The foundation of Yahweh’s house was laid in the fourth year, in the month Ziv.
Parallel Translations
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The foundation of Yahweh’s house was laid in the fourth year, in the month Ziv.
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In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of the LORD laid, in the month Zif:
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In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of the LORD laid, in the month Ziv.
Cross-references (2)
Passages linked to 1 Kings 6:37 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Kings 6:1 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build Yahweh’s house.
- 2 Chronicles 3:2 He began to build in the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (9 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 1Ki 6:37 In the fourth year was the foundation…
1Ki 6:37 In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of the LORD laid, in the month Zif:
Ver. 37. In the fourth year,] sc., Of Solomon’s reign. See 1Ki 6:1.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 1Ki 6:37-38. In the fourth year, &c. — This…
1Ki 6:37-38. In the fourth year, &c. — This was mentioned 1Ki 6:1, and is here repeated to subjoin, in the next words, how long the house was in building. In the eleventh year, in the month Bul — As the second month was called Zif, for the reason before given, so the eighth month was called Bul, which signifies to wither, because then the leaves of the trees began to wither and fall off, and the whole vegetable creation to droop and die. So he was seven years in building — “That is,” says Mr. Locke, “speaking in a round number, for he was seven years and six months; neither is this mode of speaking unusual in Scripture.” It is not strange that this work took up so much time; for though the temple, properly so called, was but a small edifice, yet the many courts, offices, chambers, and other buildings about it, above ground and below, made the whole a vast pile; and the exquisiteness of the art, and fewness of the artists that could be employed, made a longer time requisite. Indeed, all things considered, it must be acknowledged Solomon made an extraordinary despatch; for, if the building of Diana’s temple at Ephesus employed all Asia for two hundred years; and no fewer than three hundred and sixty thousand men were occupied for twenty years together in erecting one pyramid, as Pliny affirms, lib. 36, chap. 12, no reasonable man can wonder that this temple was seven years and a half in building. See Calmet, and Univ. Hist., vol. 4. octavo. Now let us see what this temple typifies:
1. Christ himself is the true temple. He himself spoke of the temple of his body: and in him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead. In him all the Israel of God meet, and through him have access with confidence to God.
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2. Every believer is a living temple, in whom the Spirit of God dwelleth: we are wonderfully made by the divine providence, but more wonderfully made anew by the divine grace; and as Solomon’s temple was built on a rock, so are we built on Christ.
3. The church is a mystical temple, enriched and beautified, not with gold and precious stones, but with the gifts and graces of the Spirit. Angels are ministering spirits, attending the church, and all the members of it, on all sides.
4. Heaven is the everlasting temple; there the church will be fixed, and no longer moveable: the cherubim there always attend upon the throne of glory. In the temple there was no noise of axes or hammers: every thing is quiet and serene in heaven. All that shall be stones in that building, must here be fitted and made ready for it; must be hewed and squared by the divine grace, and so made meet for a place in that temple.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain THE TIME TAKEN TO BUILD IT. (Kg1 6:37-38)
THE TIME TAKEN TO BUILD IT. (Kg1 6:37-38)
In the fourth year was the foundation laid--The building was begun in the second month of the fourth year and completed in the eighth month of the eleventh year of Solomon's reign, comprising a period of seven and a half years, which is reckoned here in round numbers. It was not a very large, but a very splendid building, requiring great care, and ingenuity, and division of labor. The immense number of workmen employed, together with the previous preparation of the materials, serves to account for the short time occupied in the process of building.
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Next: 1 Kings Chapter 7
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 37. The month Zif — See on 1Ki_6:1.
