1 Kings 6:16

And he built twenty cubits on the sides of the house, both the floor and the walls with boards of cedar: he even built them for it within, even for the oracle, even for the most holy place.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16, 17) These verses describe the division of the Temple, by a partition from floor to ceiling of cedar wood, into “the Oracle,” or Holy of Holies, occupying twenty cubits of the length, and the rest of the house, exclusive of the porch, occupying forty cubits. The cedar panelling was carved throughout with (see margin) “gourds and open flowers,” probably festooned, as usual in ancient architecture. In all this the influence of the Tyrian architects was probably felt.

Benson Commentary

1 Kings 6:16. He built twenty cubits on the sides of the house — He speaks here of the most holy place, which contained in length twenty cubits, and might be said to be on the sides of the house, because it took off twenty cubits in length from each side of the house, and was also twenty cubits from side to side, so it was twenty cubits every way. He built them for it within, even for the oracle, the most holy place — The last words are added to explain what he means by the word oracle, which he had not used before: this was the most important of all the parts of the house, because here the divine glory was present, and from hence God gave answers when he was consulted, on which account it is termed the oracle.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:15-38 See what was typified by this temple. 1. Christ is the true Temple. In him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead; in him meet all God's spiritual Israel; through him we have access with confidence to God. 2. Every believer is a living temple, in whom the Spirit of God dwells, 1Co 3:16. This living temple is built upon Christ as its Foundation, and will be perfect in due time. 3. The gospel church is the mystical temple. It grows to a holy temple in the Lord, enriched and beautified with the gifts and graces of the Spirit. This temple is built firm, upon a Rock. 4. Heaven is the everlasting temple. There the church will be fixed. All that shall be stones in that building, must, in the present state of preparation, be fitted and made ready for it. Let sinners come to Jesus as the living Foundation, that they may be built on him, a part of this spiritual house, consecrated in body and soul to the glory of God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The meaning is, that at the distance of 20 cubits, measured along the side walls of the house from the end wall, Solomon constructed a partition, which reached from the floor to the ceiling and had a doorway in it. He thus made within the house, a sanctuary for a holy of holies.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

1Ki 6:15-22. The Ceiling and Adorning of It.

15-21. he built the walls of the house within—The walls were wainscotted with cedar-wood; the floor, paved with cypress planks; the interior was divided (by a partition consisting of folding doors, which were opened and shut with golden chains) into two apartments—the back or inner room, that is, the most holy place, was twenty cubits long and broad; the front, or outer room, that is, the holy place, was forty cubits. The cedar-wood was beautifully embellished with figures in relievo, representing clusters of foliage, open flowers, cherubims, and palm trees. The whole interior was overlaid with gold, so that neither wood nor stone was seen; nothing met the eye but pure gold, either plain or richly chased.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Twenty cubits on the sides of the house, i.e. the most holy place, which contained in the length of the house twenty cubits, by comparing this with 1 Kings 6:2,17, which may be said to be on the sides of the house because this part took off twenty cubits in length from each side of the house, and was also twenty cubits from side to side; so it was twenty cubits every way. Or, on the sides (i.e. on all the sides, as indeed it was) of the house, or of that house, to wit, the most holy place, as it here follows. Or, from the sides of the house, i.e. from one side to the other. And so this is meant only of the partitionwall, which was between the holy and the most holy place.

Both the floor and the walls, or rather, as 1 Kings 6:15, from the floor to the wall, or ceiling, or roof. So it is not necessary, at least by virtue of these words, to understand this, as they generally do, that the floor itself was built with cedar; but only all the sides of it from the bottom twenty cubits upward. If it be said that the whole house, and consequently the most holy place, was thirty cubits high, 1 Kings 6:2, it may be replied, either that that is true only of the greater house, or the holy place, which is called the house, 1 Kings 6:17, and that the lesser, or the most holy place, was but twenty cubits high, as divers think; or that the ten cubits at the top were covered with some other wood or thing, or were left open, that it might thereby receive both light from the candlesticks, and smoke from the altar of incense.

For the oracle, even for the most holy place, i. e. that it might be the oracle, or the most holy place. Or, on the inner side (whereby he might imply that the outside of the partition-wall which looked towards the holy place was not so covered) of (for the Hebrew lamed is very oft a note of the genitive case) the oracle, even of the most holy place; which last words are added to explain what he means by the word oracle, which he had not used before.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And he built twenty cubits on the sides of the house,.... At the end or extremity of it, as the Targum; that is, he built the most holy place, which was twenty two cubits long, at the end of the holy place, which he wainscotted as the other:

both the floor and the walls with boards of cedar; or from the floor, including that, to the walls on each side, from wall to wall, and taking in them, they were all lined with cedar wood:

he even built them for it within, even for the oracle, even for the most holy place; which explains what building is spoken of, and that the inside of that was covered with cedar from bottom to top.

Geneva Study Bible

And he built twenty cubits on the sides of the house, both the floor and the walls with boards of cedar: he even built them for it within, even for the oracle, even for the most holy place.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. And he built twenty cubits on the sides of the house] This rendering does not make very clear what is intended. The word translated ‘sides’ is often used for the innermost part of anything, as of a cave (1 Samuel 24:4), and of the recesses of a forest, as Lebanon (Isaiah 37:24). So here it signifies the innermost part of the Temple building as you looked from the porch, i.e. toward the farthest wall of the most holy place. The sense then becomes more manifest. He built at twenty cubits from this extreme end something with boards of cedar. Thus he made a separation of the most holy place, which was twenty cubits long, from the holy place. The R.V. gives this more clearly: ‘He built twenty cubits on the hinder part of the house’ with boards of cedar from the floor unto the walls (‘beams’ LXX.), i.e. these twenty cubits were thus shut off and made into a separate room (cf. 2 Chronicles 3:8). There was a doorway for access in this cedarwood partition (see 1 Kings 6:31), and before this probably were put the ‘chains of gold’ spoken of in 1 Kings 6:21. From 2 Chronicles 3:14 it seems that there was a vail in front of the whole of this woodwork, though no mention of it is made here.

