| I Kings 6:36
| And he built the inner court with three rows of polished stones, and one row of beams of cedar.
| Court of the priests. --- Cedar. Some think that the court was surrounded with galleries, supported on three rows of pillars; or one gallery was above another, on pillars of stone, with a third supported by cedar pillars. (Menochius) --- But Josephus takes no notice of these galleries. Others think that the wall of separation consisted only of two rows of stone, with a third of wood, in all three cubits high. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] 8:2.) (Villalpand) --- But the sacred writers seem rather to indicate, that beams of cedar were fixed in the walls, at the distance of three courses of stone, even to the top. This mode of architecture is clearly mentioned, 3 Kings 7:12., 1 Esdras 6:3, 4., and 5:8., and Habacuc 2:11. The ancients admired such a variety, and deemed the building more solid. (Vit. 1:5.) Eupolemus (ap. Eusebius, praep. 9:34.) takes notice, that these beams were fastened together, in the temple, by hooks of copper, weighing each a talent. (Haydock) --- Such was the structure of the inner court. (Calmet)
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