Summary

In 1 Kings 6:14 the narrative returns to the description of the building and the finishing of the temple. You may have noticed that in this verse Solomon is said to have built the house, and in the later verses the pronoun he is used, whose antecedent (the word that a pronoun is used as a substitute for) is Solomon. Does this mean that Solomon literally did the building with his own hands? This is obviously not the case, but it does mean that the building was done at his command.

The verb translated finished carries the meaning of completion or accomplishment. Curiously, however, it is used in the imperfect which is a conjugation that shows the action is not completed. This observation suggests to the reader of 1 Kings that the word is not used simply to notify us that the construction of the temple was done. Rather, it leads us to consider that the writer wished to place before his readers those matters that were necessary for the temple to be in a finished state. If we look at the following verses, we see that this suggestion is indeed the case. We might say they set before us what are sometimes called the finishing touches. These matters included things like floor, wall, and ceiling coverings. It also lists some of the furniture that would be placed within the temple that its required services might be executed.