11 And David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of its houses, and of its treasuries, and of its upper chambers, and of its inner chambers, and of the house of the mercy-seat;
And thou shalt make a mercy-seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. And thou shalt make two cherubim of gold; [of] beaten work shalt thou make them, at the two ends of the mercy-seat. And make one cherub at the end of the one side, and one cherub at the end of the other side; out of the mercy-seat shall ye make the cherubim at the two ends thereof. And the cherubim shall stretch out [their] wings over it, covering over with their wings the mercy-seat, and their faces opposite to one another: toward the mercy-seat shall the faces of the cherubim be [turned]. And thou shalt put the mercy-seat above on the ark, and shalt put in the ark the testimony that I shall give thee. And there will I meet with thee, and will speak with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, everything that I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.
And he measured the porch of the gate within, one reed. And he measured the porch of the gate, eight cubits; and the posts thereof, two cubits; and the porch of the gate was inward.
For a tabernacle was set up; the first, in which [were] both the candlestick and the table and the exposition of the loaves, which is called Holy; but after the second veil a tabernacle which is called Holy of holies, having a golden censer, and the ark of the covenant, covered round in every part with gold, in which [were] the golden pot that had the manna, and the rod of Aaron that had sprouted, and the tables of the covenant; and above over it the cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy-seat; concerning which it is not now [the time] to speak in detail. Now these things being thus ordered, into the first tabernacle the priests enter at all times, accomplishing the services; but into the second, the high priest only, once a year, not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the errors of the people: the Holy Spirit shewing this, that the way of the [holy of] holies has not yet been made manifest while as yet the first tabernacle has [its] standing;
Thou, son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be confounded at their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern. And if they be confounded at all that they have done, make known to them the form of the house, and its fashion, and its goings out, and its comings in, and all its forms, and all its statutes, yea, all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof; and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the statutes thereof, and do them.
And he measured the house: the length a hundred cubits; and the separate place, and the building, and its walls, the length a hundred cubits; and the breadth of the front of the house, and of the separate places toward the east, a hundred cubits. And he measured the length of the building before the separate place, which was at the back of it, with its galleries on the one side and on the other side, a hundred cubits; and the inner temple, and the porches of the court. The thresholds, and the closed windows, and the galleries round about the three of them (opposite the thresholds it was wainscoted with wood round about, and from the ground up to the windows, and the windows were covered), [and] above, over the entry, even unto the inner house, and without, and by all the wall round about, within and without, [all was] by measure.
And the side-chambers were three, chamber over chamber, and thirty in order; and they entered into the wall which the house had for the side-chambers round about, that they might have hold; but they had not hold in the wall of the house. And for the side-chambers there was an enlarging, and it went round about [the house] increasing upward; for the surrounding of the house increased upward round about the house; therefore the house had width upward, and so ascended [from] the lower [story] to the upper, by the middle one. And I saw that the house had an elevation round about: the foundations of the side-chambers, a full reed, six cubits to the joint. The thickness of the wall, which was for the side-chambers without, was five cubits, as also what was left free along the building of the side-chambers that pertained to the house. And between the cells [and the house] was a width of twenty cubits round about the house on every side. And the entry of the side-chambers was toward what was left free, one entry toward the north, and one entry toward the south; and the width of the space left free was five cubits round about.
And he brought me to the porch of the house; and he measured the post of the porch, five cubits on this side, and five cubits on that side; and the breadth of the gate, three cubits on this side, and three cubits on that side. The length of the porch was twenty cubits, and the breadth eleven cubits, even by the steps whereby they went up to it; and there were pillars by the posts, one on this side, and one on that side.
And the priest the son of Aaron shall be with the Levites, when the Levites take tithes; and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, into the chambers of the treasure-house. For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the heave-offering of the corn, of the new wine and the oil, into the chambers, where are the vessels of the sanctuary, and the priests that minister, and the doorkeepers and the singers. And we will not forsake the house of our God.
