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1 Kings 6:9

in 1 Kings 6

So Solomon built the temple and finished it, roofing it with beams and planks of cedar.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

So he built the house, and finished it; and he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar.

KJV

So he built the house, and finished it; and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar.

This verse in 1 Kings 6

Commentary

6 notes on this verse
He built the house, and finished it - i. e., the external shell of the house. The internal fittings were added afterward. See 1Ki 6:15-22. Covered the house - Roofed it with a wooden roof, sloped like our roofs.

This site's exposition

with winding stairs into the middle chamber

on 1 Kings 6:8-10

The door to the middle chamber sits on the south side of the house, and a winding stair carries a man from the first level up to the second and from the second to the third. Rings of side chambers, five cubits high per story, rest on the ledges cut into the outer wall and are finished with beams and boards of cedar laid over the house. The passage is architecture only, three floors wrapped around the sanctuary proper for storage and priestly use.

The record, by era

The Medieval Church2 voices

A commentator

Bede

Questions on the Book of Kings #13 · Written before 735.

proposed

"He also covered the house with cedar ceilings." [1 Kings 6:9] The term "He also covered the house with cedar ceilings" refers to the timber-frame ceilings that, when fastened with nails, display the wondrous beauty of their paintings to those who behold them. There were …

A commentator

Bede

Of the Temple of Solomon 1.8.3 · Written before 735.

proposed

Ceilings are boardwork constructed and adorned with great beauty and fixed to the beams on the lower side, and because the house of the Lord had been built three times the double height, naturally it had three ceilings. What is more fitting for us to …

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

So he built the house, and finished it,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

Covered the house with beams and boards of cedar - The Eastern custom is very different from ours: we ceil with plaster, and make our floors of wood; they make their floors of plaster or painted tiles, and make their ceilings of wood. But it may not be improper to observe that, in ancient times, our buildings were somewhat similar. Westminster Hall is a proof of this.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

Five amohs high. Of each one. Therefore, their total height was fifteen amohs besides the thickness of the ceiling.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on I Kings 6:10:1, via Sefaria, The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

10 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיִּ֥בֶןand he built

    vaiyivenH1129376 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • הַבַּ֖יִתthe house

    habayitH10042046 times

  • וַיְכַלֵּ֑הוּand he finished it

    vaykhalehuH3615208 times

  • וַיִּסְפֹּ֤ןand he covered

    vaiyisponH56036 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • הַבַּ֙יִת֙the house

    habayitH10042046 times

  • גֵּבִ֔יםbeams

    gevimH1356

  • וּשְׂדֵרֹ֖תand planks

    usederotH7713

  • בָּאֲרָזִֽים׃with <the> cedar<s>

    baarazimH73073 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

7 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    1 Kings 6:14

    So Solomon built the temple and finished it.

    it leads to

    • 1 Kings 6:38

      In his eleventh year and eighth month, the month of Bul, the temple was finished in every detail and according to every specification. So he built the temple in seven years.

    • Acts 7:47–48

      But it was Solomon who built the house for Him.

  • Through

    1 Kings 6:38

    In his eleventh year and eighth month, the month of Bul, the temple was finished in every detail and according to every specification. So he built the temple in seven years.

    it leads to

    • Zechariah 4:9

      “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will complete it. Then you will know that the LORD of Hosts has sent me to you.

    • 1 Kings 7:1

      Solomon, however, took thirteen years to complete the construction of his entire palace.

    • Ezra 6:14–15

      So the Jewish elders built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo. They finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees…

    • Ezra 3:8–13

      In the second month of the second year after they had arrived at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak, and the rest of their associates including…

    • 1 Kings 6:1

      In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt, in the month of Ziv, the second month of the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over…

Where this verse is studied

About 1 Kings

The Judgment of Solomon, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Judgment of Solomon, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Questions on the Book of Kings #13; Bede, Of the Temple of Solomon 1.8.3; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Keil, The Books of the Kings.