1 Kingschapter 7
51 verses · Jeremiah, by tradition · 6th century BC · History
And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin: and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz.
Introduction
Jeremiah, by tradition, History, 1 Kings Overview.
The historian writes this chapter from the inventory of the king's building works, for readers whose nation had lost every one of these treasures. It turns from the house of the LORD to the king's houses and then back to the furnishings of the temple. Its first hearers knew these objects by name, and many had heard of them carried off to Babylon. Listen for the two numbers of years that the historian sets side by side. Notice the craftsman brought in from Tyre and the scale of the bronze. The chapter lets the list speak for itself.
Context
- Who
- Israelites hearing an inventory of what their taxes and their labour had produced
- What
- An account of Solomon's palace buildings and of the bronze work Hiram the craftsman cast for the temple: the two pillars, the sea, the stands, the basins and the utensils.
- Where
- The palace quarter beside the temple in Jerusalem, and the clay ground of the Jordan plain between Succoth and Zarethan where the bronze was cast.
- When
- The building years of Solomon's reign, about 966 to 946 BC on the standard chronology.
- Why
- To record what was built and made for the king and for the house of the LORD, and to set the thirteen years of the palace beside the seven of the temple.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Solomon as a builder, and to Hiram of Tyre as the master founder he sent for. This Hiram is a craftsman with a Tyrian father and a widowed mother of Naphtali, and he is a different man from Hiram the king of Tyre who supplied the cedar.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The time is the twenty-year building programme, placed at about 966 to 946 BC on the standard chronology of the reign. The chapter supplies its own clock instead of a year, thirteen years on the king's house at 7:1 set beside the seven on the temple at 6:38.
The places are two. The state complex stood on one platform beside the temple in Jerusalem. The brass was cast forty miles away in the clay ground of the Jordan plain, where the alluvial soil took a mould and fuel and water were at hand.
The occasion is the completion of both houses as one continuous programme. The complex held a throne hall, a hall of pillars, a hall of judgment where the king heard cases, his own residence, and a house for Pharaoh's daughter.
A first hearer knew things the text does not stop to explain. The house of the forest of Lebanon took its name from four rows of cedar columns, which made the inside look like standing among trees. It served as an armoury, which is why the gold shields are stored there at 10:17. He knew that two freestanding pillars at a temple door were normal in Phoenician building, and that these two carried names, Jachin and Boaz, which read as sentences about God. He also knew what a laver was for. The growth from the tabernacle's one basin to ten lavers and a sea on twelve oxen told him the scale of service the house expected.
Significance
The first hearers were listening to a national treasury read out, and the narrator lets the numbers speak with no comment of his own. The brass was so much that Solomon left it unweighed.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
Underneath the inventory the book is keeping a ledger it does not read aloud. Thirteen years on the king's own houses stand against seven on the house of God, and the account is collected in chapter 11.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The synagogue reaches this chapter more often than any other in the book. Two Torah portions draw their reading from the Prophets out of it, the portion of the making of the tabernacle and the portion of the accounts of it, called Vayakhel and Pekudei. Both rites hear it in both weeks, and the spans differ between them. The Sephardi rite hears the casting of the two pillars with the first portion. The Ashkenazi rite hears the vessels Hiram finished with it. The next week the Sephardi rite hears the span the Ashkenazi rite heard the week before. Those values were printed from src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts in this lane. That the pairing sets the furnishing of the tent beside the furnishing of the house is the writer's reading, and it is marked as the writer's reading.
How it is read
Rashi is quoted here from the Metsudah Tanach series of Lakewood, New Jersey, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. The thirteen years Solomon spent on his own house against the seven he spent on the temple is read as praise rather than as a charge. "In work of the Most High he hurried, but in his own he was slow; the text tells this to praise him" (Rashi on I Kings 7:1:1). That is the classical Jewish answer to the contrast the two numbers make, and a Christian reader should hear it before drawing the other conclusion.
The house of the forest of Lebanon Rashi explains through Targum Jonathan, as a house for the cooling of kings. The translation notes Metzudat David with two further readings, that the many wooden pillars gave it the look of a forest, or that it stood in the forest itself (Rashi on I Kings 7:2:1). Rashi takes it as a summer house. A king's summer house is made with many openings for the air, which is why it carries the name of a forest (Rashi on I Kings 7:5:1). The hall of the throne he explains again from the Targum, as a hall set for the throne of judgment with a vestibule for the court (Rashi on I Kings 7:7:1). Where the text calls the stones heavy, Rashi keeps the plain sense and notes the Targum reading them as precious (Rashi on I Kings 7:9:1).
One identification matters for the whole chapter. The Hiram who comes from Tyre to do the bronze work is a craftsman, and Rashi says plainly that he is another man from the king of the same name (Rashi on I Kings 7:14:1). The two pillars Rashi places at the porch and names them (Rashi on I Kings 7:15:1). The capitals, the network and the pomegranates he explains as a worked set. The nets were like a head covering of his own day, and the pomegranates were set into the chain work that ran round the capitals. He cites Chronicles and the Mishnah of the Forty-Nine Measurements for it (Rashi on I Kings 7:17:1 and 7:18:1).
