Matthew Poole and continuators on 1 Kings 6:16

16 And he built twenty cubits on the sides of the house both the floor and the walls with boards of cedar: he even built them for it within, even for the oracle, even for the ‡ most holy place .

i. e. The Most Holy Place, which contained in the Length of the House twenty Cubits, by comp. this with ver. 2. and ver. 17. which may be said to be on the sides of the house, because this part took off 20 Cubits in length from each side of the House, and was also 20 Cubits from side to side, so it was 20 Cubits every way; or on the sides, (i. e. on all the sides, as indeed it was) of the house, or of that house; to wit, The most holy place, as it here follows. Or, from the sides of the house; i. e. from one side to the other. And so this is meant onely of the Partition Wall, which was between the Holy and the Most Holy Place.

Or rather, as ver. 15. from the floor to the wall, or cieling, or roof. So it is not necessary, at least by vertue of these words, to understand this, as they generally do, That the Floor it self was built with Cedar; but onely all the sides of it from the bottom 20 Cubits upward. If it be said, that the whole House, and consequently the Most Holy Place, was 30 Cubits high, ver. 2. it may be replied, either, That that is true onely of the greater House, or the Holy Place, which is called the house, ver. 17. and that the lesse[illegible: 1+ letters], or the Most holy Place, was but 20 Cubits high, as divers think; or that the ten cubits at the top, were covered with some other Wood or thing; or were left open, that it might thereby receive both Light from the Candlesticks, and Smoke from the Altar of Incense.

i. e. That it might be the Oracle, or, the most holy place. Or, on the inner side (whereby the might imply, that the outside of the Partition Wall which looked towards the Holy Place, was not so covered.) Of (for the Hebrew Lamed is very oft a note of the Genitive Case) the Oracle, even of the most holy place: which last words are added, to explain what he means by the word Oracle, which he had not used before.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] holiness holiness.