Bible Commentaries

CHAPTER 7 The House of Solomon and Pharaoh’s DaughterThe Furnishings of the Temple

1. The house of the forest of Lebanon (1 Kings 7:1-7)

2. The royal palace and the house of Pharaoh’s daughter (1 Kings 7:8-12)

3. The master workman (1 Kings 7:13-14)

4. The great pillars and chapiters (1 Kings 7:15-22)

5. The brazen sea (1 Kings 7:23-26)

6. The ten lavers with their carriages (1 Kings 7:27-40)

7. Hiram’s work (1 Kings 7:41-47)

8. The golden utensils for the interior (1 Kings 7:48-51)

The description of the palace buildings come next. These buildings are called “Solomon’s own house” (verse 1). The buildings consisted of the following: The house of the forest of Lebanon (verses 2-5). The porch of pillars (verse 6). The porch of judgment, where the king judged (verse 7). The house where the king dwelt (verse 8). The house where Pharaoh’s daughter dwelt “like unto his house” (verse 8). The wall which surrounded the great court. Seven things are mentioned in connection with the palace buildings. While the temple was God’s dwelling place the palace buildings were the dwelling place of the king and his wife, Pharaoh’s daughter. From there the king executed judgment. Here we have prefigured the glorious administration of the kingdom, when our Lord judges in righteousness. The house of the forest of Lebanon is the type of His glory among the Gentiles. And inasmuch as the house of Pharaoh’s daughter was closely connected with Solomon’s house it is written “we are his house” (Hebrews 3:6), we have here foreshadowed the association of the Church with Christ in His coming reign of glory. Everything in the temple and in the palace buildings was glorious and revealed the immense riches of the great king. What a day it will be when the riches and glory of Christ will be manifested and when the saints of God will share it all!

Then Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. This was not the king, but a master workman. His father was a Tyrian and his mother by birth of the tribe of Dan was a widow and had married a man of Naphtali. This reconciles an alleged discrepancy. (See 1 Kings 7:14 and 2 Chronicles 2:13.) In Chronicles he is called Huram. (Probably Huram-abi (Abi--meaning “my father”) was his correct name.) His mother belonged to the same tribe to which Aholiab the coworker of Bezaleel belonged. (See Exodus 31:1-6.) The two pillars of solid brass Jachin (he will establish) and Boaz (in him is Strength) are first described. They were a new thing for the house of the Lord. The outward support these pillars afforded speak of Him who is the support of everything and whose power upholdeth all things. Read Jeremiah’s words concerning these pillars (Jeremiah 27:19, etc.) and the fulfilment (2 Kings 25:13-17; Jeremiah 52:17). All the vessels mentioned were made on a much larger scale, and greater in number, than those of the tabernacle. The great molten sea supported by twelve oxen which looked towards the North, South, East and West, the river wrought like a cup, like lilies, contained two thousand baths (about 16,250 gallons of water). (2 Chronicles 4:5 has 3000 baths: this must mean the actual capacity of this colossal vessel, while the 2000 measures in 1 Kings gives the usual contents of the laver.) Here the priests and Levites performed their ablutions. The water was drawn from the big reservoir. There was a large supply. Living waters in abundance will flow forth from Jerusalem in the coming kingdom ages. The oxen (the burden bearing beast) are typical of service. Of all this we shall find more in Chronicles. Then all the things which David had dedicated, the silver, the gold and the vessels were put by Solomon among the treasures of the house of the Lord.