The last measurements are read with care for the craft. The lily work at the top of each pillar left the wall there as thin as a lily for half a cubit, while the rest of the column stood four fingers thick and hollow. The translation notes Metzudat David against him, that the lily work was attached after the pillar was set (Rashi on I Kings 7:22:1). The ten cubits of the sea are measured through the middle, Rashi says, because the width of any round thing is measured through its middle (Rashi on I Kings 7:23:1). The knobs beneath its rim he gives from the Targum, as the form of eggs (Rashi on I Kings 7:24:1). Three further notes stand in the corpus without an English text and are cited and unquoted: Metzudat David on I Kings 7:13:1, and Radak on I Kings 7:19:1 and 7:21:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. The thirteen years draw Midrash Mishlei 22:8 and Seder Olam Rabbah 15:2 on the first verse. The house of the forest draws Bamidbar Rabbah 11:3 and Ein Yaakov, Yoma 4:4 on the second. The hall of judgment draws Jerusalem Talmud Bava Batra 6:2:3 and Vayikra Rabbah 17:1 on the seventh. The costly stones draw Bava Batra 3a:15 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 9:17 on the ninth, with Shir HaShirim Rabbah 5:7:1 and Tamid 26b:8 on the tenth.
Hiram the craftsman carries his own set. On the thirteenth verse the corpus holds Arakhin 16b:19 and Ein Yaakov, Arakhin 3:9. On the fourteenth it holds Midrash Tanchuma, Vayakhel 5:2 and the Buber recension at Vayakhel 6:1. The pillars draw Bamidbar Rabbah 12:4 on the fifteenth. The capitals draw two passages of Otzar Midrashim on the sixteenth, from the Baraita of the thirty-two measures at 1:24 and the compilation from the Baraita of forty-nine measures at 14. On the twenty-first, where the pillars are set up and named, it holds Shir HaShirim Rabbah 3:10:3.
The sea and the stands carry the rest. On the twenty-third verse the corpus holds Eruvin 14a:19 and Bamidbar Rabbah 13:14. On the twenty-fourth it holds Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 6:9 and Sifrei Devarim 1:20, and on the twenty-fifth Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 446:3. On the twenty-sixth it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 11:7 and Ein Yaakov, Eiruvin 1:6. On the twenty-seventh it holds Sifrei Bamidbar 107:1, on the twenty-ninth Shemot Rabbah 15:26, and on the thirty-third Shemot Rabbah 33:4. On the thirty-sixth it holds Yoma 54a:18 and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayetze 61.
The finished vessels close the chapter. On the fortieth verse the corpus holds Megillah 31a:17, and on the forty-fourth Jerusalem Talmud Bava Batra 4:5:1. On the forty-fifth it holds Arakhin 10b:13, and on the forty-sixth Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 34:2:1. On the forty-eighth it holds Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 6:3:3, and on the fiftieth Jerusalem Talmud Pesachim 9:5:2. The last verse, where the silver and the gold his father had dedicated are brought in, draws Tractate Soferim 20:10. Three passages of the Introductions to Tanaitic Literature stand with them, at Nazir 27, Eduyot 77 and Remains of Ancient Tannaitic Compilations 312. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and this site reports it as theirs. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on I Kings 7:1:1 to 7:24:1, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Kings 7:13:1, and noted by the Metsudah translation at 7:2:1 and 7:22:1; Radak, Radak on I Kings 7:19:1 and 7:21:1, cited by ref because Sefaria holds no English version; Targum Jonathan, cited by Rashi at Rashi on I Kings 7:2:1, 7:7:1, 7:9:1 and 7:24:1; The Sefaria corpus on disk, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/1-kings/7.json, fetched 2026-09-19, the forty Midrash and Talmud locators cited above, 2026; MannaFest, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, the two Haftarah uses and their rites, printed in this lane, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Thirteen years for his own house, and the house of the forest of Lebanon
building his own house thirteen years: The narrator sets thirteen years beside the temple's seven of 6:38 in adjacent verses and passes no comment. The readings are named and left standing: the palace complex was a group of state buildings and the temple a single house with materials prepared in advance, so the bench reads scale; others hear the numbers as a quiet weighing of priorities. Both stand on the same two verses.
1 Kings 7:1
“But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years,.... He made more haste with the house of God than with his own, for that was but seven years in building; which showed greater regard to the honour of God then to his own glory, or even convenience; nor was this built till after that: and finished all his house; or houses he undertook to build, the singular for the plural; even the house of God, his own palace, and that for the daughter of Pharaoh, and that which is next mentioned, which were in all twenty years building, 1Ki 9:10.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
1 Kings 7:1
“Thirteen years - The thirteen years, i. e., counting from the end of the seven 1Ki 6:38. Solomon’s buildings thus occupied him twenty years 1Ki 9:10; 2Ch 8:1, from the fourth year of his reign to the twenty-fourth. The difference in the time taken by the temple and the palace is to be accounted for, (1) by the long period of preparation which preceded the actual building of the former 1Ch 22:2-4; 1Ki 5:13-18; and (2) by the greater size of the palace, which consisted of several large ranges of buildings. (See the next note.)”
1 Kings 7:2-8
the house of the forest of Lebanon: The state complex in order: the house of the forest of Lebanon, named for its four rows of cedar pillars and serving later as an armory (10:17), the porch of pillars, the porch of judgment where the throne sat, his own dwelling, and a house for Pharaoh's daughter. The porch of judgment makes the architecture say what 3:9 asked for, a king built to judge. The narrator notes the Egyptian wife's house without comment, and the exposition does the same.
1 Kings 7:2
“The house of the forest of Lebanon - It was not built in Lebanon, but is thought to have been on Mount Sion. And why it was called the house of the forest of Lebanon does not appear; probably it was because it was built almost entirely of materials brought from that place. See the following verses.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 7:2
“I rather incline to think that it was a house built in the forest of Lebanon itself, whither (though far distant from Jerusalem) Solomon (having so many chariots and horses, and those dispersed into chariot-cities, which probably were his stages) might frequently retire with ease.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The Hebrew count of forty-five can belong to the beams or to the pillars, and John Gill and John Wesley read it as pillars. They place three rows of fifteen on an upper floor, one row fewer than the four rows of verse 2. The cedar roof lay above them.
