The opening of chapter six provides for us first a chronological marker. Comparative dating places Solomon’s fourth year somewhere between 968 and 957 B.C. The Exodus would have occurred sometime in the 15th century, perhaps about 1440 B.C. This is the first matter of striking importance for us.
Second, reference to the date of the building is very much the way ancient people wrote when talking about temple work (you can see examples of this in Donald Wiseman’s Commentary on 1 & 2 Kings in the Tyndale Old Testament Commentary series – from which this temple drawing is taken).
Third, you cannot help but be impressed with the grandeur of this structure. And yet, for all that grandeur, Solomon spent nearly twice as much time building his own palace. Since that fact goes unnoticed in Chronicles, I wonder if the comparison, while brief, isn’t an important one in the mind of the author of Kings.
