for the continual shewbread, and for the
burnt offerings morning and evening, on the
sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the
solemn feasts of the LORD our God. This
is an ordinance for ever to Israel.
5 And the house which I build is great:
for great is our God above all gods.

6 But who is able to build him an house, seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him? who am I then, that I should build him an house, save only to burn sacrifice before him?

7 Send me now therefore a man cunning to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in iron, and in purple, and crimson, and blue, and that can skill to grave with the cunning men that are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father did provide.

8 Send me also cedar trees, fir trees, and algum trees, out of Lebanon: for I know that thy servants can skill to cut timber in Lebanon; and, behold, my servants shall be with thy servants,

9 Even to prepare me timber in abundance for the house which I am about to build shall be "wonderful great.

10 And, behold, I will give to thy servants, the hewers that cut timber, twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, and twenty thousand measures of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.

11 ¶ Then Huram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Soloinon, Because the LORD hath loved his people, he hath made thee king over them.

$1 Kings 8. 27. Chap. 6. 18. 7 Heb. great and wonderful.

12 Huram said moreover, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, that made heaven and earth, who hath given to David the king a wise son, "endued with prudence and understanding, that might build an house for the LORD, and an house for his kingdom.

13 And now I have sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, of Huram my father's.

14 The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every device which shall be put to him, with thy cunning men, and with the cunning men of my lord David thy father.

15 Now therefore the wheat, and the barley, the oil, and the wine, which my lord hath spoken of, let him send unto his ser

vants:

16 And we will cut wood out of Lebanon, 'as much as thou shalt need: and we will bring it to thee in flotes by sea to "Joppa ; and thou shalt carry it up to Jerusalem.

17 "And Solomon numbered all the strangers that were in the land of Israel, after the numbering wherewith David his father had numbered them; and they were found an hundred and fifty thousand and three thousand and six hundred.

18 And he set 13threescore and ten thousand of them to be bearers of burdens, and fourscore thousand to be hewers in the mountain, and three thousand and six hundred overseers to set the people a work.

5 Heb. to grave gravings. 6 Or, almuggim, 1 Kings 10. 11.
9 Heb. according to all thy nerd.
10 Heb. Japho.
13 As it is verse 2.

4 Heb. hath retained, or obtained strength.
8 Heb. knowing prudence and understanding.
11 As verse 2.
12 Heb. the men the strangers.

Verse 17. "The strangers that were in... Israel."-It appears from the more full account, in 1 Kings ix. 20, 21, that these strangers were the surviving remnant of the Amorites, Hittites, and other previous inhabitants of the country, whom the Israelites had not been "able utterly to destroy." After the account there, it is added: "But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen:" nor does it appear that he could have done so, had such been his inclination. He did, however, raise a levy of 30,000 Israelites (1 Kings v. 14, 15), who served in alternate monthly courses of 10.000 each, and were doubtless well paid for their labours. This was perhaps as far as Solomon could go with the Israelites; and, being in want of hands, he thought of requiring from the tributary and subject people those personal services which the customs of the East entitled him to demand, and which had been from the very first required from the Gibeonites, although a treaty of peace had been made with them. We are not to suppose that they were kept to constant labour, but were divided into courses which served alternately. They were of course, in consequence of this personal service, exempted from the money-tribute, and doubtless received their food, and perhaps some small wages, while actually at work. There is nothing by any means singular in this procedure of Solomon. It might be illustrated by numerous examples from the ancient history and existing practices of the East, and even from the not very ancient history of most European countries; in which not only have compulsory personal services been required from the remnant of a conquered population, but also, in some instances, by native rulers from their own peasantry. The Israelites themselves had experience of this bondage; and they complained of it perhaps not as "bondage" merely, but as "hard bondage," which it indeed was. And again, lest the Israelites should be charged with imposing upon others a yoke which had been too heavy for themselves, it is to be remembered that they were in Egypt an independent people-not native, conquered, or tributary:-and that they were, moreover, not a settled cultivating peasantry, but a free pastoral people; and from such no prince or ruler, even in the East, ever thinks of requiring personal services, whatever tribute he may levy upon their flocks and herds.