1 Kings 7:3
“And it was covered with cedar above the beams, that lay on forty five pillars, fifteen in a row. On the second floor were three rows of pillars, fifteen in a row, which made forty five, that stood to east, north, and south; and upon these pillars beams, which were the floor of the third story, over which was a roof of cedar wood.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 7:3
“Fifteen - So in this second story were only three rows of pillars, which was sufficient for the ornament of the second and for the support of the third story.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Albert Barnes reads the three tiers two ways, as three ranges one above another on each side, or one range in each side wall and a third down the middle of the hall. The windows faced one another, letting light straight through. John Gill puts none in the west wall, where the porch stood.
1 Kings 7:4
“Either three ranges of windows, one above the other, on either side of the house; or perhaps the three ranges were one in either side wall, and the third in a wall down the middle of the hall, along the course of the midmost row of pillars. The windows were directly opposite one another, giving what we call a through light.”
The doorways were square at the top, where Assyrian builders often used arches, as Albert Barnes notes. Like the windows, the doorways faced one another. John Gill makes the posts and lintels square as well.
1 Kings 7:5
“All the doors and posts - The doorways, and the posts which formed them, seem to be intended. These were square at top, not arched or rounded. In Assyrian buildings arched doorways were not uncommon. The doorways also, like the windows, exactly faced one another.”
Albert Barnes takes the colonnade for the porch of the House of the Forest of Lebanon. Pillared porches set before pillared halls were a favorite of Persian builders, and at Persepolis small pillared rooms often stood in front of them. John Wesley reads the colonnade as a grand entrance.
1 Kings 7:6
“Probably the porch of the “House of the Forest.” Porches of columns immediately in front of columnar chambers were a favorite feature of Persian architecture. The whole verse should be translated, “And he made the porch of the pillars in length 50 cubits, and in breadth 30 cubits, and a porch before them (i. e., the pillars), and pillars, and a base (or step) before them.” Most of the Persepolitan porches had small pillared chambers at some little distance in front of them.”
Solomon built the Hall of Justice to house the throne, and Albert Barnes traces it to the old custom of judging at the city gate. John Gill sets the ivory throne of 10:18 in this hall. Solomon heard cases in person.
1 Kings 7:7
“The porch or gate of justice still kept alive the likeness of the old patriarchal custom of sitting in judgment at the gate; exactly as the “Gate of justice” still recalls it at Granada, and the Sublime Porte - “the Lofty Gate” - at Constantinople.”
Like this hall means the same materials, in John Gill's reading. Adam Clarke takes the king's palace, the Hall of Justice and the house of Pharaoh's daughter as three parts of one building. Matthew Henry wonders whether a nearer house would have spared Solomon the many wives of chapter 11.
1 Kings 7:8
“A house for Pharaoh’s daughter - This appears to have been a third house; probably the whole three made but one building, and were in the same place, but distinguished from each other; the first as Solomon’s palace, the second as a house of judgment, a court-house; the third, the harem, or apartments for the women.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 7:9-12
according to the measures of hewed stones: Foundation stones of eight and ten cubits, sawed within and without, and a great court built to the same pattern as the inner court of the house of the LORD, three rows of hewed stone and a row of cedar beams. Palace and temple share one masonry vocabulary, which is the section's quiet point: the kingdom's whole public architecture is of a piece with the sanctuary at its center.
1 Kings 7:9
“The stones were uniform - all cut to certain fixed measures of length, breadth, and thickness. They were not squared only on the face which showed, but also on the sides which fell within the wall and were not seen. Saws appear in Assyrian sculptures of the age of Sennacherib; and fragments of an iron saw have been found at Nimrud.”
John Gill reads the ten and eight cubits as the length of each stone. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown report stones of just these sizes still found in Jerusalem. They add that the court was paved with great squared stones.
1 Kings 7:10
“And the foundation was of costly stones, even great stones,.... Of a great price, and very large: stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits some of one measure, and some of another; not so many cubits square, but of solid measure; they were so many in length.”
Above the foundation the walls rose in the same costly stone to the ceiling, as John Gill reads it. Gill cites Kimchi for the rabbis' measure of a hewn stone, five handbreadths. The cedar either capped the stonework or lined it.
1 Kings 7:11
“And above were costly stones,.... Above the foundation, from thence to the top of the buildings; the whole walls were made of such right up to the ceiling: after the measure of hewed stones; which, according to the Rabbins, as Kimchi says, were five hands breadth: and cedars; beams of cedars over them, or these, both the foundation and the walls, were lined with them.”
The palace had two courts like the temple, and Albert Barnes places them differently: a private inner court among the buildings and a great court around them all. Assyrian palaces had the same outer court. Matthew Henry notes that Solomon modeled his own courts on God's.
1 Kings 7:12
The palace, like the temple, had two courts 1Ki 6:36, not, however, one immediately within the other. The lesser court of the palace seems to have been a private inner court among the buildings 1Ki 7:8. The greater court was outside all the buildings, surrounding the palace on every side. Assyrian palaces had always such an external court, and had generally one or more inner courts or quadrangles. Both for the inner court - By a slight alteration of the text, the meaning would be “as (was done) in the inner court, etc. and in the porch.”
Hiram the bronze-worker casts Jachin and Boaz
1 Kings 7:13-14
fetched Hiram out of Tyre: The master founder is a widow's son of Naphtali with a Tyrian father, and the text describes him as filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass, the same three-fold formula spoken over Bezalel at Ex 31:3. The temple's brass, like the tabernacle's, is made by a man Scripture describes in the vocabulary of the Spirit's gifting, and this Hiram of mixed parentage stands with the Tyrian king of the same name who sent the cedar. Craftsmanship sits inside the sanctuary story on purpose.
