Poole on 1 Kings 6:3, 4: The Porch and Windows of the Temple

[A fundraising update: We are about 30% of the way to our fundraising goal 25 new $100/month subscribers! Thanks be to God. If you are being blessed by the translation work, please consider supporting the work and speeding it on its way.  Click here to watch a brief video on the project.]

Verse 3:[1]  And the porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; and ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house.

[And there was a portico before the Temple, etc.,וְהָאוּלָ֗ם עַל־פְּנֵי֙ הֵיכַ֣ל הַבַּ֔יִת עֶשְׂרִ֣ים אַמָּה֙ אָרְכּ֔וֹ]  And the portico (or vestibule, understanding, was [Pagnine, Syriac]) before the Temple (or before the entrance, or door [Syriac, Arabic], before the structure, or edifice [Tigurinus, Munster], before the sanctuary [Castalio], at the front [Mariana], upon the face of the Temple [Montanus]) of the house (Pagnine, Jonathan, Junius and Tremellius, Dutch, English).  The Hebrews call the portico the house of the gate; that is, the edifice which is adjacent to the gate.  Before the temple of that house; that is, before the second part of the house.  The whole structure was divided into two parts, namely, the דְּבִיר, innermost sanctuary, or oracle, in which was the Ark, etc., and the הֵיכָל/temple, in which was the candlestick, the altar of incense, etc. (Vatablus).

[According to the measure of the breadth of the Temple, ‎עַל־פְּנֵ֖י רֹ֣חַב הַבָּ֑יִת]  Upon the face (or according to the front [Junius and Tremellius, Castalio]) of the breadth of the house (Montanus, similarly Castalio, Vatablus); according to (or before [Pagnine, Jonathan, Arabic]) the breadth of the house (Munster, Tigurinus, Strigelius, Dutch, English), that is to say, the vestibule was as long as the house itself was broad (Vatablus, similarly Lapide); hence the length of the portico was joined to the breadth of the temple and equal to it; but the breadth of the portico was joined to the length of the temple (Lapide).

[And it was having ten cubits of breadth before the house of the Temple,עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַבָּֽיִת׃]  Upon the face (or on the face [Munster]) of the house (Montanus); before the house (Jonathan, Pagnine, Tigurinus, Junius and Tremellius, Strigelius, Dutch, English); before the length of the temple (Arabic, similarly the Syriac); before (or according to [Castalio]) the front of the house (Vatablus), that is, by taking that breadth, according to the length of the Temple itself, through which breadth of the vestibule they were entering the temple (Vatablus).  The breadth of the Temple was from North to South.  Therefore, the Vestibule was on the Eastern part, according to the testimony of Josephus,[2] and Ezekiel 8, which also appears from the Tabernacle, in imitation of which this was made.  Which I say for this reason, lest the custom of today’s Temples deceive anyone, which all have their approach from the West; more specifically, according to the custom of the Romans, which ours have imitated (Castalio).  The Pagans were praying toward the East, but the Hebrews toward the West:  indeed, God will that they beware of idolatry in all respects; and thus He instituted, lest His own people by worshipping toward the Eastern quarter should worship the Eastern sun (Martyr).  Moreover, only two dimensions are set down here, length and breadth:  but that of height is described in 2 Chronicles 3:4, namely, one hundred and twenty cubits (Malvenda and Piscator out of Junius).  This vestibule was both for magnificence, and for use (Lapide); just as in the palaces of princes and sacred basilicas, incredibly tall towers are wont to be erected, which are both for ornament and fortification (Sanchez).

Before the temple of the house; in the front of or entrance into the house, 2 Chronicles 3:4; being a peristilium or portico, a walk or gallery, at one end of the building (from side to side).  And the measures of this were harmonious also.  For twenty to ten (the length of the portico to the breadth of it) is double, or as two to one.  And if the height within be the same with that of the house, that is, thirty; it will be to the length of it as three to two, and to its breadth as three to one.  Or if we take in the whole height mentioned 2 Chronicles 3:4, which is one hundred and twenty; there is in this no disproportion, being to its length as six to one, and to its breadth, as twelve to one; especially when this height was conveniently divided into several galleries, one over another, each of which had their due proportions.