2 U 2

331

2 And he began to build in the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign.

3 Now these are the things wherein Solomon was instructed for the building of the house of God. The length by cubits after the first measure was threescore cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits.

4 And the porch that was in the front of the house, the length of it was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and the height was an hundred and twenty; and he overlaid it within with pure gold.

5 And the greater house he cicled with fir tree, which he overlaid with fine gold, and set thereon palm trees and chains.

6 And he garnished the house with precious stones for beauty: and the gold was gold of Parvaim.

7 He overlaid also the house, the beams, the posts, and the walls thereof, and the doors thereof, with gold; and graved cherubims on the walls.

8 And he made the most holy house, the length whereof was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits: and he overlaid it

11 Kings 6. 1, &c.
6 Heb. founded.

11 Matth. 27.51.

with fine gold, amounting to six hundred talents.

9 And the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. And he overlaid the upper chambers with gold.

10 And in the most holy house he made. two cherubims of image work, and overlaid them with gold.

11 And the wings of the cherubims were twenty cubits long: one wing of the one cherub was five cubits, reaching to the wall of the house: and the other wing was likewise five cubits, reaching to the wing of the other cherub.

12 And one wing of the other cherub was five cubits, reaching to the wall of the house: and the other wing was five cubits also, joining to the wing of the other cherub.

13 The wings of these cherubims spread themselves forth twenty cubits: and they stood on their feet, and their faces were 10inward.

14 And he made the "vail of blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine linen, and wrought cherubims thereon.

15 Ålso he made before the house two pillars of thirty and five cubits "high, and the chapiter that was on the top of each of them was five cubits.

16 And he made chains, as in the oracle, and put them on the heads of the pillars; and made an hundred pomegranates, and put them on the chains.

17 And he "reared up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand, and the other on the left; and called the name of that on the right hand Jachin, and the name of that on the left 17Boaz.

51 Kings 6.2.

Or, which was seen of David his father. 31 Chron. 21. 18. 4 Or, Araunah, 2 Sam. 24. 18.
71 Kings 6.3. 8 Heb. covered. 9 Or (as some think), of moveable work. 10 Or, toward the house,
1 Heb. caused to ascend. 131 Kings 7. 15. Jer. 52. 21.
14 Heb. long. 151 Kings 7. 21.
16 That is, he shall establish. 17 That is, in it is strength.

Verse 5. "Palm trees."-In the more detailed account of 1 Kings vi., there is frequent mention of the ornamenta! palm-trees which were carved in the wood with which the sanctuary was lined, and afterwards overlaid with gold. We are very much disposed to suspect that these palm-trees formed a sort of pilasters: for certainly that seems to be the form in which a palm-tree carved in relief might be exhibited to most advantage. The figure of the palm-tree was well suited for this purpose, or for pillars, or for any form of ornamental exhibition. The selection of this form corresponded with one of the most pure characteristics of Egyptian taste; as did also the form of the lotus, which was given to the only two pillars (Jachin and Boaz) of which we read in the description of the Temple. Of these we are told that "the top of the pillars was lily-work." The more we consider the subject, the more thoroughly we are persuaded, that of all now surviving remains of very ancient architecture, there are none which so strikingly as those of Egypt exemplify the ideas suggested by the description of Solomon's Temple, particularly in the ornamental details. We do not wish to say that Egypt furnished the models which were followed at Jerusalem. We are more interested in observing, that this earliest written account of a magnificent building concurs with the most ancient structures (leaving India out of view) that still exist, in testifying that the most ancient ornaments of architecture were immediately derived from the types which nature offered. A flower with a long and straight stem and crowning calyx, like the lotus; or a tree, like the palm, with its tall tapering stem and spreading head, was imitated in the shafts and capitals of pillars. It is in Egypt that we see this most strikingly exhibited, as nearly all travellers have observed. The author of Egyptian Antiquities' remarks:-"The most common form of the capital is that of the calyx of a plant, probably the lotus...This simple and graceful form has however received many modifications at the hands of the Egyptian mason, who appears not to have been at all deficient in taste in his selection of natural models, nor in the power of adapting them to the purpose of architectural ornament. In other capitals the design has been probably taken from the gracefully hanging palm leaves, as they appear at the top of the trunk bending down on all

