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1 Kings 7:9

in 1 Kings 7

All these buildings were constructed with costly stones, cut to size and trimmed with saws inside and out from the foundation to the eaves, and from the outside to the great courtyard.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

All these were of costly stones, even of hewn stone, according to measure, sawed with saws, within and without, even from the foundation unto the coping, and so on the outside unto the great court.

KJV

All these were of costly stones, according to the measures of hewed stones, sawed with saws, within and without, even from the foundation unto the coping, and so on the outside toward the great court.

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This verse in 1 Kings 7

Commentary

4 notes on this verse
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.

This site's exposition

according to the measures of hewed stones

on 1 Kings 7:9-12

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.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

proposed

To the coping - From the bottom to the top of the building. And so on - Not only on the outside of the front of the house, which being most visible, men are more careful to adorn; but also of the other side of the house, which looked towards the great court belonging to the king's house.
All these were of costly stones,.... Marble, porphyry, &c. according to the measure of hewed stones, sawed with saws, within and without; they were all hewed, and squared, and polished, and so they appeared both on the inside of the building, and without: even from the foundation unto the coping; from the bottom to the top: and so on the outside toward the great court: where the people used to assemble when they had causes to be tried, and was adjoining to the king's house.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

The foundation was, etc., [of] huge stones. And the foundation which was in the ground was of stones greater than the [standard] size of cut [stones].
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on I Kings 7:10:1, 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. 2 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

17 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.

  • כָּל־all

    kol-H3605 →5413 times

  • אֵ֜לֶּהthese

    ʾelehH428 →746 times

  • אֲבָנִ֤ים[were] stones

    ʾavanimH68 →273 times

  • יְקָרֹת֙costly

    yekarotH3368 →36 times

  • כְּמִדֹּ֣תaccording to measurements of

    kemidotH4060 →55 times

  • גָּזִ֔יתhewn [stone]

    gazitH1496 →11 times

  • מְגֹרָר֥וֹתsawn

    megorarotH1641 →

  • בַּמְּגֵרָ֖הwith <the> saw

    bamegerahH4050 →

  • מִבַּ֣יִתfrom inside

    mibayitH1004 →2046 times

  • וּמִח֑וּץand from outside

    umichutzH2351 →164 times

  • וּמִמַּסָּד֙and from [the] foundation

    umimasadH4527 →

  • עַד־to

    ʾad-H5704 →1261 times

  • הַטְּפָח֔וֹתthe coping stone

    hatefachotH2947 →

  • וּמִח֖וּץand from [the] outside

    umichutzH2351 →164 times

  • עַד־to

    ʾad-H5704 →1261 times

  • הֶחָצֵ֥רthe court

    hechatzerH2691 →191 times

  • הַגְּדוֹלָֽה׃<the> great

    hagedolahH1419 →526 times

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

Related verses

3 in all, six open

The walk

5 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 5:17

    And the king commanded them to quarry large, costly stones to lay the foundation of the temple with dressed stones.

    it leads to

    • 1 Kings 6:7

      The temple was constructed using finished stones cut at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any other iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.

    • 1 Chronicles 22:2

      So David gave orders to gather the foreigners in the land of Israel, from whom he appointed stonecutters to prepare finished stones for building the house of God.

    • 1 Peter 2:6–7

      For it stands in Scripture: “See, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone; and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”

    • 1 Corinthians 3:11–12

      For no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

    • Isaiah 28:16

      So this is what the Lord GOD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will never be shaken.

About 1 Kings

The Judgment of Solomon, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Judgment of Solomon, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
1 Kings: the study guide →Read 1 Kings 7 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Keil, The Books of the Kings.

Read on in 1 Kings 7 →