Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Kings 6:16
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 most holy [place].
16. And he built twenty cubits on the sides of the house ] This rendering does not make very clear what is intended. The word translated ‘sides’ is often used for the innermost part of anything, as of a cave (1Sa 24:4), and of the recesses of a forest, as Lebanon (Isa 37:24). So here it signifies the innermost part of the Temple building as you looked from the porch, i.e. toward the farthest wall of the most holy place. The sense then becomes more manifest. He built at twenty cubits from this extreme end something with boards of cedar. Thus he made a separation of the most holy place, which was twenty cubits long, from the holy place. The R.V. gives this more clearly: ‘He built twenty cubits on the hinder part of the house ’ with boards of cedar from the floor unto the walls (‘beams’ LXX.), i.e. these twenty cubits were thus shut off and made into a separate room (cf. 2Ch 3:8). There was a doorway for access in this cedarwood partition (see 1Ki 6:31), and before this probably were put the ‘chains of gold’ spoken of in 1Ki 6:21. From 2Ch 3:14 it seems that there was a vail in front of the whole of this woodwork, though no mention of it is made here.
It is very difficult to come to a clear idea about the room here provided. It seems certain that it was enclosed on three sides by the chambers built round about, so that there could have been no windows in it, nor any mode of escape for the smoke of the incense, except by openings under the eaves. It appears not to have been as high as the roof of the ‘holy place’. We must remember that it was to be entered by one person only, and that but once a year.
he even built them for it within ] i.e. He prepared this space of twenty cubits in the innermost part of the house, to be a separate room.
even for the oracle ] The Hebrew says merely ‘for an oracle.’ This name for the most holy place is taken from the Vulgate ‘oraculum.’ The LXX. merely transliterates the Hebrew . The word is connected with the verb ( davar), usually rendered ‘to speak,’ and hence the notion of ‘oracle’ as the place where God revealed Himself. So Aquila and Symmachus rendered it sometimes by , and Jerome gives as an explanation. But the root, or its Arabic cognate, has a sense from which the meaning ‘hinder portion’ might come. Hence some consider the name merely as signifying the innermost part of the Temple building.
the most holy place] Described in the same words in the account of the Tabernacle (Exo 26:33-34; Num 4:4; Num 4:19).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The meaning is, that at the distance of 20 cubits, measured along the side walls of the house from the end wall, Solomon constructed a partition, which reached from the floor to the ceiling and had a doorway in it. He thus made within the house, a sanctuary for a holy of holies.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Twenty cubits on the sides of the house, i.e. the most holy place, which contained in the length of the house twenty cubits, by comparing this with 1Ki 6:2,17, 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 (i.e. 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, i.e. from one side to the other. And so this is meant only of the partitionwall, which was between the holy and the most holy place.
Both the floor and the walls, or rather, as 1Ki 6:15, 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, 1Ki 6:2, it may be replied, either that that is true only of the greater house, or the holy place, which is called the house, 1Ki 6:17, 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.
For the oracle, even for the most holy place, i. e. 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 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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And he built twenty cubits on the sides of the house,…. At the end or extremity of it, as the Targum; that is, he built the most holy place, which was twenty two cubits long, at the end of the holy place, which he wainscotted as the other:
both the floor and the walls with boards of cedar; or from the floor, including that, to the walls on each side, from wall to wall, and taking in them, they were all lined with cedar wood:
he even built [them] for it within, [even] for the oracle, [even] for the most holy [place]; which explains what building is spoken of, and that the inside of that was covered with cedar from bottom to top.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(16, 17) These verses describe the division of the Temple, by a partition from floor to ceiling of cedar wood, into the Oracle, or Holy of Holies, occupying twenty cubits of the length, and the rest of the house, exclusive of the porch, occupying forty cubits. The cedar panelling was carved throughout with (see margin) gourds and open flowers, probably festooned, as usual in ancient architecture. In all this the influence of the Tyrian architects was probably felt.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. Twenty cubits on the sides Rather, From the two hinder sides, , “the hindmost, last extreme space, which is conceived of as two hinder sides.” Furst. The inner sanctuary was a perfect cube. See on 1Ki 6:20.
Both the floor and the walls Here again it should be rendered from the floor to the walls; but the expression seems to imply that all the walls, ( ) both of the sides and of the ceiling were covered with cedar boards.
The oracle , the interior place, called also the most holy or holy of belies. The place of greatest sanctity, where the presence and glory of Jehovah were supposed to have their central throne on earth. (C in plan.) See on Exo 26:33-34. Here in the temple, as in the tabernacle, was set the ark. 1Ki 6:19.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Lining Of The Building And Creation Of The Most Holy Place ( 1Ki 6:16-19 ).
