Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 7.

Today’s passage goes on to describe the palace which Solomon built for himself after building the temple.  As I read this description, the palace from which Solomon administered his kingdom was 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high, or 11,250 square feet.  That would be almost four times the size of the temple.  Further he built a similarly sized palace to live in, and a second such residential palace for his wife, the daughter of pharaoh to live in.  The passage goes on to describe the furnishings for the temple which Solomon had made.  I realized that these furnishings are part of what gave me the impression that the temple was larger than what is described.  It is hard to imagine how all of these objects would fit inside a building as small as the temple is described as being.  However, as I continued to read I realized that there was more to the temple compound than just the temple.  Looking a little closer to the description given here of Solomon’s temple, it appears to me that the temple and Solomon’s palaces shared a courtyard, which is mentioned here as “the great courtyard.”  So, some of the described furnishings for the temple would likely have been placed in front of the temple in that courtyard.  In addition, after describing the furnishings which Solomon commissioned for the temple the passage tells us that he placed all of the things which David had dedicated for the temple in the temple treasuries.  It seems to me that the temple treasuries would have been additional buildings which are not described here.  If my reading of this passage is correct, while the temple itself was not a very impressive building (aside from all of the gold on it), the entire temple/palace compound would have been overwhelming.  And it is worth noting that most of those who came to the temple would have only ever gone into the courtyard of the temple.

All of this is something we need to keep in mind as we read later passages describing how the various kings treated the temple and its courtyard.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 7.

I am always struck by the fact that Solomon spent seven years building the Temple (as we are told at the end of yesterday’s passage, but thirteen years building his palace.  Perhaps it is a result of choices made by the translators, but it seems to me that the writer of this passage felt the same way: He had spent seven years building it (referring to the Temple). It took Solomon thirteen years, however, to complete the construction of his palace. Not all of the translations I looked at contained phrasing which would make you think that the writer did not approve of King Solomon spending longer on building his palace than on building the Temple, but after having seen how the NIV translated this verse, even those renderings make me suspect that he felt that way.  Further, the writer spent all of chapter six describing the design of the Temple, then spends twelve verses here describing the design of Solomon’s palace before returning and spending the rest of this chapter describing the bronze furnishings Solomon had made for the Temple.  This passage makes it seem as if King Solomon put more effort into making sure people knew how great he was than in making sure people knew how great God was.   Perhaps I am misreading the writer’s intentions here, but I do not think I am mistaken in believing that we should put more effort into glorifying God than in impressing people with how wonderful we are.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 7.

Just as with the detailed descriptions of the design and furnishings of the Tabernacle, I am not sure what to make of these detailed descriptions of Solomon’s palace and the furnishings he had made for the Temple.  On the one hand, there is the description that King Solomon spent 7 years building the Temple and 14 years building his palace.  Does this represent the idea of putting a higher priority on his palace? Or is it just the result of in fact building 2 palaces. one for himself and one for his wife who was pharaoh’s daughter?  Of course, the fact that he married pharaoh’s daughter is problematic, since all of the evidence is that she never came to worship the Lord.  On the other hand there is the detailed description of the great expense and effort to which King Solomon went to furnish the Temple with furnishings which would honor the Lord.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 7.

This passage describes King Solomon building his palace after completing the Temple and hiring a bronze smith to make the decorations and implements for the Temple.  He spent basically twice as long building his palace as he did building the Temple.  Perhaps this marks the beginning of Solomon’s fall from serving God which led to the division of Israel.  I have said previously that detailed descriptions of buildings and their ornamentation provide me with little spiritual insight.  Nevertheless I read such passages when they come up because I firmly believe that they are in the Bible for a purpose.  If nothing else, doing so provides examples of why re-reading the Bible time after time has value.  Once again today I noticed something I never noticed before.  It is not something of great interest, just a curious detail.  The walls of Solomon’s palace and of the inner courtyard of the Temple were built with a layer of cedar beams between every three layers of stone.