Verse 4:  And for the house he made (see Ezek. 40:16; 41:16) windows of narrow lights (or, windows broad within, and narrow without:  or, skewed and closed[3]).

[And in the Temple he made slanting windows, ‎חַלּוֹנֵ֖י שְׁקֻפִ֥ים אֲטֻמִֽים׃]  The words ‎שְׁקֻפִים/ Shekuphim and ‎אֲטֻמִים/Atumim are not well-known; they signify the windows in some form at that time commonly known (Mariana).  [They render it variously:]  Windows prospective and shut (Montanus), slanting and compact (Syriac), latticed or reticulated, and covered (Septuagint in Sanchez), that is, which are made with pierced stone or wood (Sanchez).  Windows, that is, shuttered lights (Tigurinus).  Windows able to be opened and closed; that is, which have shutters; for the distinguishing of those that have only openings, but not shutters (Castalio).  Verbatim:  opened closed (Vatablus).  Adapted to sight, closed (Junius and Tremellius).  Hebrew:  windows of closed prospects (Junius) (or compressed [Malvenda]), that is, narrowed from the broad on both sides unto the midst of the thickness of the wall.  Thus light is more advantageously admitted from all directions.  But they were closed with glass, to ward off the injuries of the heavens (Junius out of Rabbi Jehuda, Piscator).  Windows closed of prospects; that is, latticed, etc. (Malvenda out of Jerome).  Windows broad, or wider (or opened [Jonathan]) internally, narrow externally (Piscator, thus the Arabic, Vatablus, Strigelius, Menochius).  [Others translate it in the contrary way:]  Outside broad, and inside narrow (Munster, Hebrews in Mariana).  The windows were formed in such a way that the Temple might be illuminated with divine splendor, more than with physical light:  otherwise the contrary arrangement would have been used with the windows.  For, those that had to give the greatest amount of light had to be narrow externally and wider internally (Munster).  Windows transparent, closed; that is, made in such a way that they were indeed transmitting light into the Temple, but yet no one walking about outside of the Temple could look into the Temple through them (Osiander).  These windows were in the exterior part of the Temple; for the interior part, the Holy of Holies, was without windows (Sanchez, Menochius).  These windows were in that space of the house, which was corresponding to the second or third floor; concerning which it is next to be treated (Sanchez).  The sixth verse will teach that there were three orders of chambers, or storerooms, in the circuit of the Temple, and that the one chamber was above the other, and that each chamber was five cubits tall.  Thus all the chambers to the fifteenth cubit of the wall of the Temple; therefore, there were fifteen remaining to the top; I think that the windows were placed there.  Thus unimpeded light was received into the Temple.  But others thought that the chambers were not continuous, and that the raftering of the one was not the pavement of the one above.  Now, they imagine that between the lowest and the middle side chamber there was a space of seven and a half cubits, and the same space between the middle and the upper.  In those spaces, or gaps, they locate the windows; as if those surrounding structures, or side chambers, were walkways, Galleries; but thus the windows would not have admitted unimpeded light (Martyr).

Windows of narrow lights:  Narrow outward, to prevent the inconveniences of the weather; widening by degrees inward, that so the house might better receive and more disperse the light.  Or, for prospect, that is, to give light; yet shut, that is, so far closed as to keep out weather, and let in light.

[1] Hebrew: ‎וְהָאוּלָ֗ם עַל־פְּנֵי֙ הֵיכַ֣ל הַבַּ֔יִת עֶשְׂרִ֣ים אַמָּה֙ אָרְכּ֔וֹ עַל־פְּנֵ֖י רֹ֣חַב הַבָּ֑יִת עֶ֧שֶׂר בָּאַמָּ֛ה רָחְבּ֖וֹ עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַבָּֽיִת׃

[2] Antiquities 8:3:2.

[3] Hebrew:  ‎וַיַּ֣עַשׂ לַבָּ֔יִת חַלּוֹנֵ֖י שְׁקֻפִ֥ים אֲטֻמִֽים׃