Text -- 1 Kings 6:30-38 (NET)

6:30 He plated the floor of the temple with gold, inside and out. 6:31 He made doors of olive wood at the entrance to the inner sanctuary; the pillar on each doorpost was five-sided. 6:32 On the two doors made of olive wood he carved cherubs, palm trees, and flowers in bloom, and he plated them with gold. He plated the cherubs and the palm trees with hammered gold. 6:33 In the same way he made doorposts of olive wood for the entrance to the main hall, only with four-sided pillars. 6:34 He also made two doors out of wood from evergreens; each door had two folding leaves. 6:35 He carved cherubs, palm trees, and flowers in bloom and plated them with gold, leveled out over the carvings. 6:36 He built the inner courtyard with three rows of chiseled stones and a row of cedar beams. 6:37 In the month Ziv of the fourth year of Solomon’s reign the foundation was laid for the Lord’s temple. 6:38 In the eleventh year, in the month Bul (the eighth month) the temple was completed in accordance with all its specifications and blueprints. It took seven years to build.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: 1Ki 6:30

¹ sn Inside and out probably refers to the inner and outer rooms within the building.

NET Notes: 1Ki 6:31

¹ tn Heb “the pillar, doorposts, a fifth part” (the precise meaning of this description is uncertain).

NET Notes: 1Ki 6:32

¹ tn Heb “carved carvings of.”

² tn Heb “he plated [with] gold” (the precise object is not stated).

³ tn Heb “and he hammered out the gold on the cherubs and the palm trees.”

NET Notes: 1Ki 6:33

¹ tn Heb “and so he did at the entrance of the main hall, doorposts of olive wood, from a fourth.”

NET Notes: 1Ki 6:34

¹ tn The words “he also made” are added for stylistic reasons.

² tc Heb “two of the leaves of the first door were folding, and two of the leaves of the second door were folding.” In the second half of the description, the MT has קְלָעִים (qÿla’im, “curtains”), but this is surely a corruption of צְלָעִים (tsÿla’im, “leaves”) which appears in the first half of the statement.

NET Notes: 1Ki 6:37

¹ sn In the month Ziv. This would be April-May, 966 b.c. by modern reckoning.

² tn The words “of Solomon’s reign” are added for clarification. See v. 1.

NET Notes: 1Ki 6:38

¹ sn In the month Bul. This would be October-November 959 b.c. in modern reckoning.

² tn Heb “he built it in seven years.”