Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Kings 7:2

He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon; the length thereof [was] a hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars.

2. He built also ] Better, For he built, as R.V. The verses that follow are not describing an addition to the work mentioned in 1Ki 7:1, but only explaining the various parts thereof.

the house of the forest of Lebanon ] This building which is mentioned again in 1Ki 10:17 and 2Ch 9:16 appears, from those passages, to have been Solomon’s armoury. The multitude of pillars, which was the marked feature of the lower floor, made it admirably suited for the hanging of shields and targets. Its name was probably given because the wood of its pillars came from Lebanon, and when these were in position they looked like the trunks of forest trees.

upon four rows of cedar pillars ] The number of the pillars is not given, but they must have been both very numerous and very substantial to support the three tiers of building which stood above them. It appears that the house had an external wall, and then rows of cedar pillars, four deep, stood round about, within the enclosure, to support the cedar beams which made the first floor of the chambers that ran along the sides. The cedar beams were no doubt let into the external wall as well as supported on the pillars.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Many have supposed that the buildings mentioned in 1Ki 7:1-2, 1Ki 7:8, were three entirely distinct and separate buildings. But it is perhaps best to consider the house of 1Ki 7:1 as the palace proper – Solomons own dwelling-house (see 1Ki 7:8); the house of 1Ki 7:2, as the state apartments; and the house for Pharaohs daughter as the hareem or zenana; and to regard these three groups of buildings as distinct, though interconnected, and as together constituting what is else-where termed the kings house 1Ki 9:10.

The house of the forest of Lebanon – This name was probably given from the supposed resemblance of the mass of cedar pillars, which was its main feature, to the Lebanon cedar forest. Its length of a hundred cubits, or 150 feet, was nearly twice as long as the entire temple without the porch. Some of the great halls in Assyrian palaces were occasionally as much as 180 feet.

The breadth of fifty cubits, or 75 feet, is a breadth very much greater than is ever found in Assyria, and one indicative of the employment in the two countries of quite different methods of roofing. By their use of pillars the Jews, like the Persians, were able to cover in a very wide space.

Four rows – The Septuagint gives three rows. If the pillars were forty-five 1Ki 7:3, fifteen in a row, there should have been but three rows, as seems to have been the case in the old palace of Cyrus at Pasargadae. If there were four rows of fifteen, the number of pillars should have been sixty.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 2. The house of the forest of Lebanon] It was not built in Lebanon, but is thought to have been on Mount Sion. And why it was called the house of the forest of Lebanon does not appear; probably it was because it was built almost entirely of materials brought from that place. See the following verses.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

The house of the forest of Lebanon; a house so called, either, first, Because it was built in the mountain and forest of Lebanon, for his recreation there in summer time. But it is generally and more probably held, that it was in or near Jerusalem, both because there was

the throne of judgment, 1Ki 7:7, which was fittest to be in the place of his constant and usual residence; and because there was the chief magazine of arms, Isa 22:8, and Solomons golden shields were put there, as is manifest from 1Ki 10:17; 14:25,26,28, which no wise prince would do in a place so remote from his royal city, and in the utmost borders of his kingdom, as this was. Or rather, secondly, From some resemblance it might have with that place, for the pleasant shades and groves which were about it; nothing being more frequent, both in sacred and other writers, than to transfer the names of Carmel, or Tempe, or the like, to other places of the same nature and quality with them.

The length thereof, to wit, of the principal mansion; to which doubtless other buildings were adjoined. Upon four rows of cedar pillars; upon which the house was built, and between which there were four stately walks.

With cedar beams upon the pillars; which were laid for the floor of the second story.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

2. He built also the house of theforest of LebanonIt is scarcely possible to determine whetherthis was a different edifice from the former, or whether his house,the house of the forest of Lebanon, and the one for Pharaoh’sdaughter, were not parts of one grand palace. As difficult is it todecide what was the origin of the name; some supposing it was socalled because built on Lebanon; others, that it was in or nearJerusalem, but contained such a profuse supply of cedar columns as tohave occasioned this peculiar designation. We have a similarpeculiarity of name in the building called the East India house,though situated in London. The description is conformable to thearrangement of Eastern palaces. The building stood in the middle of agreat oblong square, which was surrounded by an enclosing wall,against which the houses and offices of those attached to the courtwere built. The building itself was oblong, consisting of two squarecourts, flanking a large oblong hall which formed the center, and wasone hundred cubits long, by fifty broad. This was properly the houseof the forest of Lebanon, being the part where were the cedar pillarsof this hall. In front was the porch of judgment, which wasappropriated to the transaction of public business. On the one sideof this great hall was the king’s house; and on the other the haremor royal apartments for Pharaoh’s daughter (Est 2:3;Est 2:9). This arrangement of thepalace accords with the Oriental style of building, according towhich a great mansion always consists of three divisions, or separatehousesall connected by doors and passagesthe men dwelling atone extremity, the women of the family at the other, while publicrooms occupy the central part of the building.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon,…. Besides the temple, his own palace, and the queen’s; so called, not because it was built on Mount Lebanon, which lay at the northern border of the land, at a great distance from Jerusalem, whereas this was both a magazine of arms, and a court of judicature, 1Ki 7:7; see

1Ki 10:17; neither of which can be supposed to be far from Jerusalem; but because not only it was built of the cedars of Lebanon, but in a situation, and among groves of trees which resembled it; it seems to have been a summer house; and so the Targum calls it, a royal house of refreshment:

the length thereof [was] an hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty and the height thereof thirty cubits; so that it was in every measure larger than the temple; and, there was good reason for it, since into that only the priests entered; whereas into this went not only Solomon’s family but his courtiers and nobles, and all foreign ambassadors, and whoever had any business with him, which required various rooms to receive them in:

upon four rows of cedar pillars; or piazzas:

with cedar beams upon the pillars; which laid the floor for the second story.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

2. He built also Rather, and he built, for the house here mentioned is not a building entirely distinct from all his house, (1Ki 7:1,) but an important part of it.

