Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 7.

I am always struck by the fact that Solomon spent seven years building the Temple (as we are told at the end of yesterday’s passage, but thirteen years building his palace.  Perhaps it is a result of choices made by the translators, but it seems to me that the writer of this passage felt the same way: He had spent seven years building it (referring to the Temple). It took Solomon thirteen years, however, to complete the construction of his palace. Not all of the translations I looked at contained phrasing which would make you think that the writer did not approve of King Solomon spending longer on building his palace than on building the Temple, but after having seen how the NIV translated this verse, even those renderings make me suspect that he felt that way.  Further, the writer spent all of chapter six describing the design of the Temple, then spends twelve verses here describing the design of Solomon’s palace before returning and spending the rest of this chapter describing the bronze furnishings Solomon had made for the Temple.  This passage makes it seem as if King Solomon put more effort into making sure people knew how great he was than in making sure people knew how great God was.   Perhaps I am misreading the writer’s intentions here, but I do not think I am mistaken in believing that we should put more effort into glorifying God than in impressing people with how wonderful we are.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.