1 Kings 7:13
“And King Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. Not the king of Tyre, but an artificer in it, after described, whom Solomon had heard and upon his request Huram sent him to him, 2Ch 2:13 his name is called Hyperon by Clemens of Alexandria (l). (l) Stromat. l. 1. p. 332.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 7:13
“Hiram - A man who bore the same name as the king of Tyre, a master workman, known as Hiram Ab, i. e. Master Hiram 2Ch 2:13; 2Ch 4:16.”
2 Chronicles 2:14 makes the widow of this verse a woman of Dan, and Albert Barnes reconciles the two by her first marriage to a man of Naphtali. John Wesley notes that Chronicles credits Huram with skill in gold, stone and purple, and Kings names only his bronze work. Matthew Henry gives Huram a Tyrian head and an Israelite heart.
1 Kings 7:14
“He was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali--In 2Ch 2:14 his mother is said to have been of the daughters of Dan. The apparent discrepancy may be reconciled thus: Hiram's mother, though belonging to the tribe of Dan, had been married to a Naphtalite, so that when married afterwards to a Tyrian, she might be described as a widow of the tribe of Naphtali.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 7:14
“In brass - And Of gold, and stone, and purple, and blue, 2 Chron. ii, 14. But only his skill in brass is here mentioned, because he speaks only of the brasen things which he made.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Kings 7:15-22
two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits: The two freestanding pillars are dressed like a garden, chain work, two hundred pomegranates in rows, lily work at the crown, Eden's vocabulary cast in brass at the temple door. They are named at 7:21, Jachin, he shall establish, and Boaz, in him is strength, a sentence a worshipper read every time he went in, and Boaz is also the name of Ruth's redeemer in David's own line. The narrator will inventory these same pillars broken in pieces and carried to Babylon at 2 Ki 25:13-17, and the naming here is what makes that later verse land.
1 Kings 7:15
“He cast two pillars - eighteen cubits high - That is, about thirty feet in English measure. A line of twelve cubits - In circumference. It would be difficult even now to procure a founder who could cast such massive pillars, whether solid or hollow.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 7:15
“These famous pillars, which were broken in pieces by the Babylonians when they destroyed Jerusalem 2Ki 25:13; Jer 52:17, were probably for ornament, standing by themselves under or in front of the porch. It is certain that the Phoenicians used isolated metal columns as sacred ornaments, so that Hiram would be familiar with such a mode of ornamentation. Eighteen cubits appear to have been the height of the shaft only.”
Albert Barnes compares the great capitals, built in two distinct parts, to the pillars of Persian palaces, the closest match surviving from antiquity. Their ornament was far richer. John Wesley reconciles five cubits here with four at verse 19 by adding the ornaments in layers.
1 Kings 7:16
“Or, more strictly, either for the pommels, as they are called, 2 Chron. iv, 12, or for the cornice or crown, and so it was but three cubits, to which the pomegranates being added make it four cubits, as it is below, ver. 19, and the other work upon it took up one cubit more, which in all made five cubits.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Albert Barnes reads the lattice as a fine network over each capital with the chainwork hanging in wreaths, and he prefers the Septuagint, which gives one network for each capital in place of seven. John Gill keeps the seven. Bede reads seven as the grace of the Spirit.
Pomegranates were a common ornament in Assyria. Albert Barnes leaves open whether the bronze pomegranates set in rows on the network of each capital carried a meaning or were made for beauty. Kimchi, cited by John Gill, knew copies that swapped pillars and pomegranates in this verse.
1 Kings 7:18
“And he made the pillars,.... Or adorned them in this manner: and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters that were upon the top, with pomegranates; that is, there were two rows of figures like pomegranates upon the net or branch work that covered the chapiters that were on the top of the pillars; and Kimchi owns, that some copies so read, on the top of the pillars, instead of pomegranates, though he thinks it a mistake: and so did he for the other chapiter; put two rows about that also.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 7:18
“The pomegranate was one of the most common ornaments in Assyria. It was used on quivers, on spear-shafts, and maceheads, in patterns on doorways and pavements, etc. It is doubtful whether a symbolic meaning was attached to it, or whether it was merely selected as a beautiful natural form.”
Albert Barnes points to a cornice of lily work at Persepolis, three rows of broad rounded leaves, and to lilies carved on a relief from Koyunjik. John Wesley reads the lily work as matching the ornament of the portico. Bede reads the lilies as the glory of heaven.
1 Kings 7:19
“There is a cornice of (so-called) lilywork at Persepolis, consisting of three ranges of broadish rounded leaves, one over the other. Lilies are also represented with much spirit on a bas-relief from Koyunjik.”
Albert Barnes holds that words fell out of this verse by repetition, and he restores two hundred pomegranates on each capital. John Wesley reads the same count. John Gill takes the pomegranates as filling the middle cubit of each capital.
1 Kings 7:20
“In this verse also a portion of the original text is supposed to have fallen out in consequence of the repetition of words. The full phrase of the original has been retained in 1Ki 7:16-17. It may be restored thus: “And the pomegranates were two hundred in rows round about upon the one chapiter, and two hundred in rows round about upon the other chapiter.” The “four hundred” 1Ki 7:42; 2Ch 4:13, are obtained by counting the pomegranates of both pillars together.”
Adam Clarke and Matthew Henry note that the pillars carried no part of the building and stood for their meaning. Albert Barnes reads the two names as one sentence, God will establish in strength. Ishodad of Merv took them for priesthood and kingship.
1 Kings 7:21
“Jachin - Jachin signifies he; That is, God shall establish, his temple, and church, and people: and Boaz signifies, in it, or rather, in him (to answer the he in the former name) is strength.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
1 Kings 7:21
“The Septuagint in the parallel passage (margin reference), translate Jachin and Boaz by Κατόρθωσις Katorthōsis and Ἰσχύς Ischus - “Direction” and “Strength.” The literal meaning of the names is given in the margin. The meaning was probably “God will establish in strength” (i. e. firmly) the temple and the religion connected with it.”
1 Kings 7:21
“Boaz--These names were symbolical, and indicated the strength and stability--not so much of the material temple, for they were destroyed along with it (Jer 52:17), as of the spiritual kingdom of God, which was embodied in the temple.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Kings 7:21
“When we come to wait upon God, and find our hearts wandering and unfixed, then by faith let us fetch in help from heaven: Jachin -- God will fix this roving mind. It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace. We find ourselves weak and unable for holy duties, but this is our encouragement: Boaz -- in him is our strength, who works in us both to will and to do.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Connectionsdisambiguation
The lily work repeats verse 19, and John Gill reads the repetition as confirming it. Matthew Henry leaves open whether the pillars stood under the roof of the portico or in the open air. The pillars are finished.
1 Kings 7:22
“And upon the top of the pillars was lily work,.... Which seems to be repeated from 1Ki 7:19 and confirms that: and so was the work of the pillars finished; in the manner described.”
The molten sea on twelve oxen, and ten wheeled bases
1 Kings 7:23-26
a molten sea: The tabernacle's laver has grown into a sea: ten cubits across, five high, two thousand baths, standing on twelve oxen facing the four quarters, with a brim wrought like a lily cup. The given round numbers, ten across and thirty about, are the old arithmetic question; the bench answers it from the text's own detail that the sea was an hand breadth thick, so the line and the diameter measure different edges, and the page needs no more than that sentence. Twelve oxen under the water carry the same all-Israel signature as Elijah's twelve stones.
1 Kings 7:23
“The “molten sea “of Solomon, so called from its great size, took the place of the laver of the tabernacle Exo 30:18-21, which was required for the ablutions of the priests. It was ten cubits, or fully fifteen feet, in diameter at top, and therefore forty-seven feet in circumference, with a depth of 5 cubits, or 7 12 feet.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Kings 7:23
“Yet this prevailed not to prevent Jerusalem's setting up the calves for deities. In the court of the tabernacle there was only a laver of brass provided to wash in, but in the court of the temple a sea of brass, intimating that by the gospel of Christ much fuller preparation is made for our cleansing than was by the law of Moses.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 7:23
“A Sea - He melted the brass, and cast it into the form of a great vessel, for its vastness called a sea, which name is given by the Hebrew to all great collections of waters. The use of it was for the priests to wash their hands and feet, or other things as occasion required, with the water which they drew out of it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The buds were gourd-shaped bosses, in Albert Barnes's reading, set in two rows below the rim. John Wesley counts three hundred in all at ten to the cubit. They were cast with the Sea in one pour.
1 Kings 7:24
“Knops - Carved or molten figures: for this word signifies figures or pictures of all sorts. Ten, &c. - So there were three hundred in all. Cast - Together with the sea; not carved.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Josephus charged Solomon with breaking the second commandment by the twelve oxen under the Sea and the lions of his throne, and Albert Barnes reads that as a stricter view of carving. Ishodad says the oxen kept the Sea off the ground.
1 Kings 7:25
“Josephus charged Solomon with a breach of the Commandment Exo 20:4-5, on account of the oxen here and the lions for his throne. The charge expresses the prohibition which some Jews have conceived the Commandment to urge against the arts of sculpture and painting.”
Albert Barnes puts the handbreadth at a little over three inches, and he pictures the rim curving outward like the lip of a drinking cup or a lily. Bede reads the cup as the Lord's passion. The lily is his resurrection.
1 Kings 7:26
“The palm or hand-breadth seems to have a little exceeded three inches. With flowers of lilies - Rather, “in the shape of a lily flower.” The rim was slightly curved outward, like the rim of an ordinary drinking-cup, or the edge of a lily blossom. See 2Ch 4:5 margin.”
1 Kings 7:27-37
ten bases of brass: Ten wheeled stands, each carved with lions, oxen, cherubims and palm trees, their wheels made like the work of a chariot wheel, all of them one casting, one measure, and one size. Cherubim, wheels and living faces together read like a first sketch of what Ezekiel later sees in motion, a likeness the commentators draw and the page marks as theirs. The washing apparatus of the house rolls; cleansing in this architecture is designed to move to its work.
1 Kings 7:27
“Ten bases of brass - These were for the ten lavers (1Ki 7:38. See 2Ch 4:6). In general terms the bases were square stands, 6 feet each way, and 4 12 feet high, elaborately ornamented on their four sides, and resting upon four wheels, 2 14 feet in diameter. Each stand supported a laver 6 feet high, which contained 40 baths 1Ki 7:38, or about 340 gallons.”
Albert Barnes reads the side panels as square compartments framed by moldings. John Gill pictures the uprights as short bars of bronze like the rails of a balcony, with plates between them. Each stand was a framed box of bronze.
1 Kings 7:28
“Borders - Rather, “panels” (so 1Ki 7:32, 1Ki 7:35), a set of square compartments between the “ledges” or borders, or mouldings. Below the panelling, with its ornamentation of lions, oxen (the two animal forms which occur most frequently in Assyrian decoration), and cherubim, was a space decorated with “additions of thin work” 1Ki 7:29. Upon the “ledges” 1Ki 7:29 which surrounded the top of the base there was a stand for the laver, distinct from the upper surface of the base.”
Lions and oxen are the two animal forms found most often in Assyrian decoration, as Albert Barnes notes. John Wesley reads the pedestal above as the seat of the basin. He takes the wreaths below as ornament.
