Thought for Today: Tuesday April 04:

Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to our All-Knowing, Everlasting and Most High YHVH Elohiym. Always remember the meaning and its significance the simple things in life – like a glowing sunset, the sound of a flowing stream, or the fresh smell in a meadow that cause us to pause and marvel at the wonder of life.

SERIES L --- THE NATION DIVIDES --- LESSON 07

SOLOMON’S PALACE

SOLOMON’S ROYAL PALACE

From 1 Kings 7:1-12

For thirteen years King Solomon carried out a building program for his royal palace. This included three great halls, plus private living quarters. The first great hall was called the House of the Forest of Lebanon. It was one hundred and fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide and forty-five feet high. It had three rows of cedar pillars, with large cedar beams resting upon them. Above these forty-five pillars, the ceiling was panelled with cedar. Each of three walls had three rows of windows, with five windows in each row. Each wall had fifteen windows, for a total of forty-five. All the doorways and windows had square frames. The second great hall was called the House of Pillars. It was seventy-five feet long and forty-five feet wide. In front of this room was a porch with more pillars and was covered by a canopy. The third great hall was the throne room, which King Solomon used as a judgment hall, where he gave his decisions on important matters. This hail was panelled with cedar from floor to ceiling. Back of this judgment hail or throne room was a courtyard and on the other side of the courtyard were Solomon’s private living quarters, all panelled with cedar. Solomon also made another palace for his wife, Pharaoh’s daughter. It was about the same size and construction as his private living quarters. All these structures were made of large, rectangular stones cut to size. The stones for the foundations were very large, about twelve to fifteen feet long. They were all cut with saws. The stones for the walls were also cut to measure. The great court had three layers of stones, and cedar beams across the top, similar to the inner court of the house of Adonai, the temple, and the porch of Solomon’s palace.

COMMENTARY

TOOLS OF THE CRAFTSMEN

The Israelites were not nearly as skilled in the crafts as the artisans of neighbouring countries. Their heritage was that of wandering herdsmen, with no experience in the building of permanent structures like houses. Not until the time of the kings had they settled firmly into village life and begun to specialize in specific trades. But they had little training or understanding of building and designing with wood, metal and stone. When King Solomon began to build his temple, the lack of skilled Israelites forced him to hire Phoenician craftsmen to train his crews. The Phoenicians had earned the admiration of the ancient world for their knowledge of shipbuilding, dyeing, glassmaking and architecture. Even skilled craftsmen worked with fairly simple tools. Timber cutters and carpenters felled trees with crude axes and bronze-toothed saws. The same tools served stonemasons, who loosened huge limestone rocks from underground quarries with water and then cut them with heavy hammers and chisels. [Limestone remained soft until it hardened on exposure to the air.] Carpenters measured angles and lengths with flax plummet lines and reeds cut to exact lengths. They used wooden mallets as hammers, planes to smooth and bits of sandstone for final polishing. Nails, compasses, T-squares, knives and sharp-edged files made up the rest of their equipment. Metal tools were usually bronze, not the softer copper. When smiths mastered the technique of smelting iron, that stronger metal quickly replaced bronze. Pouring buckets of molten metal into stone and clay moulds, smiths produced identical sets of tools, idols and cooking pots; the ancient world’s version of mass production. As the number of Israelite craftsmen grew, workers in the same craft settled together in one section of the city. Israelite skills continued to improve, but they never rivalled the genius of fellow craftsmen in Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Psalm 91-Thanks YAH for the love

"And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Yahweh of hosts."

Mal 3

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