** 1 Kings v. 13-18; of. 2 Chron. ii. 1, 2, 17, 18.

It is possible that the numbers may have been somewhat exaggerated in popular estimation, since the greatest Egyptian monuments never required such formidable levies of workmen for their construction; we must remember, however, that such an undertaking demanded a considerable effort, as the Hebrews were quite unaccustomed to that kind of labour.  The front of the temple faced eastward; it was twenty cubits wide, sixty long, and thirty high.  The walls were of enormous squared stones, and the ceilings and frames of the doors of carved cedar, plated with gold; it was entered by a porch, between two columns of wrought bronze, which were called Jachin and Boaz.*

* 1 Kings vii. 15-22; cf. 2 Chron. iv. 11-13.  The names were probably engraved each upon its respective column, and taken together formed an inscription which could be interpreted in various ways.  The most simple interpretation is to recognise in them a kind of talismanic formula to ensure the strength of the building, affirming “that it exists by the strength” of God.

The interior contained only two chambers; the hekal, or holy place, where were kept the altar of incense, the seven-branched candlestick, and the table of shewbread; and the Holy of Holies—­debir—­where the ark of God rested beneath the wings of two cherubim of gilded wood.  Against the outer wall of the temple, and rising to half its height, were rows of small apartments, three stories high, in which were kept the treasures and vessels of the sanctuary.  While the high priest was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies only once a year, the holy place was accessible at all times to the priests engaged in the services, and it was there that the daily ceremonies of the temple-worship took place; there stood also the altar of incense and the table of shewbread.  The altar of sacrifice stood on the platform in front of the entrance; it was a cube of masonry with a parapet, and was approached by stone steps; it resembled, probably, in general outline the monumental altars which stood in the forecourts of the Egyptian temples and palaces.  There stood by it, as was also customary in Chaldaea, a “molten sea,” and some ten smaller lavers, in which the Levites washed the portions of the victims to be offered, together with the basins, knives, flesh-hooks, spoons, shovels, and other utensils required for the bloody sacrifice.  A low wall surmounted by a balustrade of cedar-wood separated this sacred enclosure from a court to which the people were permitted to have free access.  Both palace and temple were probably designed in that pseudo-Egyptian style which the Phoenicians were known to affect.  The few Hebrew edifices of which remains have come down to us, reveal a method of construction and decoration common in Egypt; we have an example of this in the uprights of the doors at Lachish, which terminate in an Egyptian gorge like that employed in the naos of the Phonician temples.