1 Kings 7:29
“Base above - So he calls the upper-most part of the base: for though it was above, yet it was a base to the laver, which stood upon it. Additions - Either as bases for the feet of the said lions and oxen: or, only as farther ornaments.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The four supports are shoulders in the Hebrew, and Albert Barnes reads them as brackets rising from the corners of the stand to the rim of the basin. John Wesley notes that they held the basin firm when the stand was moved. Each bracket met a wreath.
1 Kings 7:30
“Plates of brass - Rather, “brazen axletrees.” The “undersetters” (literally, “shoulders”) are conjectured to have been four brackets, or bars, proceeding from the four upper corners of the bases, and stretching upward to the outer rim of the laver, which thus rested partly upon them. At the side of every addition - Rather, “each opposite garlands.” The laver was ornamented with a garland at the place where the support reached it.”
Albert Barnes judges the mouth and crown of the stand impossible to reconstruct with certainty. John Wesley reads a round opening set within a square frame, like a circle drawn inside a square. Bede reads the single cubit as one faith and one baptism.
Albert Barnes sets the wheels at about two and a quarter feet across, close to the earliest Assyrian chariot wheels. They stood under a fifth of the height of the whole structure. John Gill fits them to a stand three cubits high.
1 Kings 7:32
“With the diameter (2 14 ft.) of the wheel here, may be compared that of the earliest Assyrian chariot-wheels, which was under 3 feet; and that of the front wheels seen in representations of Assyrian close carriages, which scarcely exceed 14th of the height of the entire vehicle. The wheels of these moveable lavers appear to have been a little less than 15th of the height of the whole structure.”
John Gill notes that axles, rims, spokes and hubs were cast together with the stand. The Targum renders the phrase like a chariot of glory. Each wheel was one casting.
1 Kings 7:33
“And the work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel,.... In the same form and fashion as one of them; the Targum is, "like a chariot of glory;'' a splendid one, curiously wrought; unless reference is had in it to the chariot of Ezekiel's vision: their axle trees, and their naves, and their felloes, and their spokes, were all molten; cast together when the base was.”
These handles at the corners are the same supports named in verse 30, as John Gill reads them. Albert Barnes and Gill note that they were cast with the stand, which made them stronger to bear the basin. Each basin held forty baths.
1 Kings 7:34
“And there were four undersetters to the four corners of one base,.... Or pillars, as in 1Ki 7:30. and the undersetters were of the base itself; they were cast together, and of the same piece of metal with it.”
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1 Kings 7:34
“The undersetters were cast with the base, not afterward attached to it, and were therefore stronger and better able to support the laver.”
Albert Barnes reads the circular band as a raised ring, half a cubit high, on which the basin sat. John Gill takes it for the crown of verse 31. The supports and panels were cast with it as one piece.
1 Kings 7:35
“A round compass - A circular elevation, half a cubit high, rather than a circular depression, half a cubit deep. Compare 1Ki 7:29. The “ledges” and “borders” of the top of the base were its “hands” and its “panels.” These “hands,” distinct from the “shoulders” 1Ki 7:30, were probably supports, adorned with engraved plates 1Ki 7:36, either of the elevated circle on which the laver stood, or of the lower part of the laver itself. Both panels and “hands” were “of the same,” i. e. of one piece with the base, cast at the same time.”
Albert Barnes and John Wesley read wherever each had space as carvings sized to the room left for them. The panels at the top were smaller than those on the sides of the stand. The figures shrank to fit.
1 Kings 7:36
“According to the proportion of every one - i. e. “as large as the room left for them allowed,” implying that the panels were smaller than those on the sides of the base, and allowed scant room for the representations.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 7:36
“The proportion - Or, empty place, that is, according to the bigness of the spaces which were left empty for them, implying that they were smaller than those above mentioned.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
John Gill reads the ten stands as cast in one mold. He cites Jacob Leon for a weight of two thousand talents each, at over ninety-three pounds a talent.
1 Kings 7:37
“After this manner he made the ten bases,.... This was the form and fashion of them as above described: all of them had one casting, one measure, and one size; they were all cast into the same mould, and were exactly alike in their form, figures, and size, and each weighed 2000 talents, and the weight of a talent was ninety three pounds and upwards, according to Jacob Leon (b). (b) Relation of Memorable Things in the Temple, c. 4. p. 21.”
1 Kings 7:38-40
ten lavers of brass: Ten lavers of forty baths each ride the ten bases, five ranged on each side of the house, and the sea stands at the southeast corner. Hiram finishes the movable brasswork with the small tools, pots, shovels and basons, and the narrator marks the completion before turning to the inventory. The multiplication from one tabernacle laver to ten plus a sea measures the scale of the priestly service the house expects.
1 Kings 7:38
“Then made he ten lavers - These were set on the ten bases or pedestals, and were to hold water for the use of the priests in their sacred office, particularly to wash the victims that were to be offered as a burnt-offering, as we learn from 2Ch 4:6; but the brazen sea was for the priests to wash in. The whole was a building of vast art, labor, and expense.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
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1 Kings 7:38
“All within doors was gold, and all made new (except the ark, with its mercy-seat and cherubim), the old being either melted down or laid by--the golden altar, table, and candlestick, with all their appurtenances. The altar of incense was still one, for Christ and his intercession are so: but he made ten golden tables, 2 Chron. iv.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The stands stood in the priests' court outside the temple, and John Wesley reads them as the place where the priests washed their hands and feet and the parts of the sacrifices. Bede takes the temple's right side as the south.