sides....Perhaps in no country of the world so readily as in Egypt, do we recognize the natural types which man has applied to the purposes of architectural use and ornament. Every traveller, whose eye has been accustomed to measure and compare, detects without any difficulty, in the varied forms of Egyptian capitals and pillars, the few simple and graceful forms which nature offers for imitation on the banks of the Nile." It will not fail to strike the reader that this principle of imitation supplies an unportant test for determining the native or borrowed character of the architecture in which it is employed. Wherever a style of architecture originated, the imitated vegetable forms (if any) are those which nature there offered; but where it is borrowed, the fact is attested by the foreign character of the vegetable forms imitated or represented. Thus, the foreign foliage of our Corinthian capitals, attests the derivation of the style from Greece and Rome; whereas the native foliage in our old cathedrals evinces a native origin. The application of this idea to Solomon's Temple is not very easy, because many of the same vegetable productions are common both in Egypt and Palestine. The plants architecturally mentioned in the account of the Temple are the palm-tree, the lily and the pomegranate. As the two former are the most common Egyptian forms, their existence in Solomon's Temple would evince imitation, if the natural forms had been peculiar to Egypt; but as they existed in Palestine also, they only evince similarity. But the pomegranate does not occur in the architecture of Egypt; nor is the natural production so common in Egypt as in Syria and Palestine. This therefore is important in determining the balance of evidence: the result of which will be, that although there was such a general resemblance between the Temple of Jerusalem and the temples of Egypt, as, under all the circumstances, it would be preposterous not to expect; yet there were such distinctions as attest the absence of specific imitation.

Although we have made the palm-tree the turning point of this note, we reserve what may be desirable to state concerning its natural history for the illustration of some of the beautiful allusions to it which the poetical books contain. 6. "He garnished the house with precious stones for beauty."-Perhaps "He paved the house with precious and beautiful marble," would be a better rendering, and doubtless conveys the correct meaning. It appears however from 1 Kings vi. 15, that this pavement was not an exception to the general lining of the house with boards, as we there read that the floor of the house was covered with planks of fir. What we here learn is, that there was a pavement of marble under the boards-for it could not well be over them. Thus then the house, being built and paved with squared stone, was entirely lined with boards which, excepting those of the floor, were completely covered with gold. The question whether this covering with gold consisted in gilding, or in overlaying with plates of the metal. has been considered in the note on Exod. xxxvii. 34. In all the description there is not the least mention of sculptured stones in any part of the building. Perhaps stone sculpture was considered as forbidden by the law. All the decorative parts were either carved in wood, and then overlaid with metal, or wholly cast in metal. Even the famous pillars Jachin and Boaz were entirely of brass. This absence of sculptured stone alone makes a remarkable distinction between the temples of Egypt and the Temple of Solomon, whatever may have been the general analogy of arrangement and style.

"Gold of Parvaim.”—The name "Parvaim" does not elsewhere occur. Some think it denotes Peru in America; Bochart considers it to have been the Indian isle of Taprobane (Ceylon); Kircher makes it Java; and others are content to suppose it the same as Ophir, wherever that might be. This seems the most probable of the opinions which make Parvaim the name of a place. The Jews say the gold was so called because it was of a red colour, like the blood of the Parim oxen. The Septuagint has the word as a proper name; but the Vulgate turns it into "finest gold."

east and the sea was set above upon them, and all their hinder parts were inward.

5 And the thickness of it was an handbreadth, and the brim of it like the work of the brim of a cup, 'with flowers of lilies; and it received and held three thousand baths.

6 He made also ten lavers, and put five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them: such things as they offered for the burnt offering they washed in them; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.

7 And he made ten candlesticks of gold according to their form, and set them in the temple, five on the right hand, and five on the left.

8 He made also ten tables, and placed them in the temple, five on the right side, and five on the left. And he made an hundred 'basons of gold.

9 Furthermore he made the court of the priests, and the great court, and doors for the court, and overlaid the doors of them with brass.

4 It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the Heb. from his brim to his brim. 1 Kings 7.24.

11 Kings 7. 23.

Or, bowls.

