*

temple, which in our own tongue we call Gison; but it is called pyxos by the Greeks: and he raised it up to the height of three cubits; and it was for the exclusion of the multitude from coming into the temple, and shewing that it was a place that was free and open only for the priests. He also built beyond this court a temple, whose figure was that of a quadrangle, and erected for it great and broad cloysters; this was entered by very high gates; each of which had its front exposed to one of the four winds, and were shut by golden doors. Into this temple all the people entered that were distinguished from the rest by being pure and observant of the laws. But he made that temple which was beyond this a wonderful one indeed; and such as exceeds all description in words: nay, if I may so say, is hardly believed upon sight. For when he had filled up great valleys with earth, which on account of their immense depth could not be looked on, when you bended down to see them, without pain; and had elevated the ground four hundred cubits, he made it to be on a level with the top of the mountain, on which the temple was built; and by this means the outermost temple, which was exposed to the air, was † even with the temple itself. He encompassed this also with a double row of cloysters; which stood on high upon pillars of native stone: while the roofs

* When Josephus here speaks of the court of the priests, as inclosed, and kept distinct from the rest of the temple, he does not mean to exclude the Levites, their brethren; who all ministered to the priests in that court, and ordi. narily not elsewhere.

+ When Josephus here says, that the floor of the outermost temple, or court of the Gentiles, was with vast labor raised to be even, or of equal height with the floor of the inner, or court of the priests; he must mean this in a gross estimation only; for he and all others agree, that the inner temple, or court of the priests, was a few cubits more elevated than the middle court, the court of Israel; and that much more was the court of the priests elevated several cubits above the outermost court; since the court of Israel was lower than the one, and higher than the other.

The Septuagint say, that they prepared timber and stones to build the temple for three years: 1 Kings v. 18. And although neither our Hebrew copy, nor Josephus, directly name the number of years; yet do they both say the building itself did not begin till Solomon's fourth year; and both speak of the preparation of materials beforehand 1 Kings v. 18, Antiq. VIII. 5, and Josephus there intimates, that it was for a considerable time before

were of cedar, and were polished in a manner proper for such high roofs; but he made all the doors of this temple of silver.

CHAP. IV.

OF SOLOMON'S REMOVAL OF THE ARK INTO THE TEMPLE; HIS SUPPLICATION TO GOD, AND PUBLIC SACRIFICES.

WH

HEN king Solomon had finished these large and beautiful buildings, and had laid up his donations in the temple, and all this in the interval of seven years; and had given a demonstration of his riches and alacrity therein; insomuch that any one who saw it would have thought it must have been an immense time ere it could have been finished, and would have been surprised that so much should be finished in so short a time: he wrote to the rulers and elders of the Hebrews; and ordered all the people to gather themselves together to Jerusalem, § both to see the temple which he had built, and to remove the ark of God into it. And when this invitation was every where carried abroad, it was the seventh month before they came together; which month is by our countrymen called Thisri; but by the Macedonians Hyperberetæus. The feast of tabernacles happened at the same time, which was celebrated by the Hebrews as a most holy and eminent feast. So they carried the ark, and the tabernaband also. There is no reason therefore to alter the Septuagint's number; but we are to suppose three years to have been the just time of the preparation; as I have done in my computation of the expences in building that temple. See its description chap. 13, where the whole time' is ten years and a half.

§ 1 Kings viii. 1.

This feast was appointed in commemoration of the children of Israel's dwelling in booths, whilst they were in the wilderness, and of the tabernacle, which at that time was built, where God promised to meet them, to dwell among them, and to sanctify the place with his glory; and might therefore be well reckoned a very proper season for the dedication of the temple, which was to succeed in the tabernacle's place. Bedford's Scripture Chronology, lib. 6. c. 2. B.