1 Kings 7:39
“Right side - In the south side, not within the house, but in the priests court, where they washed either their hands or feet, or the parts of the sacrifices.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Bronze past weighing, gold past counting: the work finished
Albert Barnes takes the pots as the caldrons for boiling the peace offerings, as at 1 Samuel 2:13-14. The craftsmen of Tyre were famed for metal bowls, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see why Solomon sent for Huram. Adam Clarke marvels at the work of one man.
1 Kings 7:40
“The Tyrian artists are frequently mentioned by ancient authors as skilful artificers in fashioning and embossing metal cups and bowls; and we need not wonder, therefore, to find them employed by Solomon in making the golden and brazen utensils for his temple and palaces.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Kings 7:41-47
The two pillars, and the two bowls: The full brass inventory is recited and then given its foundry: cast in the clay ground of the Jordan plain between Succoth and Zarthan, where the earth itself served for molds. The closing line is the section's one flourish, Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because they were exceeding many: neither was the weight of the brass found out. A book that counts cubits all chapter ends the brasswork by declaring it beyond counting.
The four hundred pomegranates are the two hundred on each capital from verse 20, counted together. Albert Barnes matches the total to 2 Chronicles 4:13. The list names each bronze piece Huram cast.
Each basin sat on its own stand, and Albert Barnes places a separate seat for the basin on the ledges at the top of the stand. Verse 38 gives each basin forty baths.
Ishodad of Merv reads the oxen beneath the Sea as a sign of the ordered world, for the Law named this animal for sacrifice. Ahaz later took the Sea off the oxen. The act is recorded at 2 Kings 16:17.
Every article Huram made for the LORD's house was bronze of the strongest and finest grade, as the Targum renders it, in Matthew Henry's reading. Henry reads it as the best given to God.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown place Succoth east of the Jordan near the mouth of the Jabbok, and Zarethan on the west bank in Manasseh, the Zarethan of 4:12. Matthew Henry notes that the smoky work was kept far from Jerusalem. Calmet, cited by Adam Clarke, put the foundry near Beth-shean.
1 Kings 7:46
“In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them--Zarthan, or Zaretan (Jos 3:16), or Zartanah (1Ki 4:12), or Zeredathah (2Ch 4:17), was on the bank of the Jordan in the territories of western Manasseh. Succoth was situated on the eastern side of Jordan, at the ford of the river near the mouth of the Jabbok.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
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1 Kings 7:46
“Cast them, in the clay ground - In this place he found that particular kind of clay that was proper for his purpose. Some suppose that the place where Hiram had his foundry was on the other side, some on this side, of Jordan. Calmet supposes that it was near Bethshan.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Albert Barnes traces the bronze to two cities of Hadadezer king of Zobah, taken by David at 1 Chronicles 18:8. Matthew Henry reads the unweighed metal as a mark of plenty and of honest workmen. David's spoil became the temple's bronze.
1 Kings 7:47
“The brass of which the two pillars, Jachin and Boaz, the brass sea, and the various vessels were made had been taken by David from two cities belonging to Hadadezer, king of Zobah 1Ch 18:8.”
1 Kings 7:48-51
the altar of gold: Inside the house the metal changes: golden altar, golden table for the shewbread, ten candlesticks of pure gold, gold hinges on the doors of the most holy place, the tabernacle's rule that materials grade upward with nearness to the presence. So was ended all the work repeats the completion formula spoken over the tabernacle at Ex 40:33, and behind it Gen 2:2, a correspondence Keil and the older writers note. The last verse brings in the silver and gold David dedicated, so the house is finished holding the father's consecrations before the ark itself arrives in chapter 8.
1 Kings 7:48
“Vessels - Such as Moses had made only these were larger, and richer, and more. Table of gold - Under which, are comprehended both all the utensils belonging to it, and the other ten tables which he made together with it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 7:48
“See the note to 1Ki 6:20 and notes at 2Ch 4:19-22.”
Moses made one lampstand, and Solomon made ten. John Wesley reads the tenfold light as sacred truth growing brighter toward the gospel, and Matthew Henry reads the added lamps as the fuller food and light the gospel gives.
1 Kings 7:49
“Candlesticks - Which were ten, according to the number of the tables, whereas Moses made but one: whereby might be signified the progress of the light of sacred truth, which was now grown clearer than it was in Moses's time, and should shine brighter and brighter until the perfect day of gospel light.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Even the hinges and the wick trimmers were gold. Matthew Henry records the view that such splendor was meant to keep Israel from idol temples, none of which were so rich. The history of the kings shows how little it availed, Henry adds.
Adam Clarke reads the verse as showing that Solomon completed the house of the LORD without spending the silver and gold of his father David, which went whole into the treasuries. Albert Barnes counts in David's gifts the spoil of his wars and the vessels sent by Toi king of Hamath. John Wesley adds the old furnishings of Moses.
