1 Kings 7:12

1Ki 7:12 And the great court round about [was] with three rows of hewed stones, and a row of cedar beams, both for the inner court of the house of the LORD, and for the porch of the house.

Ver. 12. And the great court round about.] Surrounding the king’s house.

Both for the inward court of the house of the Lord,] i.e., Like that inward court, 1Ki 6:36.

And for the porch, &c.] The king’s house had the like porch before it, as God’s house had.

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 7:12. And the great court — Namely, of Solomon’s palace, mentioned 1Ki 7:8. Was with three rows of hewed stones, &c. — Just like the inner court of the Lord’s house, (1Ki 6:36,) and so the following words are to be understood. Both, for the inner court — Or, rather, as for the inner court, &c.; for so the particle ו, vau, sometimes signifies. And for the porch of the house — Namely, Solomon’s own house.

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

7:12 The great courtyard that encircled the Temple and palace complex provided a gathering place for the people (see Jer 7:1-2; 36:10).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

As the Lord’s house was built, so was this: only the great court of Solomon’s house was uncovered.

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

for the inner court of the house of the Lord--should be, as in the inner court of the house of the Lord; the meaning is, that in this palace, as in the temple, rows of hewed stones and the cedar beams formed the enclosing wall.

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

(12) The great court.—Finally, “the great court” round about is said to have resembled the “inner court” of the Temple, having an enclosure of three rows of stones, probably of large size, with a cedar coping. It seems evidently to have enclosed the whole palace, and may have contained quarters for the guards and the household. There must have been, of course, inner courts, round which both the more public and the more private buildings of the palace were grouped.

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

12. And the great court round about] The words are the same as in 1Ki_6:36. The great court was the hindmost part of all the palace grounds, and was apparently higher than the level of the front part. The way in which it was enclosed was by a low wall (sunk fence) as was done for the inner-court of the Temple.

both for the inner court of the house of the Lord] The conjunction with which this sentence begins is the usual copulative. But the sense should be ‘like as the inner court, &c.’ (Cf. 1Ki_6:34.) Hence some have conjectured כ = as, instead of ו = and or both. The R.V. has given the true sense in the text ‘like as the inner court of the house of the Lord, and the porch of the house,’ and has put the literal translation on the margin. There is no great difficulty in gathering the former sense from the latter. We have only to take the construction to be ‘and thus was it done for the inner court &c.… and for.’

the porch of the house] Probably the porch intended is that spoken of in 1Ki_6:3. ‘The house’ without any defining words can only be taken of the Temple; so that we cannot understand any porch in Solomon’s own house.

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.

And King Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. Not the king of Tyre, but an artificer in it, after described, whom Solomon had heard and upon his request Huram sent him to him, Ch2 2:13 his name is called Hyperon by Clemens of Alexandria (l).

(l) Stromat. l. 1. p. 332.

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

The palace, like the temple, had two courts 1Ki 6:36, not, however, one immediately within the other. The lesser court of the palace seems to have been a private inner court among the buildings 1Ki 7:8. The greater court was outside all the buildings, surrounding the palace on every side. Assyrian palaces had always such an external court, and had generally one or more inner courts or quadrangles.

Both for the inner court - By a slight alteration of the text, the meaning would be “as (was done) in the inner court, etc. and in the porch.”

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

Cedar, in regular courses with the stones, chap. vi. 36. Public places were often made in a circular form, and were thus rendered more beautiful. The palace of Solomon might have enclosed the court in this manner, or there were buildings on all the four sides, made of three courses of fine large stones, with the fourth of cedar beams, till the whole was completed. The ancients built for posterity, as we may perceive from the huge stones, well connected, which still reman in the ruins of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman architecture.

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).

The great court, to wit, of Solomon’s dwelling-house, mentioned 1Ki 7:8.

A row of cedar beams; of which See Poole "1Ki 6:36".

