The house which King Solomon built for the LORD had a length of sixty cubits, and its width twenty, and its height thirty cubits.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 2. House. Hebrew Habayith, “the palace” of the God of Israel, where the priests alone had access. It was surrounded by various courts and apartments, as the ancient temples were very different from ours. All these appendages sometimes go under the common name of the temple. Calmet.—Cubits. The common one contained half a yard. The sacred cubit amounted to 21,888 inches. Arbuthnot. Ezekiel 43:13.—Calmet makes the cubit consist of 24 fingers’ breadth, or little less than 20 inches of the French measure, which is greater then ours. Bible.—Hence the temple would be 102½ feet long, 34 feet 2 inches broad, 51 feet 3 inches high to the ceiling. Calmet.—The walls are not included; else the breadth would be almost 60 cubits, the length 100, and the height 50. Vallalpand ii. 5. 14. Menochius.
A cubit is the length from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow on a man’s arm, or about 18 inches or 46 centimeters.