1 Kings 6:10

And then he built chambers against all the house, five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:1-10 The temple is called the house of the Lord, because it was directed and modelled by him, and was to be employed in his service. This gave it the beauty of holiness, that it was the house of the Lord, which was far beyond all other beauties. It was to be the temple of the God of peace, therefore no iron tool must be heard; quietness and silence suit and help religious exercises. God's work should be done with much care and little noise. Clamour and violence often hinder, but never further the work of God. Thus the kingdom of God in the heart of man grows up in silence, Mr 5:27.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He built the house, and finished it - i. e., the external shell of the house. The internal fittings were added afterward. See 1 Kings 6:15-22.

Covered the house - Roofed it with a wooden roof, sloped like our roofs.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10. chambers … five cubits high—The height of the whole three stories was therefore about fifteen cubits.

they rested on the house with timber of cedar—that is, because the beams of the side stones rested on the ledges of the temple wall. The wing was attached to the house; it was connected with the temple, without, however, interfering injuriously with the sanctuary [Keil].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Against all the house; which interpreters understand of those chambers described 1 Kings 6:5,6. But why should that be repeated again, and that so darkly and confusedly, after he had particularly and exactly treated of them (unless to give an account of the height of each chamber, or story, which before was not done)? And the Hebrew words may be truly and properly rendered thus,

He built a roof (to wit, a flat and plain roof, called yatziah, because of the exact resemblance it hath with the floor of a house) over all the house, according to the manner of all the Israelitish buildings, which were flat at the top; of which see Deu 22:8 Joshua 2:6 2 Samuel 11:2. The inner roof was arched, 1 Kings 6:9, that it might be more beautiful and glorious to behold; but the outward roof was flat.

Five cubits high, above the walls of the temple; which was necessary, that it might be a little higher than the arched roof, which it was designed to cover and secure.

They rested, Heb. it rested, to wit, the roof; for the Hebrew verb is of the singular number.

With timber of cedar; which rested upon the top of the wall, as the chambers, 1 Kings 6:5, rested upon the sides of the wall. But all this I submit to the learned and judicious.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And then he built chambers against all the house five cubits high,.... Which some understand of the same chambers in 1 Kings 6:5; here made mention of again for the sake of giving the height of them, not before given; but they were built against, or upon the wall of the house, these against, or rather upon the whole house itself; and are the chambers referred to; see Gill on 1 Kings 6:2; which consisting of three stories of ninety cubits, raised the whole house to an equal height with the porch, 2 Chronicles 3:4; as is there intended (x); these are the upper chambers in 2 Chronicles 3:9; and they rested on the house with timber of cedar; or on the timber of cedar, the beams of cedar, with which the house was covered, as in 1 Kings 6:9; on these the chambers rested, being built upon them; and in one of these chambers the disciples might be after Christ's ascension, Acts 1:13.

(x) Vid. Joseph. Antiqu. ut supra. (l. 8. c. 3. sect. 2.)

Geneva Study Bible

And then he built chambers against all the house, five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. And then he built chambers against all the house, five cubits high] Better with R.V. ‘And he built the stories against all the house, each five cubits high.’ We ought perhaps to make some allowance for the thickness of floors and roofs. So that the whole height to which this three-storied structure rose may have been much more than 15 cubits, if five cubits were the inside height of each range of rooms. Mr Fergusson (p. 27) says ‘It hardly admits of dispute that with the requisite thickness of their roofs they make up the 20 or 21 cubits which are necessary to bring up their roofs to the level of that of the Holy of Holies.’

they rested on the house] i.e. On the shoulders or rebatements mentioned in 1 Kings 6:6. The other ends of these cedar beams were embedded in the outside wall of the encasing story-work.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - And then [Heb. omits] he built chambers [Heb. the floor (הַיָּצִועַ). The word (masculine) is here again used of the entire side structure] against all the house, five cubits high [i.e., each story was five cubits (7.5 feet). The three stories would altogether measure fifteen cubits, and of course something must be allowed for joists, floors, etc. The entire height of the side structure (exterior) would consequently be about 18 or 20 cubits. And as the house was internally 30 cubits high, the exterior measurement would probably be about 32 cubits. It has hence been inferred that between the side structure and the top of temple wall there would be a clear space of 12 or 14 cubits, in which the windows were inserted. But this is based on the assumption that the side structure had a flat roof, which is by no means certain. If the roof leaned against the walls of the house, with a low pitch, there would still be space amply sufficient for the clerestory windows. Rawlinson's diagram (p. 511), which gives 80 cubits as the height from basement to ridge of roof, and only allows 20 cubits for height of walls, practically makes the house 20 instead of 30 cubits high, for it is hardly likely that it had an open roof. In fact, we know that it had a cieling (ver. 14), which must have been at the height of 30 cubits (see the diagrams on p. 102. In

