The Interior Structures

The man measures the rear building and then surveys the temple's interior surfaces, which are overlaid with wood from floor to window line. Across the walls are alternating carvings of cherubim and palm trees, each cherub shown with a human face on one side and a young lion's face on the other. The repeated carvings make the sanctuary visually dense with symbols of life, majesty, and holy guardianship.

N¹⁵ext he measured the length of the building facing the temple courtyard at the rear of the temple, including its galleries on each side; it was a hundred cubits. The outer sanctuary, the inner sanctuary, and the porticoes facing the court, ¹⁶as well as the thresholds and the beveled windows and the galleries all around with their three levels opposite the threshold, were overlaid with wood on all sides. They were paneled from the ground to the windows, and the windows were covered. ¹⁷In the space above the outside of the entrance to the inner sanctuary on all the walls, spaced evenly around the inner and outer sanctuary, ¹⁸were alternating carved cherubim and palm trees. Each cherub had two faces: ¹⁹the face of a man was toward the palm tree on one side, and the face of a young lion was toward the palm tree on the other side. They were carved all the way around the temple. ²⁰Cherubim and palm trees were carved on the wall of the outer sanctuary from the floor to the space above the entrance.

The sanctuary doorframes are described, along with a wooden altar-table that stands before the LORD. Both the outer and inner sanctuaries have double doors with swinging panels, and these doors also bear cherubim and palm-tree carvings like the walls. Wooden canopies, beveled windows, and decorated sidewalls complete the vision of a richly ordered temple interior.

²¹The outer sanctuary had a rectangular doorframe, and the doorframe of the sanctuary was similar. ²²There was an altar of wood three cubits high and two cubits square. Its corners, base, and sides were of wood. And the man told me, “This is the table that is before the LORD.” ²³Both the outer sanctuary and the inner sanctuary had double doors, ²⁴and each door had two swinging panels. There were two panels for one door and two for the other. ²⁵Cherubim and palm trees like those on the walls were carved on the doors of the outer sanctuary, and there was a wooden canopy outside, on the front of the portico. ²⁶There were beveled windows and palm trees on the sidewalls of the portico. The side rooms of the temple also had canopies.