Verse 5
(5) The greater house.—Or, the great chamber, i.e. the Holy Place, or nave. (Comp. 1 Chronicles 28:11.)
He cieled with fir tree.—He covered with planks of fir; or, panelled with fir. To ciel, or rather seel (from syle or cyll, a canopy: Skeat, Etymol. Dict. s.v.) a room, meant in old English to wainscot or panel it. (Comp. 1 Kings 6:15-16.)
Which he overlaid with fine gold.—And covered it (the chamber) with good gold. The cypress wainscoting was plated with gold.
And set thereon palm trees and chains.—Brought up on it (i.e., carved upon it) palms and chain-work (1 Kings 7:17). (For the palms, see 1 Kings 6:29; Ezekiel 41:18.) The chain-work must have consisted of garland-like carvings on the fir panels. 1 Kings 6:18 omits mention of it; LXX., “carved on it palms and chains”; Syriac, “figured on it the likeness of palms and lilies”; Vulgate, “graved on it palms and as it were chainlets intertwining.”
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