Verses 20-22
The Overlaying Of Everything With Gold (1 Kings 6:20-22 ).
‘ And within the inner room was a space of twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in its the height, and he overlaid it with pure gold, and he covered the altar with cedar.’
The whole of the inner room was covered with refined gold, probably applied in liquid form. Such coverings of precious metals were common among rich kings in antiquity. In Egypt, for example, we know of temples which had silver and gold covered floors and stairways, while Queen Hatshepsut is known to have capped and plated her giant obelisks (30 metres, 97 feet, high) with gold and electrum. The skilled artisans of Rameses II delighted in gold-covered temple-doors and sacred barques, and we have only to consider the golden coffin of Tutenkahmen, together with his other treasures, which many readers will actually have seen, to realise how much wealth could be expended. Indeed within ten years of Solomon’s death Osorkon I of Egypt made a whole host of staggering gifts of precious metals to the gods of Egypt. During the first four years of his reign he presented them with a total of two million deben weight of silver (about 220 tons) and another 2,300,000 deben weight of silver and gold (some 250 tons) largely in the form of precious objects (vessels, statuary, etc.). In other parts of the unfortunately damaged inscription a good number of such objects are itemised, many by weight. And all this is precisely recorded in the inscription. No doubt much of it came from the Temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 14:26).
There were a number of sources of such gold in the ancient Near East, including the abundant supplies in the alluvium of the eastern desert of Egypt, and the sources in the west coast of Arabia, the mountains of Armenia and Persia, western Asia Minor and the Aegean, with all of whom Solomon had trading contact. In view of his monopoly of the trading routes there is no reason to doubt that he was wealthy enough to have this much gold available.
“And he covered the altar with cedar.” This refers to the altar of incense which he installed in the Holy Place, but was always seen as ‘belonging’ to the Most Holy Place (compare Hebrews 9:3-4). It would appear that it was made of stone like the Temple walls, and therefore required a covering of cedar, prior to its coating with gold. Note how the writer seeks to give the impression of the work proceeding action by action for in 1 Kings 6:22 we are then told that this altar was further overlaid with gold (compare also 1 Kings 7:48).
‘ So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold, and he drew chains of gold across before the inner room, and he overlaid it with gold.’
What has been said about overlaying with gold is now emphasised by repetition in typically ancient fashion, possibly indicating the length of time that this all took, and the care with which it was carried out. While it may make boring reading to us, to those who were listening to it read out it would build up picture on picture which emphasised the munificence of Solomon’s gifts to the Temple. Now therefore we are reminded that the whole of the Most Holy Place was overlaid with gold. The chains may have been designed to hang across the doors thus preventing entry into the Most Holy Place, or they may have been the chains from which the sacred curtain (2 Chronicles 3:14) would hang, separating the Most Holy Place from the Holy Place. These were also made of gold. And everything, but everything (to use our modern method of repetition), was overlaid with gold.
‘ And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until all the house was finished, also the whole altar that belonged to the inner room he overlaid with gold.’
Not only the Most Holy Place, but also the Holy Place, was overlaid with gold, and at the same time the altar of incenses, which had been covered with cedar, was now overlaid with gold. There may have been a distinction between the thickness of the gold applied to the Holy Place in comparison with the Most Holy Place, which would explain the reason for the distinction being made. On the other hand the whole purpose may have been to hang out the description in order to bring it home as men listened to it being read out.
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