1 Kings 6:32

The two doors also were of olive tree; and he carved upon them carvings of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold, and spread gold upon the cherubims, and upon the palm trees.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(32) The two doors.—Those into the Holy place from the porch, of cypress wood, were naturally made larger. The posts were a fourth of the wall. Hence, according as the wall is taken to be 20 cubits square, or 30 cubits high by 20 wide, the height would be 5 cubits (7½ feet), or 7½ cubits (11¼ feet). The width is not given; possibly it is taken to be the same as that of the other doors. As these doors would be much heavier, and more frequently opened and shut, each leaf was made to fold again upon itself.

Benson Commentary

1 Kings 6:32. The two doors also were of olive-tree — Or, The leaves of the doors; signifying what sort of doors they were, namely, folding-doors, as is more particularly observed 1 Kings 6:34. He carved upon them carvings of cherubims, &c., and overlaid them with gold — When the veil, which covered this whole partition, with the doors of it, was drawn aside to give entrance to the high-priest into the holy of holies on the great day of atonement, then these beautiful doors of olive-tree, thus overlaid with gold, and curiously engraved, were displayed to his view, and the view of such priests as might be in the holy place; but otherwise they were seldom seen, and never but by the priests only.

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 two doors - i. e., two leaves which met in the middle, as in the Assyrian gate-ways generally.

Spread gold - The doors were not simply sheeted with gold, like the floors 1 Kings 6:30, but had the gold hammered to fit the forms of the palms, cherubs, and flowers carved upon them. 1 Kings 6:35. Such hammered metal-work, generally in bronze, has been found in tolerable abundance among the Assyrian remains.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

31-35. for the entering of the oracle—The door of the most holy place was made of solid olive tree and adorned with figures. The door of the holy place was made of cypress wood, the sides being of olive wood.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The two doors also were of olive tree,.... The two leaves of the door, as before observed, repeated for the sake of the ornament of them, as follows:

and he carved upon them carvings of cherubims, and palm trees, and open flowers; as upon the walls, 1 Kings 6:29;

and overlaid them with gold; the two doors:

and spread gold upon the cherubims, and upon the palm trees; thin plates of gold.

Geneva Study Bible

The two doors also were of olive tree; and he carved upon them carvings of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold, and {n} spread gold upon the cherubims, and upon the palm trees.

(n) So that the fashion of the carved work might still appear.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

32. The two doors also were] As there is nothing to make the noun here definite, it is better to understand the verb ‘he made.’ Render ‘so he made two doors of olive-wood.’

and spread gold] Better, and made necessary by the text, ‘and he spread the gold.’ Here a different process is described. The walls and floors were covered with flat plates of gold nailed on (see 2 Chronicles 3:9), but to cover the carved work the gold must be beaten to fit. The verb employed here gives the idea of pressure exerted to force the metal into the needful shapes.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 32. - The two doors also wore [Rather, perhaps, "And he made" is to be supplied from ver. 31, as Keil. Rawlinson remarks that such doors as these are characteristic of Assyrian gateways] of olive tree: and he carved upon them carvings of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold, and spread [וַיָּרֶד Hiph. of רָדַד] gold [Heb. the gold] upon the cherubims and upon the palm trees [The writer means, not that the carving alone was gilded - as Thenius thinks, who remarks on the effective contrast which the dark red cedar and the bright gold would furnish) - but that the gilding did not conceal the character of the carvings. It is clear from ver. 22 that "all the house" blazed with gold in every part. If the floors were covered with gold, we may be sure both walls and doors would not be without their coating of the precious metal. Our author does not mention the curtain - it is clear that the doors would not dispense with the necessity for a vail - but the chronicler does (2 Chronicles 3:14). It was necessary in order to cover the ark (Exodus 40:3, 21); hence it was sometimes called "the vail of the covering." But for this, when the doors were opened on the day of atonement, the priest in the holy place might have gazed into the oracle. See on 1 Kings 8:8. The doors opened outwardly (into the house). The vail was suspended within the oracle.] 1 Kings 6:32

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"And two doors (i.e., folding doors, sc. he made; וּשׁתּי is also governed by עשׂה in 1 Kings 6:31) of olive wood, and carved upon them carved work," etc., as upon the walls (1 Kings 6:29), "and overlaid them with gold, spreading the gold upon the cherubs and palms" (ירד, hiphil of רדד), i.e., he spread gold-leaf upon them, so that, as Rashi observes, all the figures, the elevations and depressions of the carved work, were impressed upon the coating of gold-leaf, and were thus plainly seen. Thenius infers from this explanatory clause, that the gilding upon the walls and doors was most probably confined to the figures engraved, and did not extend over the whole of the walls and doors, because, if the doors had been entirely overlaid with gold, the gilding of the carved work upon them would have followed as a matter of course. But this inference is a very doubtful one. For if it followed as a matter of course from the gilding of the entire doors that the carved work upon them was overlaid with gold, it would by no means follow that the overlaying was such as to leave the carved work visible or prominent, which this clause affirms. Moreover, a partial gilding of the walls would not coincide with the expression כּל־הבּית עד־תּם in 1 Kings 6:22, since these words, which are used with emphasis, evidently affirm more than "that such (partial) gilding was carried out everywhere throughout the temple proper." The doors in front of the Most Holy Place did not render the curtain mentioned in 2 Chronicles 3:14 unnecessary, as many suppose. This curtain may very well have been suspended within the doors; so that even when the doors were opened outwards on the entrance of the high priest, the curtain formed a second covering, which prevented the priests who were ministering in the Holy Place and court from looking in.

(Note: H. Merz (Herzog's Cycl.) now admits this, whereas he formerly agreed with Ewald and others in denying the existence of the curtain in Solomon's temple, and regarded the curtain (veil) in Matthew 27:51-52 as an arbitrary addition made by Herod out of his princely caprice, thus overlooking the deep symbolical meaning which the veil or curtain possessed.)