Chambers surrounding the, Iiouse.y — In every side of the house excejjt the east there were chambers 5 arranged in three storeys. They did not go around the porch, as Griineisen said, for the house only is mentioned ; nor were there any on the east. We are not told how thick the walls of these chambers were, how many in number the chambers were, nor is anything said of their arrangement. For such details and others see EZEKIEL'S Temple, below. Similar side rooms have been discovered at Birs Nimroud.e The beams on which the upper storeys were constructed — made, no doubt, of cedar wood — rested upon rebatements in the temple wall, so as to prevent the wall from being built into — the house being too sacred for that.f The temple wall so built would therefore, at the roof of the first chambers, according to most writers, receile half a cubit, and at the roof of the next row of chambers it would recede another half cubit. The opposite wall — that built specially for the chambers — had a corresponding rebatement. So Keil, Stade, Now., Benz., and most; and at least symmetry is secured by this arrangement. Theniusi) and others think tiie whole rebatement of one cubit at each storey took place in tlie house wall, and it seems to the present writer that this is likeliest, as not a word is written about rebate- ments in the chamber wall.
The chambers on the ground were 5 cubits broad, those on the middle storey being 6, while tliose on the top storey were 7 cubits broad. The chambers were entered from the court on the south side through a doorfi (Fig. 2, E). In Ezekiel's temple there were entrances on the north as well as on the south. From the lowest storey one ascended to the others by means of a ladder and trap -door, and not, as used to be thought, by means of a winding stair : of such winding stairs the ancient East was quite ignorant.t The history is silent as to whether or not there were windows in these chambers. I'robably, however, there were, and thej' would be of the same kind as those of the house. See below concerning these. The chambers seem to have been used for the storing of the furniture, vessels, and other things belonging to the temple.* In them, too, were placed some relics of the wilderness worsliii).\ 1 K S*, however, has many signs of having been tampered with. Of ' Levites ' as distinct from ' priests,' Kings knows nothing. Nor does Kings show acquaintance with any tent besides that built by David for the ark.,u 'Tent of meeting,' v if genuine, must have the sense it bears in JE (E.'i 33', Nu ll'» l^") and not in P.
Windows. — There were no windows in the
• 1 K 621.
3c»i-9 1 K 8'»; not'flr,'a8 EV. >. 1 K 6»*.
' i'ls; (p«V,' i-y;) should be read with LXX, Bdtt., Now , Benz., etc., J'^i'. The word occurs in no other place. If re- tained it COD but mean 'storey,' lit. what is spread out(y:i'-
I Fergusflon, Ilittvry of Architecture. C 1 K 6*.
B .See his diaurnm. Tafel ii. figs. 2 and 6 (at the end of Oom.X e 1 K i;' oorreeting ' middle —llrst occurrence — to 'lowest, with LXX, Targ., and nearly all writers. . See Stade, /.ATW UL 13611. •IK 7" Ij ■> Ch 5'.
X I K 8<, 2 Ch &i>. M 1 K liX* 22S-30, of. i 8 tV.
700
TEMPLE
TEMPLE
teiaple as the term 'windows* is now umk-i stood. In Bible times glass was not used for what are called windows ; nor is it so used at the jiresont time in Eastern countries. Indeed the main pur- pose of the apertures translated ' windows is to let impure air out and pure in, rather than to give li.'ht to the house.a Considering the thickness ot^ the walls— 6 cubits, or say 9 ft., m Lzekie s temiile— it would have been difficult for the light to enter. In most Eastern houses tlie lamps are kept burning night and day ; it is by tlieni that tlie house is ligliled. This was true probably of the temple as well.
In 1 K 0» the windows are described as '''['^f^/-!""'^ Eastern »-indow6 are -and OtamfU : y i.e., bes.duh the lattu-ea covering, there were beams used to protect the opening and to ?on^ the'framework of the window. Vanous "'^er reconstruc- tions of the windows have been suggested. The Targ., t-ebh "everal Rabbinical writers. Luther, "nd othere have renderi-d • windows broad within S and narrow . without.' Keil explains .T^" indowswith closed beams'; '•«• «-h°»'; 1''"'<^",'=»'X' ^J ^ned or closed at pleasure, as the •""'«% "'""^^^Xr Windows could.; For a statement and examination of other "ews see the Comm. of Thenius and Keil, and especiaUy Keil's valuable treatise on Solomon's temple.
We know nothing about the size of the windows, nor is it stated in what part of the walls they were made. The chambers surrounding tlie house reached a height of 15 cubits— 5 cubits being the height of each, if we are to infer from Ezekiel s temple. If, therefore, the windows of the house looked directly to the outside, they must have been some 20 cubits from the ground. It is prob- able that the chambers had windows as well ; and in that case the house windows might have looked immediately opposite to those of the chambers, and have been put in three parallel rows. This is quite possible, as we are not told the number or the position of the windows. There was perhaps a row of windows above the chambers as weU.