1 Kings 6:31-35·~1 min

The Doors

Solomon makes olive-wood doors for the inner sanctuary and cypress doors for the sanctuary entrance, carving both with cherubim, palm trees, and flowers and overlaying them with gold.

F³¹or the entrance to the inner sanctuary, Solomon constructed doors of olive wood with five-sided doorposts. ³²The double doors were made of olive wood, and he carved into them cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers and overlaid the cherubim and palm trees with hammered gold. ³³In the same way he made four-sided doorposts of olive wood for the sanctuary entrance. ³⁴The two doors were made of cypress wood, and each had two folding panels. ³⁵He carved into them cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and he overlaid them with gold hammered evenly over the carvings.

Section summaryThe entrances to both the inner sanctuary and the main sanctuary are fitted with carved wooden doors. Their figures of cherubim, palm trees, and flowers repeat the temple’s visual language, now carried into the thresholds themselves and covered with gold.

Role in the chapterThis section attends to the temple’s boundaries. It shows that even the points of passage into holy space share the same ordered beauty as the rooms beyond them.