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

Today’s passage goes on to describe the palace which Solomon built for himself after building the temple.  As I read this description, the palace from which Solomon administered his kingdom was 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high, or 11,250 square feet.  That would be almost four times the size of the temple.  Further he built a similarly sized palace to live in, and a second such residential palace for his wife, the daughter of pharaoh to live in.  The passage goes on to describe the furnishings for the temple which Solomon had made.  I realized that these furnishings are part of what gave me the impression that the temple was larger than what is described.  It is hard to imagine how all of these objects would fit inside a building as small as the temple is described as being.  However, as I continued to read I realized that there was more to the temple compound than just the temple.  Looking a little closer to the description given here of Solomon’s temple, it appears to me that the temple and Solomon’s palaces shared a courtyard, which is mentioned here as “the great courtyard.”  So, some of the described furnishings for the temple would likely have been placed in front of the temple in that courtyard.  In addition, after describing the furnishings which Solomon commissioned for the temple the passage tells us that he placed all of the things which David had dedicated for the temple in the temple treasuries.  It seems to me that the temple treasuries would have been additional buildings which are not described here.  If my reading of this passage is correct, while the temple itself was not a very impressive building (aside from all of the gold on it), the entire temple/palace compound would have been overwhelming.  And it is worth noting that most of those who came to the temple would have only ever gone into the courtyard of the temple.

All of this is something we need to keep in mind as we read later passages describing how the various kings treated the temple and its courtyard.

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