The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 130

'bodyguo.rd (cf, xiv. 28 with x. 17). Iliihr Ver. 4.-And there were wtndowe [t:l'~i?t;i observes that the arrangement of the po.lo.cos same word as in eh. vi. 4, i.e., beams ··or accords with the Jewish conceptions of the le.ttices. Keil underste.nde, beam layers; and kingly office. The first, the armouxy, re- Bii.hr, ubergelegte Balken. The LXX. hae presents him in his militant character (1 1r;\1vp,;;v] 1n three rows [or tiers. All we Sam. viii. 20), the second in his judicial can say is that there is a possible reference function (1 Sam. viii. 6, 6; 2 Sam. xv. 4; to three stories formed by the three rows 1 Kings iii. 9), while the third shows him in of beams], and light Llit., outl.ook. iltr;,9 his private capacity.] probably means a wide outlook. LXX. Ver. 3.-And it was covered [or roofed] x••pa, aspectus, prospectus] was aga.1nst with cedar above [cf. vi. 9, 16] upon the light 1n three ranks [Heb. three times, beams [nill?¥ lit., ribs, the word used in were The mee.ning is that the side che.mbera so built and arranged that the rooms eh. vi. 6 of the side chambers, and in vi. 34 had their windows exactly vis-a-vis in (in the masculine) of the leaves of the doors], each of the three stories. Josephus ex- that lay on forty-11.ve pillars, fifteen 1n a ple.ins, 0vpwµaa, rp,yAv,po,,:, windows in three row. [Rawlinson, al. o.re much exercised to divisions, but this is no explanation of reconcile this statement with that of ver. 2, the words "light against light," &c. Fer- which Rpeaks of four rows, But the ex- gusson understands the three outlooks to planation is very simple, viz., that the mean, first, the clerestory windows (that "forty-five, fifteen in a row" does not refer there was a clerestory he infers from J osephas to the pillars but to the side chambers or (Ant., vii. 6. 2), who describes this po.lace as compartments (A. V., ''beams"). The de- "in the Corinthian manner," which cannot scription is so very loose and general that mean, he says, "the Corinthian order, which positive statements are out of place, but the was not then invented, but after the fashion meaning certainly appears to be this, that of a Corinthian OeCU$, which was e. hall with there was a roofing of cedllr over the side a clerestory") ; (2) a range of openings chambers (which rested upon the pillars under the cornice of the walls; and (3) e. mentioned in ver. 2) forty-five in number, range of open doorways. But all this is fifteen in a row. It is true the Masoretio conjecture. punctuation is age.inst this view. It is also Ver. 6.-And all the doors an4 posts clear that the LXX. understood the numbers forty-five and fifteen to refer to the pillars, [For ntm;i posts, Thenius would read nn;:,r;, for they have essayed to cut the knot by outlooks, nfter ver. 4, which seems a natui-0:1 reading three rows instead of "four rows," emendation, especially as the LXX. has in vor. 2. Similarly the Amb. in ver. 3 reads xwpai. We should then get the sense of sia;ty instead of forty-five; obviously another " doors and windows "] were square of beam. dosporo.te attempt to solve the difficulty by [The word translated "windows " in ver. 4; a corruption of the text. But the solution the proper rendering is beam, nnd the mean- suggested above is so simple and natural ing apparently is tho.t all these openings that we can ho.rdly be wrong in adopting it. were squo.re in shape. Nothing is said Diihr says positively that forty-five pillars about the height of the rooms, and a.a the could not ho.vo supported a structure 100 commentators a.re not agreed whether there cubits by 60 cubits, "nor could the building we.a one story or three, that can obviously ho.vo been named ' forest of Lebanon ' from be only matter of conjecture. Rawlinson, forty-five scattered pillars." It would follow, who thinks of but one hall, with three rows hence, that there were side chambers only of windows, supposes, after Houbigant, that on three sides of the building, as was the one row was placed in n wall which ran case in the temple. And if (as has been down the middle of the apo.rtment. Such IUl inferred from vers. 4, 6) a three-storied nrrangemont, he observes, was found by structure is here doscribed; if, that is to Layo.rd at Nimrud.] say, the forty-five chambers were divided Ver. 6.-And he made a porch of pillars fifteen to a tier or story, it is highly prob- [Heb. the porch of pillars. This was no nble that they would be distributed six to doubt n covered oolonnade, i.e., it had a roof ea.oh long side and three to the rear (Biihr). but no sides. The pillars were its only walls. This arrangement-a court surrounded by a But here the question presents itself, Was colonnade and galleries-is still found in this porch the vestibule of the house of the the Ea.et; as all travellers know. And in forest of Lebanon, just described? From its favour it may be se.id the.tit is such o.s tho correspondence between its width and to ho.ve been suggested by the plo.n of the that of this palace, Rawlinson inters thnt i, temple. The ground-plan is the so.me, with was (cf. eh. vi. 2, 3). Biihr believes it to this difference, that a oourt1•ard oooupies the . have been the porch or entrance to the hall place of the temple proper.] of judgment mentioned in the next verse, 120 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [on. VII. 1-ol,