37. The month Zif — See on 1Ki_6:1.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 37–38. Completion of Solomon’s Temple (Not in Chronicles)
37–38. Completion of Solomon’s Temple (Not in Chronicles)
37. In the fourth year] i.e. Of king Solomon’s reign. See 1Ki_6:1. The LXX. (both Vat. and Alex.) omits these two verses, adding at the end of 36 καὶ ᾠκοδόμησε τὸ καταπέτασμα τῆς αὐλῆς τοῦ αἰλὰμ τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ κατὰ πρόσωπον τοῦ ναοῦ.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (37) Zif (the “brightness of flowers”) corresponds to about…
(37) Zif (the “brightness of flowers”) corresponds to about May;
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain In the fourth year was the foundation of the…
In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of the Lord laid, in the month Zif see on ver. 1.
HOMILIES BY J. WAITE Vers. 37, 38.
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The Glorious House of the Lord.
In comparison with other sacred shrines of antiquity the temple of Solomon was small in its dimensions and brief in the time of its building. Nor will the mere fact of its material splendour account for the extraordinary interest with which it has ever been regarded an interest in which Jew, Mohammedan, and Christian alike participate. The place it occupied, the part it performed in the religious history of the world, will alone account for this. If it is necessary to suppose any pre-existing model as suggesting the plan of its structure, it is to Assyria and not to Egypt, as some have thought, that we should look for such a type. But however this may be, it has a deep Divine meaning which raises it above comparison with any other temple that the hand of man has ever reared. Let us look on it now as the ancient symbol of the Church of the living God, that fellowship of newborn souls of whom St. Peter says, "Ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house," etc.. (1Pe_2:5) Note certain points of special interest in this analogy those features of the temple which are suggestive of similar features in the spiritual fabric of the redeemed Church.
I THE FIRMNESS OF ITS FOUNDATION. The threshing floor of Araunah, the site of the temple, was part of the plateau on the top of Mount Moriah. (2Ch_3:1) Solomon, as we are told by Josephus, in order to enlarge the area, built massive walls on the sloping sides of the mountain, filling in the spaces with earth; and the foundations of these walls were composed of huge stones bedded and, as it were, mortised in the solid rock How forcibly are we reminded of the word of Christ to Peter, "Upon this rock will I build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it". (Mat_16:18) Whatever the bearing of this word on the disciple himself may be, it is certain that it cannot refer to him apart from the grand confession he has just made Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God." Peter may be one of the great foundation stones, but Christ Himself is the solid, primary, unhewn Rock on which the fabric rests. Not so much any truth about Him, but the personal Christ in the grandeur of His being, the integrity of His righteousness, the strength and fidelity of his wondrous love, is the Church"s firm foundation.
II THE SILENT PROCESS OF ITS STRUCTURE. "There was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building (ver. 7). This was probably in obedience to the prohibition recorded in Exo_20:26 and Deu_27:5. It expressed the king"s sense of the sanctity of the work. The tranquillity of the scene must not be broken by the clang of inharmonious sounds. "Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric grew." The fact is suggestive. The building up of the Church of God is a silent, hidden process. Outward visible agencies must be employed, but the real constructive forces are out of sight. Truth works secretly and silently in the souls of men. "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation." Noise and show are out of harmony with the sanctity of it. Clamour and violence only hinder the work. Let us not mistake a restless, busy, fussy zeal for the externalities of Church life for true spiritual service. This is often in inverse ratio to the amount of real edification. The best machinery works with least friction and noise. The quiet, thoughtful workers, who move on steadily by the inspiration of their holy purpose, without much public recognition, may after all be the most efficient builders of the temple of God.
