1 Kings 6:32

The two doors also wore [Rather, perhaps, "And he made" is to be supplied from 1 Kings 6:31 , as Keil. Rawlinson remarks that such doors as these are characteristic of Assyrian gateways] of olive tree: and he carved upon them carvings of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold, and spread [ וַיָּרֶד Hiph. of רָדַד ] gold [Heb. the gold ] upon the cherubims and upon the palm trees [The writer means, not that the carving alone was gilded—as Thenius thinks, who remarks on the effective contrast which the dark red cedar and the bright gold would furnish)—but that the gilding did not conceal the character of the carvings. It is clear from verse 22 that "all the house" blazed with gold in every part. If the floors were covered with gold, we may be sure both walls and doors would not be without their coating of the precious metal. Our author does not mention the curtain—it is clear that the doors would not dispense with the necessity for a vail—but the chronicler does ( 2 Chronicles 3:14 ). It was necessary in order to cover the ark ( Exodus 40:3 , Exodus 40:21 ); hence it was sometimes called "the vail of the covering." But for this, when the doors were opened on the day of atonement, the priest in the holy place might have gazed into the oracle. See on 1 Kings 8:8 . The doors opened outwardly (into the house). The vail was suspended within the oracle.]