And this was Solomon's foundation for the construction of the house of God. The length by cubits after the first measure was sixty cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits. And the porch which was in front was twenty cubits in length, in front of the house broadways, and the height was a hundred and twenty; and he overlaid it within with pure gold. And the greater house he boarded with cypress-wood, which he overlaid with fine gold, and set on it palm-trees and chains. And he overlaid the house with precious stones for beauty; and the gold was gold of Parvaim. And he covered the house, the beams, the threshold, and its walls, and its doors with gold, and engraved cherubim on the walls. And he made the house of the most holy place, the length of which was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and its breadth twenty cubits; and he covered it with fine gold, amounting to six hundred talents. And the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. And he covered the upper chambers with gold. And in the house of the most holy place he made two cherubim of image work, and they overlaid them with gold.
And the Levites: Ahijah was over the treasures of the house of God, and over the treasures of the dedicated things. The sons of Laadan, the sons of the Gershonites of Laadan, chief fathers of Laadan the Gershonite: Jehieli; the sons of Jehieli: Zetham, and Joel his brother, over the treasures of the house of Jehovah. As to the Amramites, the Jizharites, the Hebronites, the Uzzielites.... And Shebuel the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, was overseer of the treasures. And his brethren, of Eliezer: Rehabiah his son, and Isaiah his son, and Joram his son, and Zichri his son, and Shelomith his son. This Shelomith and his brethren were over all the treasures of the dedicated things, which king David, and the chief fathers, the captains over thousands and hundreds, and the captains of the host, had dedicated (from the wars and out of the spoils had they dedicated [them], to maintain the house of Jehovah),
For in their trust these four were the chief doorkeepers: they were Levites; and they were over the chambers and over the treasuries of the house of God; for they stayed round about the house of God during the night, because the charge was upon them, and the opening thereof every morning [pertained] to them. And [part] of them had the charge of the instruments of service, for by number they brought them in and by number they brought them out. [Part] of them also were appointed over the vessels, and over all the holy instruments, and over the fine flour, and the wine, and the oil, and the frankincense, and the spices.
And he built twenty cubits of the innermost part of the house, both floor and walls, with boards of cedar; and he built [them] for it within, to [be] the oracle, the most holy place. And the house, that is, the temple before it, was forty cubits [long]. And the cedar of the house within was carved with colocynths and half-open flowers: all was cedar; there was no stone seen. And he prepared the oracle in the midst of the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of Jehovah. And the oracle within was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height thereof; and he overlaid it with pure gold; and he overlaid the cedar-wood altar --
And against the wall of the house he built floors round about, [against] the walls of the house, round about the temple and the oracle; and he made side-chambers round about. The lowest floor was five cubits broad, and the middle one was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad; for in the [thickness of the wall of] the house he made resets round about outside, that nothing should be fastened in the walls of the house.
And he took and put the testimony into the ark, and put the staves in the ark, and put the mercy-seat above on the ark. And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, and hung up the veil of separation, and covered the ark of the testimony; as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 1 Chronicles 28
Commentary on 1 Chronicles 28 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 28
The account we have of David's exit, in the beginning of the first book of Kings, does not make his sun nearly so bright as that given in this and the following chapter, where we have his solemn farewell both to his son and his subjects, and must own that he finished well. In this chapter we have,
1Ch 28:1-10
A great deal of service David had done in his day, had served his generation according to the will of God, Acts 13:36. But now the time draws night that he must die, and, as a type of the Son of David, the nearer he comes to his end the more busy he is, and does his work with all his might. He is now a little recovered from the indisposition mentioned 1 Ki. 1:1, when they covered him with clothes, and he got no heat: but what cure is there for old age? He therefore improves his recovery, as giving him an opportunity of doing God and his country a little more service.
1Ch 28:11-21
As for the general charge that David gave his son to seek God and serve him, the book of the law was, in that, his only rule, and there needed no other; but, in building the temple, David was now to give him three things:-