1 Kings 6:7

(7) Neither hammer nor ax . . . heard.—This striking provision, involving much labour, and requiring no little skill, was one of reverence. It may have been suggested by the prohibition (see Exodus 20:25; Deuteronomy 27:5) of the use of tools on the altar of the Lord. But the idea implied in this prohibition was rather different—viz., the use for the altar of stones in their simple, matural condition, without “pollution” by the art of man. It has been chronicled in Heber’s well-known lines:—

“No workmen’s steel, no ponderous axes rung;Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprung.”