House of the forest of Lebanon So called from the vast amount of Lebanon cedar used in building it. This part of the palace was the great hall of state, and was large enough, Josephus says, “to contain a multitude for hearing causes and taking cognizance of suits.” In it also were deposited the king’s wondrous targets and shields of beaten gold. 1Ki 10:16-17. It was one hundred and fifty feet long by seventy-five wide. (Marked A in plan.)

Upon four rows of cedar pillars Interpreters have been puzzled to determine the position of these four rows of pillars. Fergusson, following the English version, tries to reconcile the manifest inconsistency of “forty-five pillars, fifteen in a row,” (mentioned in next verse,) with the four rows here mentioned, by supposing that three rows of columns stood free, and the fourth was built into the outer wall. But this is altogether unsatisfactory, and rests upon an erroneous interpretation of 1Ki 7:3. Thenius supposes the pillars to have run round the entire hall on the inside, thus affording, as the Vulgate suggests, promenading places ( deambulacra) between the rows of pillars, but his plan supposes four hundred pillars, far too great a number to crowd into a building of one hundred cubits by fifty. The great hall of the palace at Shushan, three hundred and forty-three by two hundred and forty-four feet, had, in all, but seventy-two columns, and its great central hall but thirty-six, and all standing nearly twenty feet apart. (Loftus, Chaldea, p. 367.) The central hall of the great palace of Xerxes at Persepolis, about two hundred feet square, also had thirty-six columns, standing the same distance apart, and also in six rows. W.L. Alexander, who follows mainly the plans of Thenius, (in Kitto’s Cyclopaedia of Bib. Lit.,) objects to his arrangement of the pillars, and “ventures to suggest that the four courses of pillars were not on the same area, but one above the other, corresponding to the four floors of the building.” But this would interfere with the side-chambers mentioned in the next verse. It is better to understand them as all resting upon the first floor, and supporting the chambers above, the four rows running lengthwise through the great hall. If, now, we suppose four rows of nine pillars in each row, placed equidistant, and enclosed by walls on the four sides, we meet all the necessary conditions of the case, and have a great hall of precisely the same number of columns as the central halls of the great palaces of Susa and Persepolis. According to this arrangement, the rows would be ten cubits apart, allowing ten cubits between the outer row and the wall on each side.

Beams upon the pillars On which the floor of the first row of upper chambers might rest.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

1Ki 7:2. He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon The house mentioned in the foregoing verse was in Jerusalem, the winter residence of Solomon. This was built in a cool shady mountain near Jerusalem for his summer residence. See chap. 1Ki 14:25-26. It was called the house of the forest of Lebanon, because it was situated in a lofty place like Lebanon, and probably surrounded with many such fine cedars as grew there. Calmet is of opinion, that it was so called from the number of cedar pillars which supported it.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

(2) He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon; the length thereof was an hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars. (3) And it was covered with cedar above upon the beams, that lay on forty five pillars, fifteen in a row. (4) And there were windows in three rows, and light was against light in three ranks. (5) And all the doors and posts were square, with the windows: and light was against light in three ranks.

Whether this house of the forest of Lebanon, be what Jesus commends in the church’s beauty, of the Tower of Lebanon, which looked towards Damascus I do not determine. See Son 7:4 . But certainly it is a sweet idea which it furnisheth concerning the ministry of God’s servants. Looking towards Damascus, may very fairly, and without violence to the sacred text; be supposed to imply the vigilance of ministers, always on the lookout, as watchmen upon the walls of Zion, upon the ways and roads by which the enemies of our God and his Christ, come with their attacks from Damascus. In this sense, the church herself is said to be terrible, as an army with banners. Son 6:4 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

1Ki 7:2 He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon; the length thereof [was] an hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars.

Ver. 2. He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon. ] For public feasts, games, pastimes, and delights, Ecc 2:4-6 for a magazine also. 1Ki 10:16-17 Isa 22:8 Framed it might be in Lebanon, 1Ki 9:19 but built it was in Jerusalem, Solomon’s dwelling house and throne not far from it. 1Ki 7:6-8 It seemeth to have been called “the house of the forest of Lebanon,” not because it stood in that forest, as William, bishop of Tyre, and Junius hold: a but partly because it was made of the cedars of Lebanon, in which regard also the temple is called Lebanon, Zec 11:1 and partly because it was a kind of abridgment of that famous forest, and contained in it, and in the gardens and groves about it, all the delights and pleasures of that forest, in solitary walks, sweet smells, music of birds, and sight of wild beasts, &c., whence the Hebrews call it domum refrigerii, the house of refreshing.

a Lib. xviii, belli sacri.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)