5. the greater house] i.e. the holy place. It was forty cubits long (1 Kings vi. 17), whereas the shrine was twenty (1 Kings vi. 16, 20).
he cieled] i.e. lined or boarded. The same Hebrew word is translated overlaid in this same verse.
wrought thereon] perhaps in the form of reliefs.
palm trees and chains] The “chains” perhaps connected one palm tree with another. In 1 Kings vi. 29, “cherubim and palm trees and open flowers.”
⁶And he garnished the house with precious stones for beauty: and the gold was gold of Parvaim.
6. precious stones] Not mentioned in the parallel account, but according to 1 Kings v. 17 costly stones (the same expression in Hebrew) were used for the foundations of the house, their costliness being due presumably to their immense size. Here, however, the phrase “for beauty” suggests that the Chronicler is thinking of rare and precious stones to be set in the walls—an exaggeration not out of keeping with the references to “pure gold” in verses 4, 7, etc.
Parvaim] Apparently the name of a place, but nothing certain is known about it.
⁷He overlaid also the house, the beams, the thresholds, and the walls thereof, and the doors thereof, with gold; and graved cherubim on the walls.
7. cherubim] The cherubim (plural of cherub) were the Hebrew adaptation of the winged bulls which are so striking a figure in Babylonian and Assyrian art. Nothing, however, can be ascertained as to the exact form in which they were depicted in the Temple. In the Old Testament they appear as guardians of sacred things (Genesis iii. 24; Ezekiel xxviii.) and as sustainers of the Deity (e.g. Psalms lxxx. 1 “Thou that sittest upon the cherubim”; compare Psalms xviii. 10). The figures were therefore emblematic of the presence of Jehovah.
The graving of the cherubim was not felt to be a breach of the Second Commandment, for they were not put up to “bow down to” or to “serve.”