1 Kings 7:51
“The things which David had dedicated - Not only the things described in 1Ch 28:14-18, but also the spoil of the nations which he had subdued (margin reference), and also the vessels of gold, silver, and brass, sent him by Toi king of Hamath, on his victory over Hadadezer. Solomon now brought these into the temple treasury. A sacred treasury had been established at least as early as the time of Saul, to which Saul himself, Abner, Joab, and others, had contributed 1Ch 26:28.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 7:51
“What was not expended in the building and furniture was laid up in the treasury, for repairs, exigencies, and the constant charge of the temple-service. What the parents have dedicated to God the children ought by no means to alienate or recall, but should cheerfully devote what was intended for pious and charitable uses, that they may, with their estates, inherit the blessing.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: A building account, the state complex and the temple's metalwork given room by room and piece by piece, as Keil and Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Thirteen years set beside seven | 1 Kings 6:38 gives seven years for the house of the LORD and 7:1 gives thirteen for Solomon's own house, in adjacent verses with no comment between them. Keil and Delitzsch read the difference as scale, since the palace was a group of state buildings and the temple one house with its materials prepared in advance. Matthew Henry hears the two numbers as a weighing of what the king cared for most. Both readings rest on the same two verses.Keil and Delitzsch, with Matthew Henry, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Books of the Kings, 1861 to 1875, on 1 Kings 7:1. | 1 Kings 6:38, 1 Kings 7:1 |
| The five buildings named in order | Verses 2 to 8 walk the state complex in order. The house of the forest of Lebanon comes first, named for its four rows of cedar pillars. Then the porch of pillars, the porch of judgment where the throne stood, the king's own dwelling, and a house for Pharaoh's daughter. The porch of judgment puts into architecture what Solomon asked for at 1 Kings 3:9, a king built to judge. The Egyptian wife's house is named and left without comment.F. W. Farrar, The First Book of Kings, The Expositor's Bible, 1893, on 1 Kings 7:2. | 1 Kings 7:2, 1 Kings 7:7, 1 Kings 7:8 |
| Jachin and Boaz | The two freestanding pillars are named at 1 Kings 7:21, and the names are sentences. Jachin carries the sense he shall establish, and Boaz the sense in him is strength, so a worshipper read a claim about God every time he passed between them. Boaz is also the name of Ruth's redeemer in David's own line. The same two pillars are inventoried broken in pieces and carried to Babylon at 2 Kings 25:13 to 17.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Books of the Kings, 1861 to 1875, on 1 Kings 7:21. | 1 Kings 7:15, 1 Kings 7:21, 2 Kings 25:13 |
| The garden cast in brass | The pillars are dressed the way a garden is planted: chain work at the capitals, two hundred pomegranates in rows, and lily work at the crown. The molten sea takes the same vocabulary, its brim wrought like the brim of a cup with flowers of lilies. The ten wheeled bases carry lions, oxen, cherubim and palm trees. Eden's furniture stands at the temple door in metal.F. W. Farrar, The First Book of Kings, The Expositor's Bible, 1893, on 1 Kings 7:18. | 1 Kings 7:18, 1 Kings 7:22, 1 Kings 7:26, 1 Kings 7:36 |
| The inventory that ends beyond counting | Verses 41 to 45 recite the whole brass inventory piece by piece, and verse 46 names the foundry, the clay ground of the Jordan plain between Succoth and Zarethan. Verse 47 then closes the list by refusing it: Solomon left the vessels unweighed because they were exceeding many. A chapter that has counted cubits all the way through declares the brass past counting.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 1 Kings 7:46. | 1 Kings 7:41, 1 Kings 7:46, 1 Kings 7:47 |
| So was ended all the work | The completion formula at 1 Kings 7:51 repeats the sentence spoken over the tabernacle at Exodus 40:33, and the older writers hear Genesis 2:2 behind both. The building account that opened at 1 Kings 6:1 closes here, and the house is finished holding the silver and gold David had dedicated before the ark itself arrives in the next chapter.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Books of the Kings, 1861 to 1875, on 1 Kings 7:51. | 1 Kings 6:1, 1 Kings 7:51, Exodus 40:33 |
The debated concept
8 more paragraphs on the patterns
The measurements of the molten sea are the chapter's long-running arithmetic question. Verse 23 gives ten cubits from brim to brim and a line of thirty cubits round about, and a circle ten across measures about thirty-one and a half round. John Gill and Adam Clarke both answer from the text's own detail at verse 26. The sea was an hand breadth thick with a brim that flared like a lily cup, so the two figures measure different edges. A second answer, also held by the older commentators, takes thirty as a round working figure of the kind a builder's record keeps. Gleason L. Archer treats numbers of this kind across Kings as round or as measured at different points, and Keil and Delitzsch read the verse for the shape of the vessel rather than for a proportion. The page states the readings and leaves the number as the text gives it.
The second question is what the thirteen years mean. Keil and Delitzsch answer from scale, since the palace was a complex of separate halls and the temple's material had been dressed in advance at 1 Kings 5:17 to 18. Matthew Henry answers from priority, reading the two figures as a quiet account of where the king's own heart went once the house of God was done. The narrator supplies no verdict, and the two readings stand on the same two verses.
The New Testament's use
The chapter is not quoted in the New Testament. Its furniture is taken up instead. Hebrews 9:1 to 5 describes the holy places and their vessels as a copy and a shadow, and the golden altar and the table of shewbread of verses 48 and 49 stand in that list. Revelation 3:12 promises the overcomer a place as a pillar in the temple of God, the figure this chapter puts at the door in brass with a name cut into it.
The divine connection
The three-fold description of Hiram at verse 14, filled with wisdom and understanding and skill to work in brass, is the formula spoken over Bezalel at Exodus 31:3 when the tabernacle was made. Keil and Delitzsch and Alfred Edersheim both mark the echo. The same vocabulary covers the man who made the tent and the man who made the house, so skilled work sits inside the sanctuary story by design.
The metal grades upward with nearness. Brass stands in the court, gold inside the house, and the doors of the most holy place carry gold hinges. The rule is the tabernacle's own, and Keil and Delitzsch read this chapter as keeping it.
The ten bases roll. Their wheels are made like a chariot wheel and their panels carry cherubim, oxen and lions, and the commentators set the description beside what Ezekiel later sees moving at Ezekiel 1:5 to 21. The likeness is theirs rather than the text's own claim, and the page carries it as their reading.
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
F. W. Farrar, The First Book of Kings, The Expositor's Bible, 1893, on 1 Kings 7:13; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Books of the Kings, 1861 to 1875, on 1 Kings 7:1 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 1 Kings 7:1.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament; Bede; F. W. Farrar, The First Book of Kings (Expositor's Bible); Ishodad of Merv; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Kings and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.