Living Water Community Church

time we looked at the beginning of chapter 7. In the first 12 verses we have the description of Solomon’s building of his house and how long it took him. It is interesting because the writer inserts this section right in the middle of two sections describing the building of the temple and all of its furnishings. It is also clearly inserted here as a contrast to the building of the temple. The first verse starts with a conjunction in Hebrew. It is only recorded this way in a handful of english translations. The verse in Hebrew would start with the equivalent “and” or “but”. This is important because the last verse in chapter six ends with the statement about the temple that “He was seven years in building it.” the next verse then becomes, “But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years.” This opening verse is then followed with 11 verses describing in broad brush strokes the 5 buildings which made up Solomon’s house. The comparison becomes pretty striking. Solomon spent twice as much time building his o