¶ The sacred history tells us, that in this ark there was nothing, save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, 1 Kings viii. 9, and yet the author to the Hebrews affirms, that in this ark was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, as well as the tables of the covenant, Heb. ix. 4. Now, to reconcile this, some imagine, that before the ark had any fixed and settled place, (which is the time the apostle refers to,) all

cle * which Moses had pitched, and all the vessels that were for ministration to the sacrifices of God, † and removed them to the temple. The king himself, and all the people, and the Levites went before, rendering the ground moist with sacrifices, and drink-offerings, and the blood of a great number of oblations, and burning an immense quantity of incense; and this till the circumambient air was so full of these odours, that it met, in a most agreeable manner, persons at a great distance; and was an indication of God's presence, and of his habitation with them in this newly built and consecrated place. For they did not grow weary either of singing hymns, or dancing, until they came to the temple. And in this manner did they carry the ark. But when they should transfer it into the most sacred place, the rest of the multitude went away; and only those priests that carried it set it between the two cherubims; which embracing it with their wings, (for so

these things were included in it, though it was chiefly inended for nothing but the tables of the covenant; but that, when it was placed in the temple, nothing was left in it but these two tables; all the other things were deposited in the treasury of the temple, where the book of the law (as we read in 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14,) was found in the days of king Josias. Others however pretend, that in the time of the apostle, i. e. towards the end of the Jewish commonwealth, Aaron's rod and the pot of manna were really kept in the ark, though, in the days of Solomon, they were not. But this answer would be more solid and satisfactory, if he knew for certain, that, in the time of the apostle, the ark of the covenant was really in the sanctuary of the temple, which Herod built; whereas Josephus (De bello Jud. lib. 6, c. 6,) tells us expressly, that, when the Romans destroyed the temple, there was nothing found in the Holy of Holies. Calmet's Commentary. B.

*But the question is, what tabernacle, whether that which Moses made, and was then at Gibeon, 2 Chron. i. 3, or that which was made by David, and was then at Jerusalem? To end this dispute, some have imagined, that both these tabernacles were at this time carried into the temple, and laid up there, that all danger of superstition and idolatry might thereby be avoided, and that no worship might be performed any where, but only at the house which was dedicated to God's service: but it is observed by others, that the convenience which David made for the reception of the ark, was never called the tabernacle of the covenant; it was no more than a plain tent, set up in some large room of the royal palace, until a more proper receptacle could be provided for it: but the tabernacle that was at Gibeon, was the same that sojourued so long in the wilderness. The tent was the same, he curtains the same, and the altar the same, that was

were they framed by the artificer,) covered it as under a tent, or a cupola. Now the ark contained nothing but those two tables of stone that preserved the ten commandments, which God delivered to Moses in Mount Sinai; and which were engraven upon them. But they set the candlestick, and the table, and the golden altar in the temple, before the most secret place, in the very same places wherein they stood till that time in the tabernacle. So they offered up the daily sacrifices. But for the brazen altar, Solomon set it before the temple, over against the door: that when the door was opened, it might be exposed to sight, and the sacred solemnities, and the richness of the sacrifices might be thence seen. And all the rest of the vessels they gathered together, and put them within the temple.

Now as soon as the priests had put all things in order about the ark, and were gone out, a thick cloud came down and spread it

made by Moses; or, at least, if there was any alteration in it, (as things of this nature could hardly subsist so very long without some repair,) the reparation was always made according to the original model, and with as little deviation as possible. It is not to be doubted, then, but that the Mosaic tabernacle is the tabernacle here intended, which, for the prevention of schism, and to make the temple the centre of devotion, was now taken down, and reposited in the treasury, or storehouse, where it continued until the time that Jerusalem was taken by the Chaldeans, when Jeremiah, as Josephus informs us, (Jewish Antiq. lib. 8, c. 2,) was admonished by God, to take it, and the ark, and the altar of incense, and hide them in some secret place, (from whence, it is doubted, whether they have ever yet been removed,) for fear of profanation. Patrick's and Calmet's Commentaries. B.

†This solemn removal of the ark from Mount Sion to Mount Moriah, at the distance of almost three quarters of a mile, confutes that notion of the modern Jews, and of many Christians also, as if those two were one and the same mountain; for which there is, I think, very little foundation.

The number of sacrifices which upon this occasion are said to be offered, was two and twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep, 1 Kings viii. 63, but we must not suppose, that these were offered all on one day, much less on one altar. The continuance of this meeting was for fourteen days, seven in the feast of tabernacles, and seven in that of the dedication; and because the brazen altar, before the door of the temple, was not sufficient to receive all these sacrifices, Solomon, by a special license from God, ordered other altars to be erected in the court of the priests, and perhaps in other places which were to serve only during this present solemnity, when such a vast number of sacrifices were to be

self,