[244] "The present platform is 1521 feet long on the east, 940 on the south, 1617 on the west, 1020 on the north." Bartlett, Walks about Jerusalem, pp. 161-70; Williams, The Holy City, pp. 315-62. Kugle, Gesch. der Baukunst, p. 125. The excellent stone was supplied by quarries at Jerusalem itself. Comp. "Cavati sub terra montes." (Tac., Hist., v. 12). It may have been extended by Justinian when he built his church. See Ewald, iii. 232, "The Mount of the Temple was 500 yards square"; Middoth, c. 2. Comp. Ezek. xiii. 15-20, xlv. 2; Josephus, Antt., XV. xi. 3.
[245] Exod. i., ii.
[246] 1 Kings iv. 6, v. 13, 14, 17, 18, ix. 15, 21, xii. 18.
[247] Ewald thinks that it was only "at the beginning" that Solomon, like Sesostris (Diod. Sic., Hist., i. 56), could boast that his work was done without exacting bitter labour from his own countrymen. But 1 Kings ix. 22 shows that the king's opinion on this subject differed widely from that of his people (1 Kings xi. 28, xii. 3); for we are told that he did not make servants of the children of Israel, but used them as military officers (Sarim) and chariot-warriors (Shalishim, τριστάται) and knights. It required a little euphemism to gild the real state of affairs. The details of numbers in the Books of Chronicles differ from those in the Kings.
[248] 1 Kings v. 13, ix. 22; 2 Chron. viii. 9. (Omitted in the LXX.)
[249] In token of this defeat of Solomon he was represented in a statue outside the church leaning his hand on his cheek with a gesture of sorrow.
[250] Professor Williams, Prolus. Architectonicæ.
[251] Professor Hoskins (Enc. Brit.); Canina, Jewish Antiquities; Thrupp, Ancient Jerusalem; Count de Vogüé, Le Temple de Jérusalem.
[252] Fergusson, Temples of the Jews; E. Robbins, Temple of Solomon.
[253] Eupolemos (Euseb., Præp. Evang., ix. 30) and Alex. Polyhistor (Clem. Alex., Strom., i. 21) idly talk of help furnished to Solomon in building the Temple by an Egyptian King Vaphres, and of letters interchanged between them. Vaphres seems to be a mere anachronism for Hophra.