What Does 1 Kings 6:36 Mean in the King James?

And he built the inner court with three rows of hewed stone, and a row of cedar beams.

1 Kings 6:36 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The inner court takes shape through subtraction: the stone is cut before it can fit into its ordered place.

THE MEANING

The inner court has a tangible form: three rows of hewn stone and one row of cedar beams. Each material is shaped and set in an ordered layer. The verse shows sacred space taking shape through deliberate craft.

THE ROOT

גָּזִית

gāzît

GROWS FROM

גזז

To cut off or shear; by extension, to hew.

“hewed” in this verse is gāzît. The word for hewn stone grows from a root also used for shearing sheep. The court is built from stone that has undergone removal: what is cut away helps the remaining material fit its place.

ALSO GROWS

gāzaz: To cut off or shear.

גָּזַז

The verb names the root action behind hewing: material is removed before the stone takes its place.

gez: Fleece, what is shorn from a sheep.

גֵּז

This branch shows the root at work beyond stone: cutting away produces something newly shaped for its use.

gāzît: Hewn or dressed stone.

גָּזִית

This is the court’s building material, shaped by cutting before it is laid in rows.

THE PATTERN

A dwelling set apart takes shape when distinct materials are fitted into an ordered whole.

And the great court round about was with three rows of hewed stones, and a row of cedar beams, both for the inner court of the house of the LORD, and for the porch of the house.

1 Kings 7:12 · KJVThe same arrangement of hewn stone and cedar gives the court and porch their ordered form.

With three rows of great stones, and a row of new timber: and let the expenses be given out of the king’s house:

Ezra 6:4 · KJVStone and timber again form a dwelling through measured rows.

Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:5 · KJVThe image shifts to people as living stones, still joined into a house set apart.

THE THREAD

And the king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, to lay the foundation of the house.

1 Kings 5:17 · KJV

The same Hebrew word, ⁨גָּזִית⁩ (gāzît), names the hewn stones brought for the house’s foundation. The court and the foundation share the language of stone shaped by cutting before it is laid in place.

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