began to build a house to the Lord.

6:2. And the house, which king Solomon built to the Lord, was threescore
cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and thirty cubits in
height.

6:3. And there was a porch before the temple, of twenty cubits in
length, according to the measure of the breadth of the temple: and it
was ten cubits in breadth, before the face of the temple.

6:4. And he made in the temple oblique windows.

6:5. And upon the wall of the temple, he built floors round about, in
the walls of the house, round about the temple and the oracle, and he
made chambers in the sides round about.

Upon the wall, i. e., joining to the wall.-Ibid. He built floors round
about... Chambers or cells adjoining to the temple, for the use of the
temple and of the priests, so contrived as to be between the inward and
outward wall of the temple, in three stories, one above another.-Ibid.
The oracle... The inner temple or holy of holies, where God gave his
oracles.

6:6. The floor that was underneath was five cubits in breadth, and the
middle floor was six cubits in breadth, and the third floor was seven
cubits in breadth. And he put beams in the house round about on the
outside, that they might not be fastened in the walls of the temple.

6:7. And the house, when it was in building, was built of stones, hewed
and made ready: so that there was neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool
of iron heard in the house when it was in building.

Made ready, etc... So the stones for the building of God's eternal
temple in the heavenly Jerusalem, (who are the faithful,) must first be
hewn and polished here by many trials and sufferings, before they can be
admitted to have a place in that celestial structure.

6:8. The door, for the middle side, was on the right hand of the house:
and by winding stairs they went up to the middle room, and from the
middle to the third.

6:9. So he built the house, and finished it: and he covered the house
with roofs of cedar.

6:10. And he built a floor over all the house, five cubits in height,
and he covered the house with timber of cedar.

6:11. And the word of the Lord came to Solomon,

6:12. As for this house, which thou art building, if thou wilt walk in
my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments,
walking in them, I will fulfil my word to thee, which I spoke to David
thy father.

6:13. And I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel, and I
will not fo