(1) house and side structure are represented with flat, in

(2) with ridged or sloping roofs),

unless there was an upper chamber above the house, as to which see ver. 20. Rawlinson's diagram has this further defect, that he allows nothing for thickness of joists, floors, and cielings. If we allow one cubit for each floor, then, on his plan, there would be little or no room left for the windows. This verse is hardly to be considered as a repetition of ver. 5, the side structure being here mentioned in connexion with its height and the materials used in its construction] and they rested on [the meaning of the Heb. וַיֶּאֶחֹז has been much disputed. It is uncertain what is the nominative, Solomon (as in וַיִּבֶן), or the "floor" (just referred to in קומָתו). Gesenius understands the former, and renders, "he covered the house," etc. Thenius, "he fastened the floor," etc. Keil adopts the latter alternative, "it held to the house with cedar beams." It may be urged against this rendering (as also against Thenius's) that beams which merely rested on the walls would hardly bind or hold the side structure to the main building. But it is almost impossible to decide between these interpretations. We may either render "he covered," etc. (with Chald., Vulg.) in which case ver. 10 would agree with ver. 9 (each, i.e., would refer to the roofing; ver. 9 to roof of temple; ver. 10 to roof of side structure and its stories); or we may take the words to mean "it laid hold of, i.e., rested on] the house with timber of cedar. At this point the historian interrupts his description of the building to record the gracious promise made to the king during its erection. It should, perhaps, be stated that this (vers. 11-14) is omitted in the Vat. LXX. But it has every mark of genuineness.] 1 Kings 6:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"And he built the outbuildings to the whole house (i.e., all round the temple-house, with the exception of the front: see 1 Kings 6:5); five cubits was its height," i.e., the height of each story, the suffix in קומתו being made to agree with היּצוּע through an inaccuracy which has arisen from condensation, although, as in 1 Kings 6:5, it denotes the whole of the side buildings, which consisted of three stories. The height given must also be understood as referring to the height within. Consequently the side buildings had an internal height of 3 x 5 cubits, and reckoning the floorings and the roof of the whole building an external height of 18 or 20 cubits; so that the temple-house, which was thirty cubits high within and about thirty-two without, rose about twelve or fourteen cubits above the side building, and there was plenty of room for the windows in the side walls. וגו ויּאחז: "and it (the side building) held to the house with cedar beams." The meaning is, that the building was fastened to the house by the joists of the cedar beams belonging to the different stories, which rested upon rebates of the temple wall, so that it was firmly attached to the temple-house, without any injurious insertions into the sanctuary itself. This is apparently the only explanation, that can be grammatically sustained, of words that have received such different interpretations. For the translation given by Thenius, which coincides with this, - viz., "he fastened it (each separate story of the building) to the temple-house with cedar wood, namely, with the cedar beams which formed the flooring and roofing of the three stores," - is exposed to this grammatical objection, that the suffix is wanting in יעחז, and that אחז is never followed by את in the sense of with. All the other explanations are unsuitable. יעחז signifies neither "he covered the house" (Chald., Vulg., Luther), nor "he overlaid the house;" moreover, the roofing of the house has been already mentioned in 1 Kings 6:9, and there is no trace to be found of any overlaying or covering of the outside with cedar wood.

If, therefore, we reckon the thickness of the temple wall at six cubits, and that of the outer wall of the side building and the front wall of the porch at three cubits each, the whole building would be ninety-three cubits long (externally) and forty-eight cubits broad. The height of the temple-house was about thirty-two cubits externally, and that of the side stories from eighteen to twenty cubits, without the socle upon which the whole building rested. This is not mentioned indeed, as being a subordinate matter, but would certainly not be omitted.

(Note: Thenius, on the other hand, reckons the length of the whole building at a hundred cubits and its breadth at fifty-two, because, on the unfounded assumption that the temple in Ezekiel's vision was simply a copy of Solomon's temple, he sets down the thickness of the temple wall in front and along the two sides at six cubits, and that of the hinder wall at seven. Moreover, he not only reckons the internal length of the house at sixty-two cubits, in opposition to the statement in the text, that the length of the house (which was divided into the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies) was sixty cubits; but in opposition to v. 16, according to which the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies were separated by boards of cedar, he assumes that there was a wall of two cubits in thickness between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, according to Ezekiel 41:3; and, lastly, for no other reason than the wish to get the round number 100, he takes for granted that the hinder wall of the temple was a cubit thicker than that on the other sides.)

The number of rooms in the side buildings is not given, but may be set down at thirty in each story, if their length corresponded to their breadth in the lower story. These rooms had of course windows, although they are not mentioned in the account, but each one would have only a small window sufficient to give it the requisite light. And as to the number of the temple windows also, we can simply make conjectures. We can hardly assume that there were more than six on each side, and there were probably none at the back.