1 Kings 7:18

1Ki 7:18 And he made the pillars, and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters that [were] upon the top, with pomegranates: and so did he for the other chapiter.

Ver. 18. And he made the pillars.] That is, He thus decked them. Peter Martyr saith that these pillars resembled a man, the nether part setting forth his feet, the second the trunk of his body, the third his head, and the fourth his hat: and that they signified God’s protection over this house, as of old the pillar of fire, and pillar of smoke, showed his protection over them in the wilderness.

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.

18. upon the top, with pomegranates] The Hebrew text means ‘upon the top of the pomegranates.’ But some authorities give ‘upon the top of the pillars,’ which has been adopted by the R.V. The first words of the verse must however surely be wrong. ‘And he made the pillars’ is utterly out of place here. It had been noticed before; and the present verse is a description of the capitals. What appears to have happened is this. The words for ‘pillars’ and ‘pomegranates’ have changed places. The LXX. gives no help. But assuming this interchange of words we may render (nearly with R.V.) ‘So he made the pomegranates, and there were two rows about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars; and so made he for the other chapiter.’ The words ‘to cover … pillars’ explaining the purpose of the work, come in a little awkwardly, but a sense is made out of what before was incomprehensible.

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 the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars were of lily work in the porch,.... Or such as was in the porch of the temple; the work was like that wrought in the form of the flower of lilies open:

four cubits; of the five cubits of which the chapiters consisted, four of them were of lily work, the two rows of pomegranates taking up the other; though Dr. Lightfoot (o) thinks, that at the head of the pillar was a border or circle of lily work, that stood out four cubits under the chapiter, into and along the porch; a four cubit circle, after the manner of a spread lily.

(o) Prospect of the Temple, c. 13. sect. 2. p. 1075.

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

The pomegranate was one of the most common ornaments in Assyria. It was used on quivers, on spear-shafts, and maceheads, in patterns on doorways and pavements, etc. It is doubtful whether a symbolic meaning was attached to it, or whether it was merely selected as a beautiful natural form.

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

The pillars. This word may have changed places with pomegranates.

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).

And he made; or, so he made, or framed, or perfected.

Two rows; either of pomegranates, by comparing this with 1Ki 7:20, or of some other curious work.

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

18. He made the pillars — Rather, he made pomegranates, for in the Masoretic text the words pillars and pomegranates have evidently become transposed. So below, where our version has upon the top, with pomegranates, we should read, upon the top of the pillars. “The pomegranate was one of the commonest ornaments in Assyria. It was used on quivers, on spear-shafts and mace-heads, in patterns on doorways and pavements. It is doubtful whether a symbolical meaning attached to it, or whether it was merely selected as a beautiful natural form.” — Rawlinson.

Two rows — These rows of pomegranates were probably set upon the upper and lower edges of the network, so that there were two rows for each pillar, and one hundred pomegranates in each row. See on 1Ki_7:20.

To cover the chapiters — More fully in 1Ki_7:42, “to cover the two bowls of the chapiters;” that is, as we take it, to cover the upper and lower edges of the bowls or pommels of each capital.

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

And he made the pillars There is evidently a confusion of the text here. Probably we should read, with some MSS. the pomegranates (so LXX), instead of or rather, we should transpose the two words, reading pomegranates where the Masoretic text has pillars, and vice versa. "The pomegranate was one of the commonest ornaments of Assyria. It is doubtful whether a symbolical meaning was attached to it, or whether it was merely selected as a beautiful natural form" (Rawlinson). Wordsworth characteristically sees in its many ripe seeds, "an expressive emblem of fruitfulness in good works. According to Bahr, it is an image of the law or covenant of Jehovah, and the seeds represent the separate commands (Symbolik, 2:122, 123). In the tabernacle it was pourtrayed in works of divers colours on the hem of the robe of the. (Exo_28:33, 34 39:24) All the Scripture notices of this fruit prove its great abundance in Palestine (Num_13:23; Jos_15:32 Jos_21:25; in the two last passages it appears as the name of a town Son_4:3, 13 8:2; Joe_1:12; Hag_2:9, etc.) It was also well known to the Egyptians, Num_20:5 and or even two rows round about upon the one network "The relation between the two rows of pomegranates and the plaited work is not clearly defined, but it is generally and correctly assumed that one row ran round the pillars below the plaited work and the other above" (Keil). The pomegranates, one hundred in number in each row, (2Ch_3:16) four hundred in all (2Ch_4:13; Jer_52:23) would thus form a double border to the chain work, to cover the chapiters that were upon the top, with pomegranates rather, on the top of the pillars, as the transposition mentioned above and the sense require); and so did he for the other chapiter.

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

Two rows - Either of pomegranates, by comparing this with ver. 20, or of some other curious work.

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

Huram made

Huram would have commanded his workers to do this work. AT: "Huram commanded his workers to make" (See: Metonymy)

two rows of pomegranates

A pomegranate is a fruit with a hard, red rind and many juicy seeds inside. Huram did not use real pomegranates to decorate the pillars. He made them out of bronze.

The capitals ... were decorated with lilies, four cubits high

Lilies are plants whose flowers are wide at one end and very narrow at the other end. These words can be stated in active form. AT: "Huram decorated the capitals ... with bronze lilies, four cubits high" (See: Active or Passive and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

the tops of the portico

Translate "portico" as in 1 Kings 7:6.

four cubits

A cubit is 46 centimeters. AT: "about 1.8 meters" (See: Biblical Distance)

translationWords

column

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 two rows. Of pomegranates and of copper; the pomegranates were inserted into the chain [work] which encircled the crowns, thus is this explained in Divrei Hayomim and in the Mishnah of “Forty-Nine Measurements.”

To cover the crowns that were on top of the pomegranates. [The text of] this verse is in a disarranged order. [It means,] “the pomegranates should cover the crowns which were on the top.” And thus were the crowns made according to the order of the apparent meaning of the verses; each one was in the form of two bowls. The receptacle of the lower bowl was facing upward and it is called גולה [=a bowl], as it is stated about this subject, “וגולת הכותרות,” and [Targum] Yonoson rendered this, “and the bowls of the crowns.” The upper [bowl] was inverted on the lower one, its receptacle was [facing] downward, and it was called שבכה [=net or mesh] work, as it is stated regarding this subject, “[also] two net [mesh] works to cover the two bowls of the crowns.” The result being that it is wide in the place where it is connected, and it narrows going upward and it narrows going downward, and this is called “a stomach,” and thus [Targum] Yonoson rendered מעלות הבטן, “against the place of attachment.” And the height of these two bowls was four amohs, and this is what he stated, “in the entrance hall were made like lilies, four amohs.” These were decorated inside with flowers of lilies, in the same design of the decorations which were on the wall of the entrance halls; four amohs high, and the fifth amoh was a small crown above the big one. This is what was stated, “And there were also crowns above on the two columns.”

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.