Adam Clarke's Bible Commentary Verse 4. The height was a hundred and twenty] Some think this should be twenty only; but if the same building is spoken of as in 1 Kings vi. 2, the height was only thirty cubits. Twenty is the reading of the Syriac, the Arabic, and the Septuagint in the Codex Alexandrinus. The MSS. give us no help. There is probably a mistake here, which, from the similarity of the letters, might easily occur. The words, as they now stand in the Hebrew text, are µyraw ham meah veesrim, one hundred and twenty.
But probably the letters in ham mead, a hundred, are transposed for hma ammah, a cubit, if, therefore, the a aleph be placed after the m mem, then the word will be ham meah one hundred; if before it the word will be hma ammah, a cubit; therefore µyr[ hma ammah esrim will be twenty cubits; and thus the Syriac, Arabic, and Septuagint appear to have read.
This will bring it within the proportion of the other measures, but a hundred and twenty seems too great a height.
Matthew Henry Commentary
- The furniture of the temple.
--Here is a further account of the furniture of God's house. Bot without doors and within, there was that which typified the grace of the gospel, and shadowed out good things to come, of which the substance is Christ. There was the brazen altar. The making of this wa not mentioned in the book of Kings. On this all the sacrifices wer offered, and it sanctified the gift. The people who worshipped in the courts might see the sacrifices burned. They might thus be led to consider the great Sacrifice, to be offered in the fulness of time, to take away sin, and put an end to death, which the blood of bulls an goats could not possibly do. And, with the smoke of the sacrifices their hearts might ascend to heaven, in holy desires towards God an his favour. In all our devotions we must keep the eye of faith fixe upon Christ. The furniture of the temple, compared with that of the tabernacle, showed that God's church would be enlarged, and his worshippers multiplied. Blessed be God, there is enough in Christ for all _________________________________________________
Original Hebrew והאולם197 אשׁר834 על5921 פני6440 הארך753 על5921 פני6440 רחב7341 הבית1004 אמות520 עשׂרים6242 והגבה1363 מאה3967 ועשׂרים6242 ויצפהו6823 מפנימה6441 זהב2091 טהור׃2889
