Chapter 7: Shlomo builds his palace, and fixtures of the Temple

1.      The building of King Solomon’s Palace:

• The number of years it took to be built: Shlomo built his palace for a period of 13 years until he completed its building. [Which shows that he did not hurry to complete the building of his palace until the house of G-d was built.^[1]]
• The construction material: The palace was built from trees that came from the Lebanon forest.
• The dimensions of the palace: The palace was 100 cubits long, and 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high.

2.      The chambers of the palace:

• The pillars and the separate areas that they created: The inside of the palace [by its width^[2]] contained four rows of cedarwood pillars which had chopped planks of cedarwood placed on top of them [to hold them steady so they do not move^[3]]. [This created three different areas within the house, one area between each set of pillars.^[4]]
• The ceiling: There were 45 planks of wood that were placed on top of the rows of cedarwood to act as a ceiling. There were 15 planks placed on each row [for a total of 45 planks to cover the three spaces between the four rows.]
• The windows: Each one of the three rows of pillars contained windows which were all opposite each other [and hence one can see from one end of the palace to the other when standing in front of the window of each of the pillars].
• The shape of the doors: All the doors and openings in the palace were made of square doorposts as opposed to being in a domed shape. All the doors were built opposite each other [and hence one can see from one end of the palace to the other when standing in front of the door of each of the pillars].

[1] Rashi 7:1

[2] Metzudos Dovid 7:2

[3] Metzudos Dovid 7:2

[4] Metzudos Dovid 7:2