It is very difficult to come to a clear idea about the room here provided. It seems certain that it was enclosed on three sides by the chambers built round about, so that there could have been no windows in it, nor any mode of escape for the smoke of the incense, except by openings under the eaves. It appears not to have been as high as the roof of the ‘holy place’. We must remember that it was to be entered by one person only, and that but once a year.

he even built them for it within] i.e. He prepared this space of twenty cubits in the innermost part of the house, to be a separate room.

even for the oracle] The Hebrew says merely ‘for an oracle.’ This name for the most holy place is taken from the Vulgate ‘oraculum.’ The LXX. merely transliterates the Hebrew δαβίρ. The word is connected with the verb דבר (davar), usually rendered ‘to speak,’ and hence the notion of ‘oracle’ as the place where God revealed Himself. So Aquila and Symmachus rendered it sometimes by χρηματιστήριον, and Jerome gives λαλητήριον as an explanation. But the root, or its Arabic cognate, has a sense from which the meaning ‘hinder portion’ might come. Hence some consider the name merely as signifying the innermost part of the Temple building.

the most holy place] Described in the same words in the account of the Tabernacle (Exodus 26:33-34; Numbers 4:4; Numbers 4:19).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - And he built twenty cubits on [Heb. from] the sides of the house both the floor and the walls [Heb. as in ver. 15, "from the floor to the walls" (or beams). If קִירות is a copyist's error, it is repeated here] with boards of cedar [He is now speaking of the wooden partition which separated the oracle from the temple of the house. At a distance of 20 cubits, measured along the sides from the west end of the house, he erected a cedar wall which reached from the floor to the cieling] he even built them [i.e., the 20 cubits] for it [the house] within [The meaning is clear, though the construction is somewhat involved, viz., that he reared this partition inside the house to separate a portion for the oracle] even for the oracle [Heb. an oracle] even for the most holy place [Heb. for the holy of holies]. 1 Kings 6:16

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"And he built אמּה את־עשׂרים, the twenty cubits (i.e., the space of twenty cubits), of the hindermost side of the house with boards of cedar," from the floor to the beams (of the roof). עד־הקּירות is to be explained from הסּפּן קירות עד in 1 Kings 6:15. "And built them for it (the house - לו pointing back to הבּית) into the hinder room, into the Most Holy." דּביר is more precisely defined by the apposition הקּדשׁים קדשׁ, and therefore denotes the Most Holy Place. But there is a doubt as to its derivation and true meaning. Aquila and Symmachus render it χρηματιστήριον, Jerome λαλητήριον, or in the Vulg. oraculum, so that they derive it from דּבר, to speak; and Hengstenberg adopts this derivation in Psalm 28:2 : דּביר, lit., that which is spoken, then the place where the speaking takes place. Most of the more recent commentators, on the other hand, follow the example of C. B. Michaelis and J. Simonis, and render it, after the Arabic, the hinder portion or back room, which is favoured by the antithesis לפני היכל, the front sanctuary (1 Kings 6:17). The words of the text, moreover, are not to be understood as referring to a cedar wall in front of the Most Holy Place which rose to the height of twenty cubits, but to all four walls of the Most Holy Place, so that the wall which divided the hinder room from the Holy Place is not expressly mentioned, simply because it is self-evident. The words also imply that the whole of the hinder space of the house to the length of twenty cubits was cut off for the Most Holy Place, and therefore the party wall must also have filled the whole height of the house, which was as much as thirty cubits, and reached, as is expressly stated, from the floor to the roof. There remained therefore forty cubits of the house (in length) for לפני היכל, the front palace, i.e., the Holy Place of the temple (1 Kings 6:17). לפני, anterior, formed from לפני (cf. Ewald, 164, a.). - In 1 Kings 6:18 there is inserted in a circumstantial clause the statement as to the internal decoration of both rooms; and the further description of the Most Holy Place is given in 1 Kings 6:19. "And cedar wood was (placed) against the house inside, sculpture of gourds (colocynthides) and open buds." מקלעת is in apposition to ארז, containing a more minute description of the nature of the covering of cedar. מקלעת signifies sculpture, half-raised work (basso relievo); not, however, "that kind of bas-relief in which the figures, instead of rising above the surface on which they are wrought, are simply separated from it by the chiselling out of their outlines, and their being then rounded off according to these outlines" (Thenius). For although the expression מקלעות פּתּוּחי (1 Kings 6:29) appears to favour this, yet "merely engraved work" does not harmonize with the decorations of the brazen stands in 1 Kings 7:31, which are also called מקלעות. פּקעים are figures resembling the פּקּעת, or wild gourds (2 Kings 4:39), i.e., oval ornaments, probably running in straight rows along the walls. צצּים פּטוּרי are open flower-buds; not hangings or garlands of flowers (Thenius), for this meaning cannot be derived from פּטר in the sense of loosening or setting free, so as to signify flowers loosened or set free ( equals garlands), which would be a marvellous expression! The objection that, "flowers not yet opened, i.e., flower-buds, were not צצּים, but פּרחים," rests upon a false interpretation of the passage referred to.