not mentioned in the Book of Kings, and the numeral given for it in 2 Chronicles 3:4, is evidently a copyist's

error.102 Probably it rose to a height of about thirty cubits.103

Of the total length of the Sanctuary, forty cubits were apportioned to the Holy Place, (which was thus sixty

feet long, thirty wide, and forty-five high), and twenty cubits (thirty feet) to the Most Holy Place, which (1

Kings 6:20) is described as measuring twenty cubits  104 (thirty feet) in length, width, and height. The ten

cubits (fifteen feet) left above the Most Holy Place were apparently occupied by an empty room. Perhaps, as

in the Temple of Herod, this space was used for letting down the workmen through an aperture, when

repairs were required in the innermost Sanctuary. In that case the access to it would have been from the

roof. The latter was, no doubt, flat.105

The measurements just given apply, of course, only to the interior of these buildings. As regards their

exterior we have to add not only the thickness of the walls on either side, and the height of the roof, but also

a row of side-buildings, which have, not inaptly, been designated as a "lean-to." These side-buildings

consisted of three tiers of chambers, which surrounded the Temple, south, west, and north - the east front

being covered by the "porch." On the side where these chambers abutted on the Temple they seem to have

had no separate wall. The beams, which formed at the same time the ceiling of the first and the floor of the

second tier of chambers, and similarly those which formed t he ceiling of the second and the floor of the third

tier, as also those on which the roof over the third tier rested, were not inserted within the Temple wall, but

were laid on graduated buttresses which formed part of the main wall of the Temple.

These buttresses receded successively one cubit in each of the two higher tiers of chambers, and for the

roofing of the third, thus forming, as it were, narrowing steps, or receding rests on which the beams of the

chambers were laid. The effect was that, while t he walls of the Temple decreased one cubit in thickness with

each tier, the chambers increased one cubit in width, as they ascended. Thus, if at the lowest tier the wall

including the buttress was, say, six cubits thick, at the next tier of chambers it was, owing to the decrease in

the buttress, only five cubits thick, and at the third only four cubits, while above the roof, where the

buttress ceased, the walls would be only three cubits thick. For the same reason each tier of chambers, built

on gradually n arrowing or receding rebatements, would be one cubit wider than that below, the chambers on

the lowest tier being five cubits wide, on the second six cubits, and on the third seven cubits. If we suppose

these tiers with their roof to have been altogether sixteen to eighteen cubits high (1 Kings 6:10), and allow a

height of two cubits for the roof of the Temple, whose walls were thirty cubits high (the total height,

including roof, thirty-two cubits), this would leave an elevation of twelve to fourteen cubit s (eighteen to

twenty-one feet) for the wall of the Temple above the roof of "the chambers." Within this space of twelve to

fourteen cubits we suppose the "windows" to have been inserted - south and north, the back of the Most

Holy Place (west) having no windows, and the front (east) being covered by the "porch." The use of the

"chambers" is not mentioned in the sacred text, but it seems more probable that they served for the deposit

of relics of the ancient Tabernacle, and for the storage of sacred vessels , than that they were the sleeping

apartments of the ministering priesthood. Access to these "chambers" was gained by a door in the middle of

the southern facade, whence also a winding stair led to the upper tiers (1 Kings 6:8). The windows of the

Temple itself, which we have supposed to have been above the roof of the "chambers," were with "fixed

lattices"106 (1 Kings 6:4), which could not be opened, as in private dwellings, and were probably

constructed, like the windows of old castles and churches, broad within, but mere slits externally.

While these protracted works were progressing, the LORD in His mercy gave special encouragement alike to

Solomon and to the people. The word of the LORD, which on this occasion came to the king (1 Kings 6:11-

13) - no doubt through a prophet, not only fully confirmed the promise made to David (2 Samuel 7:12, etc.),

but also connected the "house" that was being built to the LORD with the ancient promise (Exodus 25:8;

29:45) that God would dwell in Israel as among His people . Thus it pointed king and people beyond that

outward building which, rising in such magnificence, might have excited only national pride, to its spiritual

meaning, and to the conditions under which alone it would fulfill its great purpose.107