrines which we have mentioned. The wealth lavished upon it was such that its dishes, bowls, cups, even its snuffers and snuffer trays, and its meanest utensils, were of pure gold. The massiveness of its substructions, the splendor of its materials, the artistic skill displayed by the Tyrian workmen in all its details and adornments, added to the awful sense of its indwelling Deity, gave it an imperishable fame. Needing but little repair, it stood for more than four centuries. Succeeded as it was by the Temples of Zerubbabel and of Herod, it carried down till seventy years after the Christian era the memory of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, of which it preserved the general outline, though it exactly doubled all the proportions and admitted many innovations. The dedication ceremony was carried out with the utmost pomp. It required nearly a year to complete the necessary preparations, and the ceremony with its feasts occupied fourteen days; which were partly coincident with the autumn Feast of Tabernacles. The dedication falls into three great acts. The first was the removal of the Ark to its new home; {1Ki 8:1-3} then followed the speech and the prayer of Solomon ( 1 Kings 8:12-61 ); and, finally, the great holocaust was offered ( 1 Kings 8:62-66 ). The old Tabernacle, or what remained of it, with its precious heirlooms, was carried by priests and Levites from the high place at Gibeon, which was henceforth abandoned. This procession was met by another, far more numerous and splendid, consisting of all the princes, nobles, and captains, which brought the Ark from the tent erected for it on Mount Zion by David forty years before. The Israelites had flocked to Jerusalem in countless multitudes, under their sheykhs and emirs from the border of Hamath on the Orontes, north of Mount Lebanon, to the Wady el-Areesh. The king, in his most regal state, accompanied the procession, and the Ark passed through myriads of worshippers crowded in the outer court, from the tent on Mount Zion into the darkness of the Oracle on Mount Moriah, where it continued, unseen perhaps by any human eye but that of the high priest once a year, until it was carried away by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon. To indicate that this was to be its rest for ever, the staves, contrary to the old law, were drawn out of the golden rings through which they ran, in order that no human hand might touch the sacred emblem itself when it was borne on the shoulders of the Levitic priests. "And there they are unto this day," writes the compiler from his ancient record, long after Temple and Ark had ceased to exist. The king is the one predominant figure, and the high priest is not once mentioned. Nathan is only mentioned by the heathen historian Eupolemos. Visible to the whole vast multitude, Solomon stood in the inner court on a high scaffolding of brass. Then came a burst of music and psalmody from the priests and musicians, robed in white robes, who densely thronged the steps of the great altar. They held in their hands their glittering harps and cymbals, and psalteries in their precious frames of red sandal wood, and twelve of their number rent the air with the blast of their silver trumpets as Solomon, in this supreme hour of his prosperity, shone forth before his people in all his manly beauty. At the sight of that stately figure in its gorgeous robes the song of praise was swelled by innumerable voices, and, to crown all, a blaze of sudden glory wrapped the Temple and the whole scene in heaven’s own splendor. {2Ch 5:13-14} First, the king, standing with his back to the people, broke out into a few words of prophetic song. Then, turning to the multitude, he blessed them-he, and not the high priest-and briefly told them the history and significance of this house of God, warning them faithfully that the Temple after all was but the emblem of God’s presence in the midst of them, and that the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worshipped with men’s hands as though He needed anything. After this he advanced to the altar, and kneeling on his knees {2Ch 6:13} #NAME?After the dedicatory prayer both the outer and the inner court of the Temple reeked and swam with the blood of countless victims-victims so numerous that the great brazen altar became wholly insufficient for them. At the close of the entire festival they departed to their homes with joy and gladness. But whatever the Temple might or might not be to the people, the king used it as his own chapel. Three times a year, we are told, he offered-and for all that appears, offered with his own hand without the intervention of any priest burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar. Not only this, but he actually "burnt incense therewith upon the altar which was before the Lord,"-the very thing which was regarded as so deadly a crime in the case of King Uzziah. Throughout the history of the monarchy, the priests, with scarcely any exception, seem to have been passive tools in the hands of the kings. Even under Rehoboam much more under Ahaz and Manasseh-the sacred precincts were defiled with nameless abominations, to which, so far as we know, the priests offered no resistance. 