Matthew Poole and continuators on 1 Kings 6:17

17 And the house , that is, the temple before it , was forty cubits long.

i. e. The Holy Place.

This is added, to restrain the signification of the Word house, which otherwise notes the whole Building.

i. e. Before the Oracle. Or, as it is in the Hebrew, before my face; i. e. before the place of my Presence. Or, it may be said to be before God, because he being pleased to describe himself as sitting upon the Cherubims, hath his face towards this house, where he beholds the services of his People. So this part of the House distinct from the Most Holy, hath its harmonious proportions also. The Length 40, to the Height 30, is Sesquitertian, or 4 to 3; (which is that of a Fourth in Musick:) The Length to the Breadth, 40 to 20; as 2 to 1: the Height to the Breadth, 30 to 20, as 3 to 2.