1 Kings 7: Solomon builds a house

Synopsis:

It takes Solomon 13 years to build his house. It is 10 cubits by 50 cubits and 30 cubits high. The floor is made out of Lebanon cedar with four rows of cedar pillars and cedar beams upon the pillars. He include a porch for his thrown  - the porch of judgement – this was also made of cedar. The foundation of this house was made of big costly stones. Stones of 10 cubits!  He had solid brass pillars cast for the porch of judgement along with a lot of other solid brass decorations. In fact, there were so many pieces of brass – they never bothered to weigh them so no one knows how much brass was used.

In other words: 

Solomon’s house took 13 years to build. It was very nice.

Favorite bit:

1 Kings 7:7 That the porch for his throne is known as The Porch of Judgement. Sounds so Indiana Jones.

2nd favorite bit:

1 Kings 7:21 – that the brass pillars for The Porch of Judgement had names. One was called Jachin and the other was Boaz.

Most amusing bit:

1 Kings 7:10 – that the stones were 10 cubits. Big I tell you!

Most confusing bit:

1 Kings 7:23 – “And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a lite of thirty cubits did compass it round about.”  I’m having trouble imagining this. It apparently was a handbreadth thick and stood upon 12 oxen – 3 pointing in each of the cardinal directions and that was put upon bases that had wheels. What the heck was this and what was it used for?   According to Wikipedia – it was apparently some sort of ritual bath – the water in the huge central basin poured out into the baths in the base. (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten_Sea)

from the wikipedia article

Least favorite bit:

1 Kings 7:23-39 – the description of this massive ceremonial bath thing. It’s so confusing – I literally could not imagine it.

Not sure how I feel about it;

1 Kings 7:47 – “And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because they were exceedingly many: neither was the weight of the brass found out.”  On the one hand – wow – that’s a huge beautiful brass bath thing – 40 people can bathe at the same time. On the other hand – government excess at its worst on behalf of religion.

Moral Lesson Learned:

If you are building your dream palace, make sure it has a nice bath. (1 Kings 7)