Poole on 1 Kings 6:16-18: Solomon's Temple: The Interior

Verse 16:[1]  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 (Ex. 26:33; Lev. 16:2; 2 Chron. 3:8; Ezek. 45:3; Heb. 9:3) most holy place.

[And he built twenty cubits on the posterior part of the temple,וַיִּבֶן֩ אֶת־עֶשְׂרִ֙ים אַמָּ֜ה מִֽיַּרְכּוֹתֵ֤י הַבַּ֙יִת֙]  And he built (covered with boards [Junius and Tremellius]) twenty cubits (or, by a space of twenty cubits [Strigelius, Munster]) from the sides (or extremities [Jonathan, Syriac]) of the house (Montanus, Mariana, Tigurinus), or from the sides of the oracle of the house (Munster), or upon the sides of the house (Dutch), or on both sides of the house (Strigelius), towards the sides of that house (Junius and Tremellius).  The sense:  He covered the long space twenty cubits, that is, a transverse partition:  that is, from the sixty cubits of length (which was the length of the Temple [Dutch]) he separated twenty, etc. (Vatablus).  He covered the intermediate wall, whereby the Holy Place was distinguished from the Holy of Holies (Dutch).  Question:  Since the whole temple was thirty cubits tall, how is it here said that the Holy of Holies had only twenty cubits of height?  Response 1:  The Holy of Holies was ten cubits shorter than the former part (certain interpreters in Martyr).  Response 2:  Others more plausibly say that twenty cubits were of an uninterrupted and similar work, covered with cedar and gold.  But that the upper ten cubits were covered with precious stones (Martyr).  Yet others maintain that the walls were bare in those ten cubits (Ribera in Lapide).  Response 3:  Upon this story of twenty cubits was placed an arch of cedar, which was rising another ten cubits (Lapide out of Villalpando).  Response 4:  These twenty cubits of height are not to be taken with respect to all the sides of the Holy of Holies; but only with respect to the Eastern part, or space, where it was divided from the rest of the house.  There an opening of ten cubits was left, both so that the perfumed smoke from the altar of incense might penetrate to the Holy of Holies; and so that through that opening the light of the candlestick might be diffused there (Martyr).  [Response 5:  While these twenty cubits are said to have been built ‎מִן־הַקַּרְקַ֖ע עַד־הַקִּיר֑וֹת, which most render, from the ground, or foundation, to the walls, or to the heaven, ceiling, etc., some translate it otherwise:]  From the ground unto the very walls (Junius and Tremellius), that is, the floor alone from one wall to the other (Piscator out of Junius).  And this pavement was excelling the exterior one in this, that it was covered with boards of cedar, but that with boards of fir (Malvenda).

Twenty cubits on the sides of the house, that is, the most holy place, which contained in the length of the house twenty cubits, by comparing this with verses 2 and 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 (that is, 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, that is, from one side to the other.  And so this is meant only of the partition-wall, which was between the holy and the most holy place.  Both the floor and the walls, or rather, as verse 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, verse 2, it may be replied, either that that is true only of the greater house, or the holy place, which is called the house, verse 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.

[And he made the inner house of the oracle into the Holy of Holies,‎וַיִּ֤בֶן לוֹ֙ מִבַּ֣יִת לִדְבִ֔יר לְקֹ֖דֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִֽׁים׃]  And he built for himself (or for Him, namely, God [Junius]) in the house (that is, in the interior part of the house [Vatablus], or inside [Strigelius], or within, understanding, the planks [Mariana]) the oracle, so that it might be the holiness of holinesses (Pagnine, similarly Vatablus, Strigelius, Mariana), or into the Holy of Holies (Jonathan, Vatablus, Junius and Tremellius), that is, the Innermost Sanctuary, which by another name is called the Holy of Holies (Vatablus, similarly the Arabic).  He built…toward the more interior sanctuary of the Holy of Holies (Tigurinus).  That is, building inwardly, by the more secret place of the Temple, in the Holy of Holies (Munster).  And he constructed for that (namely, the house, or temple) internally the oracle, for the Holy of Holies; that is, which is the Holy of Holies; so that each ל in ‎לִדְבִיר [2] and ‎לְקֹדֶשׁ [3] are of the accusative case, as often elsewhere; the same as אֶת,[4] which is also very common among the Syrians (Dieu).

For the oracle, even for the most holy place, that is, 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 ל/ 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.

Verse 17:[5]  And the house, that is, the temple before it, was forty cubits long.

[Of forty cubits, etc., ‎וְאַרְבָּעִ֥ים בָּאַמָּ֖ה הָיָ֣ה הַבָּ֑יִת ה֖וּא הַהֵיכָ֥ל לִפְנָֽי׃]  And of forty cubits was the house (Pagnine, Jonathan, Vatablus, similarly Montanus, Osiander), that is, the remaining part of the house, namely, the holy place (Vatablus).  This is necessarily done, because from the sixty cubits, of which the whole house consists, the inner subtracted twenty (Sanchez); that is the temple as opposed to the oracle (Pagnine, similarly Jonathan, Septuagint, Vatablus, that is, before the face of the oracle.  Others:  in the interior part.  Since פָּנִים signifies faces or forms:  whence לִפְנָי/before, which is put for פְּנׅימָי/inner as form,[6] and the ל is superfluous (Vatablus).  Others:  Of forty cubits was that house, that more anterior temple (Junius and Tremellius), or, namely, the holy place per se (Tigurinus), or namely, the Temple, which was before that (Dutch, similarly the English), the very temple towards my faces (Montanus, Mariana), or towards the faces of it, that is, of the oracle (Mariana) [as if he had read לִפָנָיו, to the faces of it, and perhaps the ו dropped off].  That is, internally (Malvenda); he was in the more inward parts, or the internal part (Vatablus), that is, with respect to the vestibule, or portico, not the oracle (Vatablus, Mariana).  There were forty cubits for that house, that is, for the exterior temple before the oracle (Munster, similarly Castalio, Strigelius).