1Ki 6:15
‘ And he built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar, from the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood, and he covered the floor of the house with boards of pine.’
The whole inside of the building from top to bottom was covered with boards of cedar, and the floor was covered with pine wood. These walls would later be carved with carved figures of cherubim, palm trees and open flowers, which would be covered in gold. The whole intention was probably that it would, with its glory and beauty, convey the idea of creation, especially as seen in the Garden of Eden (cedar and pine wood, cherubim, trees and flowers).
1Ki 6:16
‘ And he built twenty cubits on the back part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the walls of the ceiling. He built them for it within, for an inner room (dbr – ‘back part’), even for the most holy place.’
A separate Inner Room was then divided off at the rear of the building to form the Most Holy Place. This was built of cedar wood in the form of a perfect cube (the ancients way of indicating perfection and total completeness) with dimensions of twenty cubits (nine metres, thirty feet). There would thus have been a space above this inner chamber of ten cubit high, which was presumably necessary in case any work had to be done on the Most Holy Place for which elaborate precautions would have been deemed necessary and special access arranged.
The word dbr is in some translations rendered as ‘oracle’ from the verb dbr ‘to speak’. But it more probably signifies ‘the back part, back room’ coming from dbr ‘to turn the back’, compare Akkadian dabaru, Arabic dubr.
“The Most Holy Place.” Literally ‘the Holy of holies’ a Hebraism intensifying the idea of its holiness. It is an obvious Hebraism for indicating what is most holy, what is the most sacred of all, and there is no justification in arguing that it is necessarily ‘late’. The idea of the extreme holiness of the Ark, and of the place where it was to be found, is constant throughout Scripture.
1Ki 6:17
‘ And the house, that is, the temple before (the inner room), was forty cubits long.’
As a consequence of the separation of the Inner Room, the Outer Room, or Holy Place, was made up of what remained, being forty cubits long (eighteen metres, sixty feet), and, of course twenty cubits wide. It is first thought of as ‘the house’, but then, recognising that that description signified the whole, more closely defined as ‘the temple before’, i.e. the main sanctuary before the Inner Room.
1Ki 6:18
‘ And there was cedar on the house within, carved with wild fruits and open flowers, all was cedar, there was no stone seen.’
It is then stressed that all the stonework was hidden behind cedar wood, which was carved with wild fruits (gourds) and open flowers, the whole together indicating beauty, life and fruitfulness. The thought was more of life and beauty in creation than of fertility. All was of cedar embellished with symbols of natural beauty and fruitfulness. No stonework was visible. It was symbolic, not of dead stone, but of the living creation, and was thus suitable for the worship of, and reminder about, the God of creation Who, through their representatives, welcomed His people into His garden world (reminiscent of Eden). Compare the way in which the semi-deified king of Tyre saw himself, when in his Temple which had been fashioned in the likeness of a garden of Paradise, as walking in the garden of God (Eze 28:1-19).
1Ki 6:19
‘ And he prepared an inner room in the midst of the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of YHWH.’
The Inner Room, already described in 1Ki 6:16, was for the purpose of housing the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH. It was the Most Holy Place, the Holiest of all, which could only be entered by the High Priest, and that only once a year on the Day of Atonement. It indicated the invisible presence of their covenant God, YHWH, ever ready to meet with His people, continually expectant of their obedience (the covenant tablets were within), and open with the offer of mercy (the propitiatory or ‘mercy seat’ was above).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Ki 6:16 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 most holy [place].
Ver. 16. Even for the oracle. ] a So the Holy of Holies is called, because there God used to deliver divine answers, or oracles. Lev 16:2 Exo 30:6
a Loquutorium Adytum.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
built them: 1Ki 6:5, 1Ki 6:19, 1Ki 6:20, 1Ki 8:6, Exo 25:21, Exo 25:22, Exo 26:23, Lev 16:2, 2Ch 3:8, Eze 45:3, Heb 9:3
the oracle: The oracle was the sanctuary, or holy of holies, in which there was nothing but the ark of the covenant, including the tables of the law, and into which the high priest alone was to enter but once a year.
Reciprocal: 1Ki 5:6 – cedar trees 1Ki 6:15 – General 1Ch 28:11 – the houses 2Ch 4:20 – the oracle Psa 20:2 – from
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Ki 6:16. He built twenty cubits on the sides of the house He speaks here of the most holy place, which contained in length twenty cubits, and might be said to be on the sides of the house, because it 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. He built them for it within, even for the oracle, the most holy place The last words are added to explain what he means by the word oracle, which he had not used before: this was the most important of all the parts of the house, because here the divine glory was present, and from hence God gave answers when he was consulted, on which account it is termed the oracle.