The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 112

unto the 11,alls," &o. The expression,, walls is generally assumed to be synonymous with of the cieling," thongh it may be taken to MVR~ "squirting oucnmbers 11 (2 Kings iv. mean "the walls where they join the 89, note). Bahr, however, justly observes that cieling," is peculia.r, and the suggestion that a deadly fruit, suoh as this is described to for ni-,•j? walls, we should read T'ir'llj) have been, was hardly likely to be employed beams-the word of the parallel verse in in the decoration of the sn.nctue.ry, and he 2 Chron.-has everything in its favour. would render the word "buds." Keil thinks The LXX. reads rw~ rw,, 80..,w,,J : and [omit J the gourds were oval ornaments, something lle covered them on the inside With wood like the wild gourd, which ran in rows along [This is Rppnrently e. mere repetition. The the walls. See the illustration, "Slab from A. V. would lead us to suppose that a fresh Konyunjik," Diet. Bib. ii. p. 49] and open particular was stated. We lee.m from flowers [lit. burstings of flowers. These 2 Chron. iii. 6 that not only were the we.Us, words again are very variously interpreted. or their wooden lining, covered with plates Thenius: festoons of .flowers; Keil: open of gold, "gold of Pe.rve.im," but they were flower buds; Gesen.: expanded flowers]: likewise ornamented with precious stones], all was cedar: there was no stone seen. and be covered the floor of the house With [Really, the cedar was no more seen than planks of fir [see on eh. v. SJ . the stone, for this in tum was overlaid with Ver. 16.-And he built twenty cubits on gold (ver. 22.)] [Heb. from] the sides of the house both the Ver. 19.-And the oracle [Heb. an oracle. fioor and the walls [Heb. as in ver. 15, Heb. , 1.:i.;1 probably from .,~1 speak. Sc "from the floor to the walls" (or bee.ms). Jerome,' oi·aculum; and Aquila and Symm. If nii 1 j? is a copyist's error, it is repeated 'Xf'1/Jlart1n-fip,ov. Gesenius, Bahr, al., how- hereJwith boards of cedar [He is now speak- ever, interpret the word to mean the hinder ing of the wooden partition which separated part, adytum] he prepared 1n the house the oracle from the temple of the house. At Within [lit. in the midst of the house within, a distance of 20 cubits, measured along the i.e., between the Holy Place and the end sides from the west end of the house, he structureJto set there [the principal purpose erected a cedaTwall which reached from the which the oracle served. jl31J = nr:, with re- floor to the cieling] he even built them Ji.e., peated sylle.ble. Cf. 1 Kings xvii. 14, Keri] the 20 cubits] for it [the house] within the ark of the covenant of the Lord. [The meaning is clear, though the construc- Ver. 20.-And the oracle 1n the forepa.rt tion is somewhat involved, viz., that he [or, the interior of the oracle. Keil, after reared this partition inside the house to separate a portion for the oracle] even for Kim.chi, maintains that 'J~? is the con- the oracle [Heb. an oracle] even for the struct of the noun c1,;1>: See ver. 29, most holy place [Heb. for the lwly of lwlies]. where it clearly means interior, as its oppo- Ver. 17.-Alld the house, that is, the sition to "without" shows. The A. V. temple before it [or, the anterior temple. yields no senseJ was twenty cubits 1n length, The portion of the structure before the and twenty cubits 1n breadth, and twenty oracle is sometimes called, as here, " the cubits 1n the height thereof [that is to say, house; " sometimes (as in ver. 5) "the it was e. perfect cube. When we consider temple;" sometimes (as in ver. 4) "the that the oracle of the tabernacle was a cube temple of the house;" or, as here again, of ten cubits and the Holy City (Rev. xxi. 16; cf. Ezek. xlviii. 8-85, especially ver. 20) "the £rout temple," '~!;)? is BUpposed to be is a cube of 12,000 furlongs, we cannot but an adjective formed fr~m 1).~?- Thenins, regard these measurements as significant. however, supposes that , 1~:1· (oracle) has To the ancients the square seemed the most appropriate shape to express the iliea of fallen out of the text. Ow- author now more.I perfection. The ide11 of the cube describes the division of the building into consequently we.a that of entire complete- holy and most holy place] was forty cubits ness, of absolute perfection. A little light long. is thrown on this subject by the use of Ver. 18.-Alld the cedar or the house rErptiywvor; among the Greeks. See the within [lit. cedar (wood) was placed against quotation from Si.monides in Plat. Protng. the lwu.se inside] was carved with knopa 834 A; Arist. Rhet. iii. 11 ; Eth. Nio. i. 10, [Heb. sculpture of gourds. The sculpture 11 and compare the familiar " totw tere, is in apposition to cedar. The authorities atque rotundus." The height of tl?,e ore.~le ue divided as to the kind of sculpture in- (internally) being only twenty cubits, while tended. Keil thinks they were bassi re lievi; that of the house was thirty (ver. 2), several Bahr contends that, like those of the Egyp- questions of some interest rnggcst them- tian mon1,1.ments 1 they were sunken, C'?~, 11elves for consideration. It is perhap1 Clll, VI. 1-88.) THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 107