The house, that is, the holy place.  That is, the temple:  this is added to restrain the signification of the word house, which otherwise notes the whole building.  Before it, that is, before the oracle.  Or, as it is in the Hebrew, לִפְנָי, before my face, that is, before the place of my presence.  Or it may be said to be before God, because he being pleased to describe himself as sitting upon the cherubim, hath his face towards this house, where he beholds the services of his people.  So this part of the house, distinct from the most holy, hath its harmonious proportions also.  The length forty, to the height thirty, is sesquitertian, or four to three (which is that of a fourth in music); the length to the breadth, forty to twenty, as two to one; the height to the breadth, thirty to twenty, as three to two.

Verse 18:[7]  And the cedar of the house within was carved with knops (or gourds[8]) and open flowers (Heb. openings of flowers[9]):  all was cedar; there was no stone seen.

[It was clothed within, ‎פְּנִימָה]  In the inward part (Vatablus, thus Malvenda), properly more outward.  Thus the Hebrews call what is more inward; for to those proceeding inwardly the exterior things are behind, and the interior things are before (Malvenda).

[Having the turnings, etc., ‎מִקְלַ֣עַת פְּקָעִ֔ים]  Carving after the likeness of a bundle of gourds (Montanus); engraved gourds (Junius and Tremellius).  Hebrew:  carvings of gourds, or of mushrooms (Junius and Tremellius); painted after the likeness of wild gourds (Pagnine); carving or engraving of wild gourds (Vatablus, Mariana) (by which understand the fruit and the stem [Vatablus]), or of pomelos[10] (Munster); they were forming slightly projecting knobs (Tigurinus).  To some מִקְלַעַת is oscillation, to others rotation,[11] that is to say, a carving after the manner of wheels.  Properly a sling-like relief, that is, a carving made after the manner of a sling.  But they say that פְּקָעִים is small pouches of an oblong rounded shape, after the manner of a gourd or oblong egg (Malvenda).  He carved the image of eggs (Jonathan); he engraved on the panels the figures of apples (Arabic).

[And raised carvings, ‎וּפְטוּרֵ֖י צִצִּ֑ים [12]]  And the openings (or carvings [Munster, Pagnine]) of flowers (Montanus, Vatablus, Junius, Piscator), understanding, various were in them (Vatablus); and opened flowers (Junius and Tremellius, Tigurinus); both of bands and of lilies (Jonathan, Syriac, Arabic).

[All things were dressed with cedar panels]  See on 2 Samuel 7:7 (Grotius).  But the house, which is here said to have been clothed with cedar panels, in 2 Chronicles 3:5 is said to have been clothed with panels of fir.  Response:  To be added there (and in other similar places) the particle even; and the passage is thus to be rendered, he covered the house with panels of wood, even of fir.  The Book of Kings speaks only of the panels of cedar, because the house for the most part was covered with them; but with fir, either little, or much less.  But, since something of the fir was inserted to cover the stones, the writer of Chronicles was unwilling to omit that, whose purpose it was, not to relate all things, but only those things that had been passed over in the Book of Kings (Sanchez).

All was cedar, that is, all the house was covered with cedar.  Question:  How was this true, when it was covered with fir, 2 Chronicles 3:5?  Answers:  1.  It was done with cedar and fir; of which see on 1 Kings 6:15.  2.  It may be said to be all cedar, because the greatest part was so, universal particles being oft so used.  3. Cedar is here named, not to exclude all other wood, but stone only, as the following words show.  4.  Or, all was of cedar; that is, all the carving was of cedar.

[1] Hebrew: ‎וַיִּבֶן֩ אֶת־עֶשְׂרִ֙ים אַמָּ֜ה מִֽיַּרְכּוֹתֵ֤י הַבַּ֙יִת֙ בְּצַלְע֣וֹת אֲרָזִ֔ים מִן־הַקַּרְקַ֖ע עַד־הַקִּיר֑וֹת וַיִּ֤בֶן לוֹ֙ מִבַּ֣יִת לִדְבִ֔יר לְקֹ֖דֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִֽׁים׃

[2] דְּבִיר signifies oracle.

[3] קֹדֶשׁ signifies holiness.

[4] The Direct Object marker.

[5] Hebrew:  ‎וְאַרְבָּעִ֥ים בָּאַמָּ֖ה הָיָ֣ה הַבָּ֑יִת ה֖וּא הַהֵיכָ֥ל לִפְנָֽי׃

[6] The idea appears to be that before relates to facing or presenting the form of something.

[7] Hebrew:  ‎וְאֶ֤רֶז אֶל־הַבַּ֙יִת֙ פְּנִ֔ימָה מִקְלַ֣עַת פְּקָעִ֔ים וּפְטוּרֵ֖י צִצִּ֑ים הַכֹּ֣ל אֶ֔רֶז אֵ֥ין אֶ֖בֶן נִרְאָֽה׃

[8] Hebrew:  ‎פְּקָעִים.

[9] Hebrew:  ‎וּפְטוּרֵ֖י צִצִּ֑ים.

[10] The pomelo is a large citrus fruit, similar to the grapefruit.

[11] קָלַע signifies to slight, or to hurl forth.

[12] פָּטַר signifies to separate, to set free, or even to spread.