1 Kings 6:9

1Ki 6:9 So he built the house, and finished it; and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar.

Ver. 9. So he built the house.] Epilogus est praecedentium. {a}

And boards of cedar.] Which boards were also covered with lead without, and gold within. {1Ki 6:22}

{a} Vatab.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ki 6:9-10. So he built the house, and finished it — That is, the walls of the house. And then he built chambers — There is nothing in the Hebrew for the word then, which being omitted, the sense is, that he here gives an account of the height of these chambers, as, 1Ki 6:6, he did of the breadth. But it is very briefly; and we are to understand that those below, and those in the middle, and those above, were all of an equal height, namely, five cubits. So they were fifteen cubits in all, which was five less than the height of the house, for that was twenty cubits; otherwise there would have been no room for the windows, which, it is probable, were above all these chambers, in the top of the house.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In Exodus it is called the Tabernacle: and the Temple is here called the Sanctuary, and the Oracle the most holy place.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

built the house--The temple is here distinguished from the wings or chambers attached to it--and its roofing was of cedar-wood.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 9. 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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(9) And covered—that is, roofed the house with a roof of cedar beams and boarding thereon. Some have supposed that he “covered” the outside walls with cedar, so that the whole should still look like a wooden tabernacle; but this is not necessarily implied, and is in itself unlikely.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. So he built the house] i.e. The Temple building. The next verse speaks of the enclosing framework of chambers. What was now finished was the portion for divine service.

and covered the house] i.e. Made the roof for it. On this roof, see Fergusson, Temples of the Jews, pp. 19 seqq., where the author shews that the covering of the Tabernacle was made with a ridge and sloped to both sides, and that the cedar beams and boards (R.V. planks) spoken of in this verse were to imitate, as nearly as could be done in wood, the Tabernacle roof. Mr Fergusson has suggested (p. 28) that there were most probably pillars inside the Temple to support the beams of the roof. ‘No cedar beams that were available could be laid across an opening 30 feet free without sagging to an unpleasant extent.’

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

So he built the house, and finished it,.... The body of it, the walls of the holy and most holy place, with the chambers on the sides of them, and the porch at the end that led into them:

and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar; with hollow boards, as the Targum, which formed an arch ceiling to it, and made it look very grand and beautiful; and then over them were laid beams and planks of cedar, not properly as a flat roof to it, but rather as a flooring for other buildings; for upon this, as in Kg1 6:10, there were chambers built.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Roofs. Protestants, "beams and boards of cedar." None of the stones appeared within, ver. 18. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

He built the house, and finished it, to wit, the bulk and the body of the house.

Covered the house, or, the house i.e. the top of the house, for the like is said of the sides and bottom, 1Ki 6:15, even

the beams and boards, ( or, the vault-beams

and the ceilings; the arched beams and boards wherewith the top of the house was covered, which was made of other wood, which was more pliable than cedar, and would better endure bowing and bending,)

with cedars.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. Covered the house — Made the roof, or covered with a roof, of beams and boards of cedar. On the durability of cedar roofs, see note on 1Ki_5:6. The form or shape of the roof is left entirely uncertain. Many conclude, from the silence of the text, that, like Oriental buildings generally, its roof was flat. Others maintain, that, as it was modelled after the tabernacle, (compare Wisdom of Solomon, chapter 1Ki_9:8,) its roof was a gable, like that of an ordinary tent.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

So he built the house and finished it i.e., the exterior (see on ver. 14) and covered i.e., roofed, same word Deu_33:21; Jer_22:14; Hag_1:4. There is no reference to the lining of cedar which was applied to the interior. That is described in ver. 15 the house with beams and boards Heb. rows, ranks. The same word is used of soldiers 2Ki_11:8, 15 of cedar. It has been universally held till quite lately that the roof was either vaulted (Thenius) or flat (Bahr, Keil). But Mr. Fergussen has alleged some reasons for believing that it was a span or gable roof. It is true that Oriental buildings almost invariably have externally flat( internally arched) roofs. In Palestine, because of the scarcity of timber, no other form is possible. But the temple, as we have seen, was constructed after the model of the tabernacle, and the latter, as the name almost implies, and as necessity would require, had a ridged roof (see Dict. Bib. 3 p. 1453). It does not necessarily follow, however, as Fergusson assumes, that the temple followed the tabernacle in this respect. It is obvious that when a house was built unto the name of the Lord," the form of the tent might be abandoned as inappropriate. It is true that this shape would be consecrated to them by many centuries of use, but it is also possible that in a house it would strike them as altogether bizarre. )

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Solomon built ... he covered ... He built

Solomon would have commanded his workers to do the building. AT: "Solomon's workers built ... they covered ... They built" (See: Metonymy)

beams ... of cedar

A beam is a long heavy piece of wood used to support a building. See how you translated this in 1 Kings 6:6.

planks ... of cedar

A plank is a flat wooden board used for floors and walls.

He built the side rooms

These are the same rooms that are referred to in 1 Kings 6:5.

inner chambers

This phrase is a metonym for the walls that enclosed the chambers. AT: "exterior walls that enclosed the inner chambers" (See: Metonymy)

five cubits

A cubit is 46 centimeters. AT: "2.3 meters" (See: Biblical Distance)

timbers of cedar

The word "timbers" is a general term that refers to wood used for building, such as beams and planks.

translationWords

cedar

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

And [he] covered. An expression of a ceiling covering.

With decorated boards and connected planks of cedar. [There were] two ceilings, the one made for beauty was below, and the one of cedar planks was above; that of paneling was the lower one. And [Targum] Yonoson rendered [גבים as] בהנתוכין, but I do not know what they are. I heard in the name of Rabbi Menachem, blessed be the memory of the righteous, that they are boards woven beautifully in the form of a design, and it is called in our language [O.F.] celed, and in German, gehimmelt, and that is an expression of “heavenly,” [meaning] the highest part of the beam. But I say, they are hollowed bricks, and they are like half a round reed, which are used as coverings for houses. (In German, dek tzigel.)

Paneling. In Aramaic it is גובתא דקניא which were (above) and the planks (below).

And connected planks. Planks of cedar arranged above the paneling upon which they walk when they go up to repair the building. And similarly, [Targum] Yonoson rendered ושדרות בארזים as, “above them (i.e., the paneling) was an arrangement of a succession [דרכפת] of cedar wooden planks,” and “&רכפת“ is an expression of a succession, comparable to, “clouds of heaven,” which [Targum] Yonoson rendered, “a succession [=מריכפת] of light clouds.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.