NOTES for Ki1 7:1-51

Construction of the royal palace, modestly called a house, began at the same time as construction of the Temple. Solomon has every legitimate right to possess a rich palace, for under his rule the state became powerful and wealthy. Everything would be fine, except that the royal palace is larger than the Temple. Here, perhaps, we can discern the beginnings of an inclination to exalt earthly authority above the Highest Authority, although the palace’s builders themselves were hardly aware of the danger of this inclination.

Yet it is not the royal house but the Temple that will become the center of the people’s life; the subsequent history of Old Testament Israel will unfold around the Temple. Through the years of trial, the people will carry the memory of the Temple, not of the royal palace.

Precisely because the Temple is more important, after describing the royal house the narrator returns to the details of the Temple’s furnishings. The description of the Temple’s equipment and utensils, like the description of the Temple itself, enables us to form a detailed idea of what the Temple was like. Thus every detail becomes that “little thing” without which there can be no complete picture.