15 He paneled the interior walls from floor to ceiling with cedar planks; for flooring he used cypress. 16 The thirty feet at the rear of The Temple he made into an Inner Sanctuary, cedar planks from floor to ceiling - the Holy of Holies. 17 The Main Sanctuary area in front was sixty feet long. 18 The entire interior of The Temple was cedar, with carvings of fruits and flowers. All cedar - none of the stone was exposed. 19 The Inner Sanctuary within The Temple was for housing the Chest of the Covenant of God. 20 This Inner Sanctuary was a cube, thirty feet each way, all plated with gold. The Altar of cedar was also gold-plated. 21 Everywhere you looked there was pure gold: gold chains strung in front of the gold-plated Inner Sanctuary 22 - gold everywhere - walls, ceiling, floor, and Altar. Dazzling! 23 Then he made two cherubim, gigantic angel-like figures, from olivewood. Each was fifteen feet tall. 24 The outstretched wings of the cherubim (they were identical in size and shape) measured another fifteen feet. He placed the two cherubim, their wings spread, in the Inner Sanctuary. The combined wingspread stretched the width of the room, the wing of one cherub touched one wall, the wing of the other the other wall, and the wings touched in the middle. 25  26  27  28 The cherubim were gold plated. 29 He then carved engravings of cherubim, palm trees, and flower blossoms on all the walls of both the Inner and the Main Sanctuary. 30 And all the floors of both inner and outer rooms were gold plated. 31 He constructed doors of olivewood for the entrance to the Inner Sanctuary; the lintel and doorposts were five-sided. 32 The doors were also carved with cherubim, palm trees, and flowers, and then covered with gold leaf. 33 Similarly, he built the entrance to the Main Sanctuary using olivewood for the doorposts but these doorposts were four-sided. 34 The doors were of cypress, split into two panels, each panel swinging separately. 35 These also were carved with cherubim, palm trees, and flowers, and plated with finely hammered gold leaf. 36 He built the inner court with three courses of dressed stones topped with a course of planed cedar timbers. 37 The foundation for God's Temple was laid in the fourth year in the month of Ziv. 38 It was completed in the eleventh year in the month of Bul (the eighth month) down to the last detail, just as planned. It took Solomon seven years to build it.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on 1 Kings 6:15-38

Commentary on 1 Kings 6:15-38

(Read 1 Kings 6:15-38)

See what was typified by this temple. 1. Christ is the true Temple. In him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead; in him meet all God's spiritual Israel; through him we have access with confidence to God. 2. Every believer is a living temple, in whom the Spirit of God dwells, 1 Corinthians 3:16. This living temple is built upon Christ as its Foundation, and will be perfect in due time. 3. The gospel church is the mystical temple. It grows to a holy temple in the Lord, enriched and beautified with the gifts and graces of the Spirit. This temple is built firm, upon a Rock. 4. Heaven is the everlasting temple. There the church will be fixed. All that shall be stones in that building, must, in the present state of preparation, be fitted and made ready for it. Let sinners come to Jesus as the living Foundation, that they may be built on him, a part of this spiritual house, consecrated in body and soul to the glory of God.