1 Kings 7:13 And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. THE IDEAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TEMPLE 1 Kings 7:13-51 ; 1 Kings 8:12-61 "The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." - John 4:21 ; John 4:23 . FIVE long chapters of the First Book of Kings are devoted to the description of Solomon's Temple, which occupies a still larger space in the Books of Chronicles. The Temple was regarded as the permanent form of the ancient Tabernacle, which is described with lengthy and minute detail in Exodus. It might seem, therefore, that there must be some clear explanation of the idea which this sacred building was intended to embody. Yet it is by no means easy to ascertain what this idea was, and those who have deeply studied the question have in age after age been led to widely different views. 1. Philo and Josephus, with certain variations of detail, regard it as a symbol of the universe-the world of idea and the world of sense. Thus the seven-branched candlestick represents the seven planets; the twelve cakes of shewbread are the twelve signs of the Zodiac; the court is the earth; the sanctuary the sea; and the oracle the heavens. The theory derives no importance from its authorship. Neither Philo nor Josephus, nor the Rabbis, nor the Fathers who adopted their views, have the least authority in such matters; and Philo, who led the way in mystical interpretation, abounds in fantasies which are ludicrously impossible, and are now universally rejected. 2. The Talmudists held that the Tabernacle was the exact copy of one in heaven, and that its services reflected those of the heavenly hierarchy. This view went into the extreme of literalism, as the other did into the extreme of spiritualization. It was based on the text, "Look that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount." {Exo 25:40; Exo 26:30 Act 7:44 Heb 8:5} The Book of Chronicles goes so far in this direction as to say that David received from Jehovah the exact pattern of the Temple down to its minutest details, together with the entire priestly and Levitic organization of its services. "All this," says David to Solomon, "the Lord made me to understand in writing, by His hand upon me, even all the works in the pattern." 3. Christian writers have seen in the Temple an emblem of the visible, the invisible, and the triumphant Church. Such symbolic interpretation depends on the most arbitrary combinations, and does not rise higher than an exercise of fancy. It has not the smallest exegetic importance. 4. Luther thought that the Tabernacle and Temple were emblems of human nature:-the court, the sanctuary, and the oracle corresponding to the body, the soul, and the spirit. Later writers have pushed this opinion, already sufficiently baseless, into the absurdest detail. 5. The much simpler view of Maimonides who is followed by our learned Spencer, is that the Temple was simply the palace of Jehovah, with its vestibule, its audience hall, its Presence-chamber, its attendant courtiers, its throne, and its offerings of food and wine and sacrifice. The simplicity of this conception seems to be in accordance with what we know of ancient forms of worship, and it is certain that in many heathen temples the offerings of food and wine were supposed to be consumed by the god. The name "palace" is, however, only given to the Temple in one chapter; {1Ch 29:1; 1Ch 29:19} and the Hebrew, or rather the Persian, word so rendered ( birah ) may also be rendered "fortress." 6. In truth we cannot be sure that the idea of the Temple remained single and definite through so many ages. It was probably a composite and varying emblem, of which the original significance had become mingled with many later elements. It is, however, certain that many numbers and details were symbolical, and there was a deep insight and magnificent completeness in the manner in which certain truths were shadowed forth by its construction and its central service. The book in which its symbolism is most thoroughly worked out is Bahr’s Symbolik . He elaborates, in a simpler form, the opinion of Philo, that the Temple represented "the structure which God has erected, the house in which God lives." So far the fact cannot be disputed for, in Exodus 29:45 we are told that the Tabernacle is called the "House of God" because "I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel, and will be their God." But Bahr takes a great leap when he proceeds to explain the house of God as "the creation of heave