1 Kings 7:1-12--Solomon Builds His Palace

1 Kings 7:1-12
English Standard Version

Solomon Builds His Palace
7 Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished his entire house.

2 He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon. Its length was a hundred cubits and its breadth fifty cubits and its height thirty cubits, and it was built on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams on the pillars. 3 And it was covered with cedar above the chambers that were on the forty-five pillars, fifteen in each row. 4 There were window frames in three rows, and window opposite window in three tiers. 5 All the doorways and windows had square frames, and window was opposite window in three tiers.

6 And he made the Hall of Pillars; its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth thirty cubits. There was a porch in front with pillars, and a canopy in front of them.

7 And he made the Hall of the Throne where he was to pronounce judgment, even the Hall of Judgment. It was finished with cedar from floor to rafters.

8 His own house where he was to dwell, in the other court back of the hall, was of like workmanship. Solomon also made a house like this hall for Pharaoh's daughter whom he had taken in marriage.

9 All these were made of costly stones, cut according to measure, sawed with saws, back and front, even from the foundation to the coping, and from the outside to the great court. 10 The foundation was of costly stones, huge stones, stones of eight and ten cubits. 11 And above were costly stones, cut according to measurement, and cedar. 12 The great court had three courses of cut stone all around, and a course of cedar beams; so had the inner court of the house of the LORD and the vestibule of the house.

---

Only after Solomon has built a house for the LORD (the Temple) does he turn his attention towards building himself a palace more to his liking and buildings that would help him administer justice for the people of Israel.  We may look at this and ask if this isn't vein of Solomon, and perhaps it is, but Jerusalem is now going to be a destination for people around the world to come, including many foreign dignitaries.  The city had better be ready to welcome them with a level of class and distinction that a government official would expect, and they wouldn't just come to see the Temple, but would also expect to see the king's palace or palaces (richer, more powerful kings had more than one so that they could take vacations and still have a place to stay that was to their liking and to work from if needed), as well as the "levers of power" that seem to be the focus of these building projects.

It seems that Solomon loved the cedar trees of Lebanon as the Temple and his house were covered in cedar wood.  His house that he build for himself was even called the House of the Forest of Lebanon, probably meaning that he had to cut down much of the forest to build it since it was built out of these cedar trees.  It had 45 cedar pillars (3 rows of 15 pillars) and beams to support it, and it was paneled in cedar wood just like the Temple was.

Even the details about the window and door frames and the shape of the windows and doors and how they were aligned with each other is given.  Should we ever find this particular building (if it hasn't already been found), we should have a good idea exactly what it is and how to reconstruct it by these descriptions.

There was another building that he built called the Hall of Pillars that was 75 feet by 45 feet that had a porch and a canopy over it.   The purpose of this building is not given though it is possible this was a place for him to gather the people not just of Israel but from all around the world to teach them, for he will often be called "the Teacher" throughout other books he's written.  This design would be consistent with what we would think of with other academies and gathering places for philosophers and their students and that time.  This is only a guess, but it's my best guess given what I know about Solomon.

He then made what was called The Hall of the Throne which also had the name of The Hall of Judgment where he would hold court as the chief judiciary and hear cases and pronounce judgment.  We have already seen examples of how citizens brought hard cases to him to have him make wise decisions and hear what the LORD wanted them to do just as they did with Moses and with the Judges.  This would not be the place where Solomon would conduct all his day-to-day business, but he wanted a courtroom that was appropriate for that setting.

Only after he had made all these building to serve the people did he build a house for himself and all that is said about it is that he "built a house of similar construction for himself."  That probably means that he wanted something more elegant that what his father David desires who had been a poor shepherd boy and said that he would have been happy just to be a doorkeeper in the house of the LORD.  Solomon was wealthy and a socialite and needed a place not just to live, but to entertain people.  This part of the passage also tells us that Solomon took Pharaoh's daughter to be his wife (this is a sign of the beginning of many problems to come as Solomon's answer to making peace with other nations is to marry those of unlike mind and there will be no peace in his household because of it).  The LORD warned his people, especially the kings, about marrying foreign women who served other gods, and to not let others teach them about their gods, to not let others bring idols into the land, and to definitely not set up places of worship for these foreign gods in the Land, yet that is what Solomon is about to do very soon after he finished the Temple.  His very next project will be to make his wives happy by giving them places of worship to worship their gods because that only seems fair to them since they don't want to go to the Temple to worship the LORD.

Unlike the Temple which could not have stones that were quarried with iron tools, Solomon used these kinds of stones in the construction of all these other building he was making--just not the Temple as he used the same rules to build the Temple as the LORD had given them concerning building an altar of stone or earth.  The foundations laid were made of costly stones and were 10 to 12 feet deep (a solid foundation necessary to build such massive buildings).  Even though no one would see the foundation, Solomon did not cut corners and used the best that was available for these buildings.

For those of us that have the idea of "separation of Church and State" in our heads, we wonder by it may seem that Solomon made these other buildings that seemed almost as elaborate as the Temple (no one would see inside the Temple other than the priests to know it was covered in gold, so to the casual observer there was little difference between his house and the LORD's house), but if we understand that everything that we do is an act of worship, then perhaps its no so far-fetched to think that Solomon wanted to remind himself whether he was teaching, or judging, or hosting a party, or whatever else he was doing, that all of it was to be done to the glory of God and was an act of worship both similar to, but different from, the acts of worship that happened in the Temple.  The Temple was the place where atonement was made and that was very important that everyone's eyes went there first to see their need for atonement and how that gospel message was central to the Jewish people, but we should not forget that whatever we do, we do it unto the LORD, so it is not far-fetched that we sometimes have halls of law and justice that remind us of churches or cathedrals that are to draw our attention upwards to heaven to remind up that those who work there are servants of the LORD and are there to do His will and to serve His people.  I hope there was at least some intent of this with Solomon that he hoped that these building too would help to show the world how important the LORD was to him, even in his everyday work as the LORD was not like the idols they worshiped in their pagan temples, but the heavens are His throne room and the Earth is His footstool.  He is everywhere in all places at all times and everything that we are and everything we do is to have Him at the center of it.

I believe Solomon starts well in this way, then we'll see him get pulled away from his singular devotion to the LORD, and then towards the end of his life he will come to the realization that without the LORD, nothing else matters (we'll see this in the book of Ecclesiastes).  We'll even see him try to warn his sons and the other people of Israel that would listen to his wisdom.  We'll see if they listen to him or not as we continue our study of 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles.