1 Kings 7:12

12. The great court round about The great enclosure or park in which all the palatial buildings stood. (H H H in plan.)

Three rows of hewed stones Or three layers of hewn stone. See note on 1 Kings 6:36. If this view of this obscure verse be correct, it follows that the great court of the palace was not a cultivated park, but a solid artificial platform of stone-work, covered by a cedar flooring. This is the more probable since all the palace buildings were set upon a vast artificial platform raised upon the southern slope of Mount Moriah.

Both for the inner court of the house of the Lord The meaning is, that the pavement of the great court of the palace, like that of the inner court of the temple, (see 1 Kings 6:36,) consisted of three layers of hewn stone placed one upon another, with a layer of cedar planks fastened on the top of them.

And for the porch of the house That is, the porch of the palace had a similar pavement.

Here ends the Bible account of Solomon’s palace. But it is manifestly not an exhaustive or minute description; and it is likely that there were various apartments, and perhaps whole buildings, of less importance that receive no mention here. Josephus adds that he built other edifices for pleasure, and long cloisters, and a magnificent dining room, and various other things which it seems not to have been the purpose of the sacred historian to mention or describe.