What Does 1 Kings 6:2 Mean?
And the house that king Solomon built for the LORD, its length was sixty forearms, and its breadth twenty, and its height thirty forearms.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And the house which king Solomon built for the LORD, the length thereof was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits.THE KEY
The temple’s breadth shares a root with the spacious place opened after distress, while its builder’s name carries the root of wholeness.
THE MEANING
A house for the LORD has measured length, breadth, and height; it is a formed, inhabitable space. Its breadth carries the root of spaciousness, and Solomon’s name carries the root of wholeness. The dimensions make the structure concrete, while its word-roots open it into roominess and completeness.
THE ROOT
רָחְבוֹ
rochbo
GROWS FROM
ר־ח־ב
r-ḥ-b
To be wide or to make spacious.
English “breadth” can sound like a neutral measurement; Hebrew keeps it in a word-family for widening and open room. The temple’s width echoes the spacious place where the psalmist is set after distress.
ALSO GROWS
rachav: Wide, broad.
רָחָב
The word’s sense of breadth makes the temple’s measurement carry the feel of roominess.
merḥav: A broad or spacious place.
מֶרְחָב
This is the word for the “large place” in Psalm 118:5, linking the temple’s breadth with release into spaciousness.
שְׁלֹמֹה
Shelomoh
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ם
sh-l-m
To be whole or complete.
Solomon’s name comes from the root behind shalom, wholeness. The dimensions are given under a builder whose name evokes completeness, placing the measured house within the language of wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This familiar word carries the same root as the builder’s name.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This form makes the root’s sense of completeness audible in Solomon’s name.
בָּנָה
banah
GROWS FROM
ב־נ־ה
b-n-h
To build or establish.
“built” in this verse is banah. Banah can describe both making a structure and establishing a household. The house here has exact physical dimensions, while the root keeps the broader sense of establishing a dwelling available beneath the image of its walls.
ALSO GROWS
boneh: Builder, one who builds.
בֹּנֶה
This form names the act behind the house’s measured shape.
mivneh: Structure, construction.
מִבְנֶה
It carries the same root into the resulting form that is built.
THE PATTERN
A dwelling for the LORD takes concrete form, while divine presence exceeds any structure and also dwells among people.
And let them make me a set-apart place, that I may pitch my tent among them.But will God truly settle on the earth? Behold, the heavens and the heavens of the heavens cannot hold you; how much less this house that I have built?Have you not seen that you are God's temple, and that the breath of God dwells in you?THE THREAD
From the narrow place I call out to the LORD, and the LORD answers me in a wide place.The word translated “breadth” here and “large place” in the psalm share the root ר־ח־ב, the language of widening into room. The psalm sets distress against spaciousness, so the temple’s breadth echoes a movement from constriction toward room to stand.
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