And it was covered with cedar— It deserves remark, that the eastern floors and ceilings are just the reverse of ours. Their ceilings are of wood, ours of plaister or stucco work; their floors are of plaister or painted tyles, ours of wood. This fully detects a mistake of Kimchi and R. Solomon, who, according to Buxtorff, supposed, that the floor of the porch of judgment which Solomon built was all of cedar; whereas the sacred writer undoubtedly meant, that its covering at the top, its ceiling, was of cedar. Indeed here in the west, where these Jewish rabbis lived, such places are usually built after the eastern mode, which makes their mistake so much the more strange. Westminster hall, for instance, is paved with stone and ceiled with wood, and such, without doubt, was the ceiling and the pavement of the porch for judgment which Solomon built, and which was erected in a much hotter climate. See Observations, p. 101. Concerning Solomon's throne, see chap. 1 Kings 10:18-19 and and Servius on AEneid, vii. ver. 169.
Note; (1.) They who are great, may appear so; it is as fit that a king should dwell in a palace, as a peasant in a cottage. (2.) They who are occupied in building should take care not to lose, in the stone and mortar, their solicitude to secure a better house, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.