Now these are the things wherein Solomon was instructed for the building of the house of God. The length by cubits after the first measure was threescore cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits.
These are the things wherein Solomon was instructed - by the written plan and specifications given him by his father. The measurements are reckoned by cubits, "after the first measure" - i:e., the old Mosaic standard. But there is great difference of opinion about this, some making the cubit 18, others 21 inches. The temple, which embodied in more solid and durable materials the ground-form of the tabernacle, only being twice as large, was a rectangular building, 70 cubits long from east to west, and 20 cubits wide from north to south.