1 Kings 5:17

And the king commanded and they brought [or cut out, quarried (Gesen.), as in Ecclesiastes 10:9 ; see also Ecclesiastes 6:7 (Heb.) ] great stones, costly [precious, not heavy, as Thenius. Cf. Psalms 36:8 ; Psalms 45:9 ; Esther 1:4 in the Heb.], stones and [omit and. The hewed stones were the great and costly stones] hewed stones [or squared ( Isaiah 9:10 ; cf. 1 Kings 6:36 ; 1 Kings 7:9 ; 1 Kings 11:12 ). We learn from 1 Kings 7:10 that the stones of the foundation of the palace were squared to 8 cubits and 10 cubits] to lay the foundation of the house. [Some of these great squared stones, we can hardly doubt, are found in situ at the present day. The stones at the south-east angle of the walls of the Haram (Mosque of Omar) are "unquestionably of Jewish masonry". "One is 23 1 Kings 2:9 in. long; whilst others vary from 17 to 20 feet in length. Five courses of them are nearly entire" ( ib. ) As Herod, in rebuilding the edifice, would seem to have had nothing to do with the foundations, we may safely connect these huge blocks with the time of Solomon. It is also probable that some at least of the square pillars, ranged in fifteen rows, and measuring five feet each side, which form the foundations of the Mosque El Aksa, and the supports of the area of the Haram, are of the same date and origin (cf. Ewald, Hist. Israel, 3:233). Porter holds that they are "coeval with the oldest part of the external walls." Many of them, the writer observed, were monoliths. The extensive vaults which they enclose are unquestionably "the subterranean vaults of the temple area" mentioned by Josephus (B.J. 1 Kings 5:3 . 1), and the "cavati sub terra montes" of Tacitus. It may be added here that the recent explorations in Jerusalem have brought to light many evidences of Phoenician handiwork.]