4 Or, like a lily-flower. 5 Heb. the work of burn!-offering.

14 He made also bases, and 10lavers made he upon the bases;

10 And he set the sea on the right side of the east end, over against the south.

11 And Huram made the pots, and the shovels, and the 'basons. And Huram "finished the work that he was to make for king Solomon for the house of God;

12 To wit, the two pillars, and the pommels, and the chapiters which were on the top of the two pillars, and the two wreaths to cover the two pommels of the chapiters which were on the pillars;

13 And four hundred pomegranates on the two wreaths; two rows of pomegranates on each wreath, to cover the two pommels of the chapiters which were 'upon the pillars.

15 One sea, and twelve oxen under it.

16 The pots also, and the shovels, and the fleshhooks, and all their instruments, did Huram his father make to king Solomon for the house of the LORD of "bright brass.

17 In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredathah.

18 Thus Solomon made all these vessels in great abundance: for the weight of the brass could not be found out.

19 And Solomon made all the vessels that were for the house of God, the golden altar also, and the tables whereon the shewbread was set;

20 Moreover the candlesticks with their lamps, that they should burn after the manner before the oracle, of pure gold;

21 And the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs, made he of gold, and that "perfect gold;

22 And the snuffers, and the "basons, and the spoons, and the censers, of pure gold: and the entry of the house, the inner doors thereof for the most holy place, and the doors of the house of the temple, were of gold.

7 Or, bowls.

8 Heb. finished to make.

9 Heb. upon the face. 10 Or, caldrons. 12 Heb. thicknesses of the ground. 13 Heb. perfections of gold.

11 Heb. made bright, or scoured 14 Or, bowls.

Verse 6. "Lavers."-These are particularly described in the text of 1 Kings vii. 27-39; the principal part of which is occupied with an account of the bases on which the lavers were mounted, and which are very slightly mentioned in the present chapter. It seems that the lavers consisted of a square base or stand, mounted on brazen wheels, and adorned with figures of palm-trees, cherubim, lions, and oxen. It no doubt had a hollow for receiving the water that fell from the laver which was placed upon it, and which appears to have been drawn as required by means of cocks. We are not told the form of the lavers; but only that each contained forty baths, or about three hundred English gallons. It is quite evident, from the space allowed to the description in the parallel text, that the bases were regarded as most admirable works of art. But it is very difficult to comprehend the details there given. This is clearly evinced by the marked difference between the representations which Villalpandus, Lamy, and Calmet, have respectively given. These lavers were intended for washing the sacrifices; the priests themselves performing their ablutions at the brazen sea. The original laver of the tabernacle served both purposes. There was also culy one laver, in the second temple, concerning the form and size of which we have no information.

13. "Pomegranates."-See the note on Deut. viii. 8, and on chap. iii. 5. We give a cut of the fruit to illustrate the applicability of its figure to ornamental uses.

22. "Snuffers."-It is not quite certain that the original word means any thing of this kind. It is mezammeroth, the apparent derivation of which from i, zamar, leads the Targum to understand that musical instruments are denoted. However, we only wish to observe that, if instruments to trim the lamps be denoted, we are not to suppose that they have any resemblance to our snuffers. Instruments like ours, for cutting the wick of a lamp, were not anciently known; but a sort of tweezers were employed to draw up the wick when necessary, and for pinching off any superfluous portion. Every one is aware that lamps, when properly replenished with oil, do not need snuffing, like candles. The sort of tweezers we have mentioned are still used in the East for trimming lamps. Snuffers are only known in those parts of Western Asia where candles are partially used during winter. Snuffers are candle, not lamp, instruments; and candles are but little used in any part of Asia, the temperature being generally too warm.

CHAPTER V.

1 The dedicated treasures. 2 The solemn induction

THUS all the work that Solomon made for the house of the LORD was finished: 'and

of the ark into the oracle. 11 God being praised Solomon brought in all the things that Dagiveth a visible sign of his favour. vid his father had dedicated; and the silver

1 1 Kings 7. 51.

1 Solomon, having blessed the people, blesseth God. city among all the tribes of Israel to build 12 Solomon's prayer in the consecration of the temple, upon the brasen scaffold.