I Kings Chapter 7 "Other
Buildings [1-12]." This Bible
Study is written by Roger Christopherson, and it's
transcription is provided with written permission by http://www.theseason.org I Kings 7:1 "But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house." I Kings 7:2 "He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon; the length thereof fifty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars." Remember the cubit is about 22 inches to 25 inches, and the actual distance can not be determined today. I Kings 7:3 "And it was covered with cedar above upon the beams, that lay on forty five pillars, fifteen in a row." I Kings 7:4 "And there were windows in three rows, and light was against light in three ranks." I Kings 7:5 "And all the doors and posts were square, with the windows: and light was against light in three ranks." The doors are the entrances into the Temple. I Kings 7:6 "And he made a porch of pillars; the length thereof thirty cubits: and the porch was before them: and the other pillars and the thick beam were before them." I 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 on side of the floor to the other." I 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." I Kings 7:9 "All these were of costly stones, according to the measures of hewed stones, sawed with saws, within and with out, even from the foundation unto the coping, and so on the out side toward the great court." "Sawed with saws", in the Hebrew text is the Hebrew word "Polyptoton", meaning "a repetition of the same to give many reflections." I Kings 7:10 "And the foundation was of costly stones, even great stones, stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits." I Kings 7:11 "And above were costly stones, after the measures of hewed stones, and cedars." I 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." I Kings 7:13 "And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre." I 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." We see from II Chronicles 2:14 that Hiram, the widow's son, was by birth from the tribe of Dan, however by marriage from the tribe of Naphtali. The word "cunning" as used here meant that he was knowing and skillful in his trade. So to "work the works of brass", meant that he was skilled in the casting of brass. I 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." I 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." The "chapiter" was the "crown or capital", the top of the pillar. So these pillars stood some 35 to 36 feet high made of stone, and about ten feet in circumference, and at the top of each pillar, was this crown made of cast brass that stood about another ten feet. I 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," I 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." I Kings 7:19 "And the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars were of lily work in the porch four cubits." I 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 tows round about upon the other chapiter. I Kings 7:21 "And he [Hiram out of Tyre] 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." These two massive pillars of beauty made at the hands of of Hiram, appeared to be identical in every way. When they wee completed and set in place, Hiram named each of the pillars, the one he named "Jachin", which in the Hebrew tongue means "He (God) will establish". "Boaz" in the Hebrew tongue means "In Him (God) is strength." I Kings 7:22 "And upon the top of the pillars was lily work: so was the work of the pillars finished." I 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." I 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." "This molten sea" was a brass laver containing these knobs [knops]. I 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." I 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." In II Chronicles 4:5, another account of these dimensions are given to be "three thousand baths". I 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." I Kings 7:28 "And the work of the bases was on this manner: they had borders, and the borders were between the ledges:" I 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." The Companion Bible suggest that these "additions" were wreaths, for it is only mentioned here in the Scriptures. I 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." These wheels show that these lavers were movable; and indicating that when "That which is perfect should come (The washing of the Spirit, of Acts 1:5), it would be the type (water) was to be washed (wheeled) away." The Old Testament gives us types for the New Testament times. I 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." We will see in II Kings 16:17 that these borders or panels were removed by Ahaz, and later replaced by Hezekiah in II Chronicles 29:19. These panels existed to the time of the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, and the dismantling of the Temple of Jeremiah's day [Jeremiah 52:17; 20]. I Kings 7:32 "And under the borders were four wheels; and the axletrees of the wheels were jined to the base: and the height of the wheel was a cubit and half a cubit." I Kings 7:33 "And the work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel: their axtetrees, and their naves, and their felloes, and their spokes, were all molten." "The naves and their felloes" is the hub and spokes within each wheel, and they were all of molten brass. These wheels were about thirty inches high. I Kings 7:34 "And there were four undersetters to the four corners of one base: and the undersetters were of the very base itself." The word "undersetters" comes from an ancient word meaning "to clothe", #3802 in the Strong's Hebrew dictionary. So on the four corners of these bases there were garments hanging from the base, to give the appearance of covering the base. I 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." I 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." Each of these carved statutes were reduced in size to the proportion of the ledges that they were to be resting on. So if the ledges of the base were "half a cubit", or about 12 inches, of course you can't set a full scale lion or palm tree on the ledge, but it would be reduced to a size to where will will stand comfortably. I Kings 7:37 "After this manner he made the ten bases all of them had on casting, on measure, and one size." I 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." I 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." I 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:" I Kings 7:41 "The two pillars, and the two bowls of the chapiters [crown of brass] 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;" These "two networks", are what we would call lattices today, and they covered over the tow bowls fo the crowns of those two pillars that Hiram called Jachin and Boaz. I 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;" I Kings 7:43 "And the ten bases, and ten lavers on the bases;" These 400 pomegranates were decorations on the two bowls, the lattices work and on the brass crowns, that were on the top of the two stone pillars. Remember these pillars were huge, they stood about thirty five heet high of stone, with an additional ten feet of these chapiters or crowns resting on top of the pillars. I Kings 7:44 "And one sea, and twelve oxen under the sea;" I 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." I Kings 7:46 "In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarthan." I Kings 7:47 "And Solomon left all the vessels unweighted, because they were exceeding many: neither was the weight of the brass found out." Hiram and his helpers cast so many of these vessels that they simply were not counted, nor weighed as far as all having the same weight and size. Each of these vessels or cups were to be used in the Temple itself. I Kings 7:48 "And Solomon made all the vessels that pertained unto the house of the Lord: the altar of God, and the table of gold, whereupon the shewbread was." "The Vessels" as used here are the furniture that would go into the house of the Lord. The altar of God, and the table that the "shewbread" was to set upon was all solid gold. I Kings 7:49 "And the candlesticks of pure gold, five on the right side, and five on the left, before the oracle, wit the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs of gold," The candlesticks and all the decorations were made of pure gold, note that an alloy was not used with the gold to give it strength. I 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 hose, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, to wit, of the temple." The censers, the snuffers for the candles, the washbasins, all the spoons, and even the hinges on the doors were made with gold. This "most holy place" of course is the "Holy of holies", the place where the high priest would go in to commune with the Father. I 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." Those things which David his father had dedicated: are the things that David had given over and dedicated to God. So the Temple is finished, however, it will be about three years before Solomon will finally dedicate the Temple for service. Remember that the worship was being practiced and sacrifices made at the tabernacle, and the Temple had to be made ready for the moving into the main sanctuary.
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