A Palace Greater Than the Temple

Solomon spent thirteen years building his own palace (1 Kings 7:1). The royal complex included the House of the Forest of Lebanon, the Colonnade, the Throne Hall, the King’s private residence, and Pharaoh’s daughter’s palace. This project took nearly twice as long as building the Temple. The construction of both the Temple and the palace lasted twenty years (1 Kings 9:10). Initially, Solomon intended to “build a temple for the Name of the Lord my God.” However, it ended with him building a palace for himself. What began with the people rotating in restful service eventually turned into them bearing heavy burdens and performing forced labor, ultimately leading to the division of the kingdom.

The Bible does not provide a detailed description of the entire architectural structure of Solomon’s palace. This is because the author’s message is that the palace was far larger than the Temple. The House of the Forest of Lebanon alone was as tall as the Temple and 3.6 times its size, greatly overshadowing God’s glory, and Pharaoh’s daughter resided within it. By the time this book was finally compiled, these palaces had all been reduced to ruins by the Babylonians. This perfectly fulfills what Ecclesiastes says: “I undertook great projects: I built myself houses” (Ecclesiastes 2:4). Later, “I surveyed all the works of my hands and what I had toiled to achieve. All of it was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:11).