1 Reis 6:21

21. The house within The interior, or most holy place.

Made a partition by the chains of gold Literally, He made chains of gold pass through before the oracle; or, he made pass through by chains of gold before the oracle. The meaning is very doubtful. Thenius thinks the word vail has fallen out of the text, and by supplying it reads, he carried the vail by golden chains over before the oracle. Gesenius, Ewald, Keil, and Bahr take יעבר he made to pass through, in the sense of bolting, or fastening: He closed up or bolted by chains of gold before the oracle. “But then the question is, What was bolted? According to Calmer and others it was only the door of the oracle, which had two leaves. But in that case it would have been necessary to take away the chains on the day of atonement a thing nowhere hinted at, and in itself highly improbable. Obviously the bolting chains were not a movable but a fixed contrivance running across the entire wall. They held together the parts of the wall made of cedar, like the bolts on the planks of the tabernacle, (Exodus 26:26,) and likewise represented the oracle as a barred, closed room.” Bahr. Some suppose that the partition between the holy and the most holy place was made of cedar beams in the form of a network, and over the whole was hung the great vail mentioned 2 Chronicles 3:14. So the smell of the incense could easily pass from the altar into the oracle.

He overlaid it Overlaid the oracle a repetition from the preceding verse.