[¹] Or, these are the things wherein Solomon was instructed for &c.
3. these are the foundations] i.e. the measurements which follow state the ground-plan of the Temple.
cubits after the first measure] The cubit was the length of the forearm from the elbow to the extremity of the middle finger, about 17½ inches. A difficult verse in Ezekiel (xl. 5) seems to have given rise to the idea that in early times the cubit was a somewhat longer measure, and that may be what the Chronicler intended by the present phrase “cubits after the first (or former) measure.” Exact measurements on the site of the Temple have now demonstrated that about 17½ inches was at all times the standard length of the cubit (see Palestine Exploration Fund Statement October, 1915, pp. 186 f.).
4 (= 1 Kings vi. 3).
The Porch.
⁴And the porch that was before the house, the length of it, according to the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits, and the height an hundred and twenty: and he overlaid it within with pure gold.
4. And the porch that was before the house] The Hebrew text is corrupt, but the sense of the original reading has probably been correctly guessed by the Revised Version.
the height an hundred and twenty] So also LXX. As the Temple was only 30 cubits in height, this building was rather a tower than a porch. In 1 Kings nothing is said about height. Most probably the true reading was “twenty,” not “an hundred and twenty”; the “hundred” being a marginal gloss added by someone who was thinking of Herod’s Temple of which the porch was 100 cubits in height.
5–7 (compare 1 Kings vi. 15, 21, 29, 30).
The Temple.
⁵And the greater house he cieled with fir[¹] tree, which he overlaid with fine gold, and wrought thereon palm trees and chains.
[¹] Or, cypress.