Both for the inner court of the house of the Lord, or, as (Heb. and, which is oft used in that sense for a particle of comparison or similitude, as Pro 11:25; 17:3; Pro 25:23) for the inner court, &c., i.e. as it was in that inner court, of which the very same thing is said 1Ki 6:36. Otherwise it might seem very improper and impertinent to speak of the court of the Lord’s house here, where he is treating only of Solomon’s house.

For the porch of the house, or, of this house, to wit, of which I am here speaking, i.e. of the king’s house, the porch where of had pillars, 1Ki 7:6, and these both of stone and cedar, as may seem most probable, because the other pillars were such. And whereas the number and quality of the pillars of the porch was omitted, 1Ki 7:6, that defect is here supplied, and we are implicitly acquainted with both of them. But this I speak with submission.

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

12. The great court round about — The great enclosure or park in which all the palatial buildings stood. (H H H in plan.)

Three rows of hewed stones — Or three layers of hewn stone. See note on 1Ki_6:36. If this view of this obscure verse be correct, it follows that the great court of the palace was not a cultivated park, but a solid artificial platform of stone-work, covered by a cedar flooring. This is the more probable since all the palace buildings were set upon a vast artificial platform raised upon the southern slope of Mount Moriah.

Both for the inner court of the house of the Lord — The meaning is, that the pavement of the great court of the palace, like that of the inner court of the temple, (see 1Ki_6:36,) consisted of three layers of hewn stone placed one upon another, with a layer of cedar planks fastened on the top of them.

And for the porch of the house — That is, the porch of the palace had a similar pavement.

Here ends the Bible account of Solomon’s palace. But it is manifestly not an exhaustive or minute description; and it is likely that there were various apartments, and perhaps whole buildings, of less importance that receive no mention here. Josephus adds that he built other edifices for pleasure, and long cloisters, and a magnificent dining room, and various other things which it seems not to have been the purpose of the sacred historian to mention or describe.

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

And the great court round about The palace, again like the temple, had two courts. The lesser is referred to in ver. 8, and was enclosed among the buildings. The great court probably surrounded the entire structure was enclosed by a wall with three rows of hewed stones, and a row of cedar beams The latter formed the coping. The wall of the court of the palace thus resembled that of the temple. See on, 1Ki_6:36. In all these coincidences we have tokens of the same designing hand both for the inner court of the house of the Lord. This sudden digression from the court of the palace to the temple is suspicious, and suggests either a mistranslation or corruption of the text. The historian evidently meant to say that the wall of the court, in its three rows of stones and its cedar coping, resembled the inner court of the temple; and, according to some grammarians (Gesen., Ewald), this meaning may well be conveyed by the text as it stands, w in Hebrew serving sometimes to institute a comparison (Pro_25:3, Pro_25:12, 20 26:14, etc.) "As in the court," etc. But the instances just cited, being proverbs or apophthegms, are not strictly parallel with our text. It seems better, on the whole, however, to retain the text in this sense than to replace. w by k, reading rxjlk or rxjk for rxjlw. rxjhk (Horsley) is quite inadmissible, as the constr, case never has the art., and for the porch of the house. It is almost impossible to decide whether the porch of judgment (ver. 7) or the porch of the temple is here meant. The immediate context favours the latter. But this does not seem to have had any court or enclosing wall other than the inner court. Rawlinson decides for the porch of judgment, "which," he says, "had a planking of cedar over the stone pavement" (ver. 7). But ver. 7 (where see note) rather excludes than in-eludes the pavement. The reference is probably to the "court within the porch," mentioned in ver. 8.

After this brief account of the royal palaces, the author proceeds to mention the vessels, etc., used in the temple service, prefacing his description by a few words respecting the great Tyrian artist, by whom they were for the most part cast, and possibly designed also.

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

The court - Namely, of Solomon's dwelling-house mentioned, ver. 8.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Three rows of cut stones. The wall was made of three tiers of stone and a tier of wood on them.

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.