| Barnes' Notes on the Bible The greater house - i. e., the holy place, or main chamber of the temple, intervening between the porch and the holy of holies (so in 2 Chronicles 3:7). He cieled with fir tree - Rather, "he covered," or "lined." The reference is not to the ceiling, which was entirely of wood, but to the walls and floor, which were of stone, with a covering of planks (marginal reference). The word translated "fir" bears probably in this place, not the narrow meaning which it has in 2 Chronicles 2:8, where it is opposed to cedar, but a wider one, in which cedar is included. Palm trees and chains - See 1 Kings 6:29. The "chains" are supposed to be garlands or festoons.
Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old TestamentThe interior of the holy place. - 2 Chronicles 3:5. The "great house," i.e., the large apartment of the house, the holy place, he wainscotted with cypresses, and overlaid it with good gold, and carved thereon palms and garlands. חפּה from חפה, to cover, cover over, alternates with the synonymous צפּה in the signification to coat or overlay with wood and gold. תּמּרים .dlo as in Ezekiel 41:18, for תּמּרות, 1 Kings 6:29, 1 Kings 6:35, are artificial palms as wall ornaments. שׁרשׁרות are in Exodus 28:14 small scroll-formed chains of gold wire, here spiral chain-like decorations on the walls, garlands of flowers carved on the wainscot, as we learn from 1 Kings 6:18.
Geneva Study BibleAnd the greater house he cieled with fir tree, which he overlaid with fine gold, and set thereon palm trees and chains.
Wesley's Notes 3:5 Greater house - The holy place, which was thrice as large as the holy of holies.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary5. the greater house-that is, the holy places, the front or outer chamber (see 1Ki 6:17).
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary3:1-17 The building of the temple. - There is a more particular account of the building of the temple in #1Ki 6". It must be in the place David had prepared, not only which he had purchased, but which he had fixed on by Divine direction. Full instructions enable us to go about our work with certainty and to proceed therein with comfort. Blessed be God, the Scriptures are enough to render the man of God thoroughly furnished for every good work. Let us search the Scriptures daily, beseeching the Lord to enable us to understand, believe, and obey his word, that our work and our way may be made plain, and that all may be begun, continued, and ended in him. Beholding God, in Christ, his true Temple, more glorious than that of Solomon's, may we become a spiritual house, a habitation of God through the Spirit. | 
