The stones were uniform - all cut to certain fixed measures of length, breadth, and thickness. They were not squared only on the face which showed, but also on the sides which fell within the wall and were not seen. Saws appear in Assyrian sculptures of the age of Sennacherib; and fragments of an iron saw have been found at Nimrud.

All these were of costly stones,.... Marble, porphyry, &c.

according to the measure of hewed stones, sawed with saws, within and without; they were all hewed, and squared, and polished, and so they appeared both on the inside of the building, and without:

even from the foundation unto the coping; from the bottom to the top:

and so on the outside toward the great court: where the people used to assemble when they had causes to be tried, and was adjoining to the king's house.

"All these (viz., the whole of the buildings described in 1 Kings 7:2-8) were costly stones, after the measure of that which is hewn, sawn with the saw within and without (i.e., on the inner and outer side of the halls and buildings), and from the foundation to the corbels, and from without to the great court," הטּפחות, the corbels, upon which the beams of the roof rest. The lxx renders it ἕως τῶν γεισῶν. Thenius understands by this the battlements which protected the flat roofs, and therefore interprets טפחות as signifying the stone border of the roof of the palace. But γεῖσος, or γεῖσσος γεῖσον, merely signifies the projection of the roof, and, generally speaking, every projection in a building resembling a roof, but not the battlement-like protection or border of the flat roof, which is called מעקה in Deuteronomy 22:8. חוּץ, the outside in distinction from the great court, can only be the outer court; and as הגּדולה החצר is no doubt identical with האחרת חצר (1 Kings 7:8), and therefore refers to the court surrounding the king's dwelling-house, חוּץ is to be understood as relating to the court-yard or fore-court surrounding the front halls.

All these were of costly stones, according to the measures of hewed stones, sawed with saws, within and without, even from the foundation unto {f} the coping, and so on the outside toward the great court.

(f) Which were rests and stays for the beams to lie on.

7:9 These - Buildings described here and in the former chapter . The measures - Hewed in such measure and proportion as exact workmen use to hew ordinary stones. Within, and c. - Both on the inside of the buildings which were covered with cedar, and on the outside also. To the coping - From the bottom to the top of the building. And so on - Not only on the outside of the front of the house, which being most visible, men are more careful to adorn; but also of the other side of the house, which looked towards the great court belonging to the king's house.

7:1-12 All Solomon's buildings, though beautiful, were intended for use. Solomon began with the temple; he built for God first, and then his other buildings. The surest foundations of lasting prosperity are laid in early piety. He was thirteen years building his house, yet he built the temple in little more than seven years; not that he was more exact, but less eager in building his own house, than in building God's. We ought to prefer God's honour before our own ease and satisfaction.