The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 131

while Fergusson agR.i.n assigns it an inde- m_arks that t!tls "porch, or gate of justice, pendent position, separate from either. The still kept e.live the likeness of the old term porch (i:l?~::-:), the meaning of which is patriarchal ouetom of sitting in judgment at surely determined by its use in eh. vi., almost the gate." He then refers to the "go.te of implies tha.t it must h~ve served as the justice " at Granada. and the " Sublime entrance or ,estibule to eome building. Porte ''. at Constan~ople. It is, perhaps, But the size, and the fact that it had itself not qUite so certa.lll that " this porch was a porch (see below), favour the idea that it the gem and centre of the whole empire " or was au iudepeudent structure, though Raw- that because it was so much thought 'of a. linson shows that " most of the Persepolitan similar but smaller porch was erected for porches had small pillared chambers at some the queen (ver. 8) ("Jewish Ch.," ii. p. 195)]: lit~le distance in front of them," and refers and it was covered with cedar from one to the Egyptian propylaea. Keil argues side or the 11.oor to the other. [Heb. from that this pillar hall, as he calls it, stood t/w floor to the floor, as marg. Gesenius under- b2twcen the house of the forest of Lebanon stands these words to mean, " from one and the judgment hall. Bahr, as remarked floor to the other," i.e., to the cieling (the above, sees in it the anterior part of the floor of the other story); in other words, judgment hall, which latter, he adds, bore the walls from bottom to top. So the Vulg., to it the same relation that the oracle did to a pavimento usque ad summitatem, and Syr., the temple-house. He observes that as the a fundamento ad coelum ejus usque, which ark "·as in the oracle, so the throne (eh. x. hl!,v~ led Thenius to suggest the reading 18) found a phce in the hall of judgment. niiij:)_ ip (unto the beams) instead of This structure, therefore, with its porch, 11J2")~iJ ip. Keil thinks the cieling served mentioned presently, would reproduce the as the floor of an upper story, built over main features of the temple arrangement. the porch of judgmeut, but, as Bahr We see, consequently, that both the house observes, no such upper story is even hinted of the forest of Lebanon and the porch of a.t elsewhere. It seems to me that, on the pilla.rs followed in their outline the ground- whole, the A. V. rendering is to be retained, plan of the temple. Nor is this at all sur- the meaning being that the whole space, prising, considering that all these edifices both of wall and cieling, from one side of probably had the same architect or designer]; the floor to the opposite side, was covered the length thereof was fifty cubits [the with cedar.) length, i.e., according to the view last ad- Ver. 8.-And his house where he dwelt vanced of the two divisions of the building, [i.e., his private residence. Not to be viz., the porch of pillars and the porch of identified with the "house " of ver. 1. The judgment. But the correspondence of the term is here expressly restricted to his length (or width-the same word is used of dwelling-house, There it as clearly includes the width of the temple porch eh. vi. 3) of nJl the several po.laces] had [or was. The this porch with the width of the house of "court" is apparently in apposition to "his the forest of Lebanon is, to say the least, house." The words in italics, here as else- remarkable, and suggests that after all it where, merely darkeij the sense] another may have been the porch of that building. [Heb. the hinder] court within [For the If so, the resemblance to the temple would be still more striking] , and the breadth use of ~ n\:)r,l = within, compare eh. vi. ldepth ?] thereof thirty cubits : and the 16; Nu~. xviii. 7, and see Gesen., Thesaur. porch [Heb. a porch] was before them [i.e., i. 193) the porch, which was of the like the pillars. The words can only mean that work [i.e., the walls were covered with a smaller porch stood before the porch of cedar. The reference is clearly to materials, pilla.rs, or colonnade]: and the other [omit] adornment, &c., not to size]. Solomon pillars [i.e., the pillars of the minor vesti- made also an house for Pharaoh's daughter, bule or fore porchJ and the thick beam [Heb. whom he had taken to wife [Heb. he made threshola] were before them. [The broad also a house for . . . whom Solomon had threshold, approached by steps, and the taken, i.e., married], like unto this porch. pillars which it supported, together with the [This would seem to have been the private roof which covered them, formed the front residence of the queen, not the harem part and approach to the larger porch or where all the wives and concubines (oh. xi. oolonnad~J 3) were collected. It was evidently distinc~ from and behind the residence of the king, Ver. 7.-Then he made a porch [or the an arrangement which still prevails in porch J for the throne where he might Judge Eastern pale.ces.] [i.e., it was at once audience-chamber (throne-room, ch.x.18) and court of justice], Ver. 9.-All these [i.e., buildings, pela.oes] even the porch of Judgment [Stanley re- were of oeatly [or precious; cf. eh. v. 31 oa, vn. 1-51.] THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 127