Solomon's house took nearly twice as long to build as did the Temple, because there was not the same urgency for it. His house and that for the queen were probably built around large open courts, and stood, after the manner of the East, on either side of the central hall where public business was transacted.
The royal hall in Jerusalem was called the "House of the Forest of Lebanon," because its many pillars resembled a forest of cedar wood. In front of this building was a colonnade, and in front of this again, the King's Gate.
It is more than likely that the area of Mount Zion was greatly enlarged by walls built up from the valley and filled in with earth. This furnished room for the many splendid buildings named in this paragraph. Traces of these cyclopean walls can still be seen. In order to estimate the real value of all this splendor we have only to turn to the earliest chapters of Ecclesiastes, where we read how little it satisfied the hunger of Solomon's soul. He turned away from it all, as unsatisfied as the prodigal from the husks of the swine. We were made for God and only God can suffice.
1 Kings 7:1-51 - Breaking Three Commandments
From a worldly point of view Naboth might have done a good stroke of business by selling his estate to. Ahab. A royal price and assured favor might have been his-but he had a conscience! Above the persuasive tones of the monarch's offer sounded the voice of God: "The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is mine." See Leviticus 25:23; Numbers 36:7; Ezekiel 46:18.
Ahab knew perfectly well that Jezebel could not give him the property of another except by foul means, but he took pains not to inquire. Though the direct orders for Naboth's death did not come from him, yet, by his silence, he was an accomplice and an accessory; and divine justice penetrates all such specious excuses. God holds us responsible for wrongs which we do not arrest, though we have the power. The crime was blacker because of the pretext of religion, as suggested by a fast. See also 2 Kings 9:26. The blood of murdered innocence cries to God, and his requital, though delayed, is inevitable. See Revelation 6:9-10. [source]
Chapter Summary: 1 Kings 7
1The building of Solomon's house 2Of the house of Lebanon 6Of the porch of pillars 7Of the porch of judgment 8Of the house for Pharaoh's daughter 13Hiram's work of the two pillars, 23Of the molten sea 27Of the ten bases 38Of the ten lavers 40and all the vessels
What do the individual words in 1 Kings 7:4 mean?
And [There were] windows [with beveled frames]three[in] rowsand window [was]oppositewindowthree[in] tiers