In the midst of the peoples Court, Solomon made a brazen Scaffold for the King, 2 Chron. 6. 13.
This Court of the people went round about the Temple, and though it was one entire Court in the days of Solomon, yet afterward it was divided by a low wall, so that the men stood in the inward part of it, and the women in the outward. This division is thought to have been made in Jehosaphat’s time, of whom we read, that he stood in the House of the Lord, before the new Court, 2 Chron. 20. 5. that is, before the Womens Court.
There was an ascent of fifteen steps or stairs between the womens Court and the mens,[196] upon these steps the Levites sung those fifteen Psalms immediately following the one hundredth nineteenth, upon each step one Psalm, whence those Psalms are entituled, Psalmi graduales, Songs of degrees.
[196] R. David Kimchi. Psal. 120.
In the Womens Court stood their Treasuries, or Alms-box, as appeareth by the poor Widows casting her two Mites into it, Luk. 21. 1. In Hebrew it is termed קרבן Korban, the Chest of Oblation; the word signifieth barely, an Oblation, or Offering, and accordingly S. Luk. 21. 4. saith, they all of their superfluities cast into the offerings; that is into, the Korban, or Chest of offerings. In Greek it is termed γαζοφυλακεῖον whence cometh the Latine word, Gazophylacium, a Treasury. That set up by Jehoiada, 2 King. 12. 19. seemeth to have been different from this, and to have been extraordinary, only for the repairing of the Temple; for that stood beside the Altar in the Priests Court; and the Priests, not the parties that brought the gifts, put it into the Chest. Sometimes the whole Court was termed Gazophylacium, a Treasury. These words speak Jesus in the Treasury, John 8. 20. It is worth our noting, that the Hebrew word צדקה Tsedaka, signifying Alms, signifieth properly Justice; and thereby is intimated, that the matter of our alms should be goods justly gotten: And to this purpose they called their Alms-box קופה של צדקה Kupha-Sehel-Tsedaka, the Chest of Justice; and upon their Alms-box they wrote[197] this abreviature מביא, A gift in secret pacifieth anger, Prov. 21. 14.
[197] Buxtorf. de abbrev. in מביא
In Herod’s Temple there were[198] four Porches; the meaning is, four Courts, one for the Priests, another for men, another for women, and a fourth for such as were unclean by legal pollutions, and strangers. This outmost Court for the unclean and strangers, was separated from the womens Court, with a stone wall of three Cubits high, which wall was adorned with certain pillars of equal distance, bearing this Inscription:[199] Let no stranger enter into the holy place.
[198] Iosep. l. 2. contra Apion. 1066.
[199] Μὴ δεῖ ἀλλόφυλον ἐντὸς τοῦ ἁγίου παριέναι. In locum sanctum transire alienigena non debet. Joseph. de bel. Jud. lib. 6. c. 6.
The Temple at Jerusalem was thrice built. First, by Solomon: Secondly, by Zorobabel: Thirdly, by Herod. The first was built in seven years, 1 King. 6. 37. The second in forty six years: It was begun in the second year of King Cyrus, Ezra 3. 8. It was finished in the ninth year of Darius Hystaspis.[200] The years rise thus;