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but every one who would truly enter it must rest for support and strength. Some
difficulty has been experienced in computing the height of these pillars, including their
"chapiters," or "capitals" (1 Kings 7:15-22), It seems most likely that they consisted of
single shafts, each eighteen cubits high and twelve in circumference,^109 surmounted by
a twofold "chapiter" - the lower of five cubits, with fretted network depending, and
ornamented with two rows of one hundred pomegranates; the higher chapiter four
cubits high (1 Kings 7:19), and in the form of an opening lily. The symbolical
significance of the pomegranate and of the lily - the one the flower, the other the fruit
of the Land of Promise, and both emblematic of the pure beauty and rich sweetness of
holiness - need scarcely be pointed out. If we compute the height of these pillars with
their chapiters at twenty-seven cubits,^110 we have three cubits left for the entablature
and, the roofing of the porch (18 + 5 + 4 + 3 = 30).
"The porch," which (in its tablature) was overlaid with gold (2 Chronicles 3:4), opened
into the Holy Place by folding doors, each of two leaves, folding back upon each other.
These doors, which were the width of a fourth of the wall (1 Kings 6:33), or five
cubits, were made of cypress-wood, and hung by golden hinges on door-posts of olive-
wood. They were decorated with carved figures of cherubim between palm-trees,^111
and above them opening flower-buds and garlands, the whole being covered with thin
plates of gold, which showed the design beneath. Within the Sanctuary all the sacred
furniture was of gold, while that outside of it was of brass.
In truth, the Sanctuary was a golden house. The floor, which was of cypress-wood, was
overlaid with gold; the walls, which were paneled with cedar, on which the same
designs were carved as on the doors, were covered with gold, and so was the ceiling. It
need scarcely be said, how it must have glittered and shone in the light of the sacred
candlesticks, especially as the walls were encrusted with gems (2 Chronicles 3:6).
There were ten candlesticks in the Holy Place, each seven-branched, and of pure gold.
They were ranged right and left before the Most Holy Place^112 (1 Kings 7:49).
The entrance to the Most Holy Place was covered by a veil "of blue and purple, and
crimson, and byssus," with "wrought cherubs thereon" (2 Chronicles 3:14). Between
the candlesticks stood the "altar of incense," made of cedar-wood and overlaid with
gold (1 Kings 6:20, 22; 7:48); while ten golden tables of shewbread (2 Chronicles 4:8)
were ranged right and left. The implements necessary for the use of this sacred
furniture were also of pure gold (1 Kings 7:49, 50).
Two folding-doors, similar in all respects to those already described, except that they
were of oleaster wood, and not a fourth, but a fifth of the wall (= 4 cubits), opened
from the Holy Place into the Most Holy. These doors we suppose to have always stood
open, the entrance being concealed by the great veil, which the High-priest lifted, when
on the Day of Atonement he went into the innermost Sanctuary.^113
(^)