III THE VARIETY OF THE AGENCIES BY WHICH THE WORE WAS DONE. Foreign power was enlisted in the service Hiram and his artificers. Cedars from Lebanon, gold and silver and precious stones from Ophir and Parvaim, brass "without weight" from the foundries of Succoth and Zarethan all were consecrated to it. So also with the spiritual fabric. The resources of the world are at the command of Him who rears it. "All things serve His might." All beings, with all their faculties, are at His disposal All streams of human interest, and thought, and speech, and activity may be made tributary to the great river of His purpose. Our faith rests in the assurance that it is so that just as our physical life is nourished by all sorts of ministries, near and remote, so the kingdom of truth and righteousness in the world is being built up by a vast variety of agencies which it is beyond our power to trace. All human affairs are but as the scaffolding within which the structure of God"s great house is slowly rising to its completion. To this structure it is that the prophetic word, in its deepest meaning, may be applied, "The sons of strangers shall build up thy walls". (Isa_60:10) And in its final consummation shall befulfilled the apocalyptic picture, "The kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.". (Rev_21:22)
IV THE MINGLED STRENGTH AND BEAUTY OF THE FABRIC. The blocks of stone were lined with cedar planks, and the cedar overlaid with plates of gold; the walls covered with carved "cherubims and palm trees and open flowers;" the brazen pillars crowned with "lily work." The building was not of large dimensions, but wonderful for its combination of solidity and adornment, partaking of the firmness of the rocky mount on which it stood, glittering in the sunlight, the crowning glory of the royal city. How much more truly may we say of the spiritual temple, "Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary." There is no strength like that of truth and righteousness; no beauty like that of holy character: strength drawn from Christ, the living Foundation, the reflected beauty of that purer heaven which is the eternal home of God.
V THE ORDERLY ARRANGEMENT OF ITS PARTS AND APPURTENANCES. The temple was framed apparently after the model of the tabernacle, but with doubled dimensions and more enduring materials, and that was "after the pattern shown to Moses in the mount all regulated with regard to the due administration of the service of God. Courts, chambers, galleries, altars, layers, utensils all consecrated to some sacred use, or meant to enshrine some high symbolic meaning. The gathering up of a complex variety of parts in one grand structural unity. Such is the Church an aggregate of various but harmonious and mutually helpful parts. "There are diversities of gifts and administrations and operations, but the same Spirit". (1Co_12:4) "All the building fitly framed together," etc.. (Eph_2:13) "The whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth,". (Eph_4:16) It would seem necessary that the social religious life should assume some visible organized form; and though there may be no such form or forms ecclesiastical that can claim to have the stamp of distinct Divine approval, yet all are Divine so far as they minister to the general edification and preserve "the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace." They each and all have their place in the Divine order, if they help to fulfil the holy uses, and to heighten the glory of the great temple of the Lord.
VI ITS SUBLIME DISTINCTION AS THE HABITATION OF GOD (see vers. 12, 18, etc.) This was but the repetition of a more ancient promise. (Exo_25:8 Exo_29:45) And what are all these promises, with all the marvellous manifestations that verified them, but typical foreshadowings of the richer grace by virtue of which the Church becomes "the habitation of God through the Spirit"? "The Most High dwells not in temples made with hands;" His dwelling place is the fellowship of redeemed souls. W.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain Second month, i.e. May.
Zif
Second month, i.e. May.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 the fourth year ... the eleventh year
the fourth year ... the eleventh year
The words "fourth" and "eleventh" are the ordinal forms of "four" and "eleven." You may need to make explicit the event from which the writer counts the years. AT: "the fourth year after Solomon became king ... the eleventh year after Solomon became king" (See: Ordinal Numbers and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
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house of Yahweh
"the temple"
in the month of Ziv
"Ziv" is the name of the second month of the Hebrew calendar. It is during the last part of April and the first part of May on Western calendars. See how you translated this in 1 Kings 6:1. (See: Hebrew Months and How to Translate Names)
in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month
"Bul" is the eighth month of the Hebrew calendar. It is during the last part of October and the first part of November on Western calendars. (See: Hebrew Months and Ordinal Numbers and How to Translate Names)
the house was finished in all its parts and conforming to all its specifications
This can be translated in active form. AT: "they finished building every part of the house. They built it exactly the way Solomon had told them to build it"
Solomon took
Solomon would have commanded his workers to do this work. AT: "It took Solomon's workers" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
found
house of God
year
temple
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.