1st Kings Chapter 6 verse 4 Holy Bible
And for the house he made windows of fixed lattice-work.
read chapter 6 in ASV
And for the house he made windows, with network across.
read chapter 6 in BBE
And for the house he made closed windows with fixed lattices.
read chapter 6 in DARBY
And for the house he made windows of narrow lights.
read chapter 6 in KJV
And for the house he made windows of narrow lights.
read chapter 6 in WBT
For the house he made windows of fixed lattice-work.
read chapter 6 in WEB
and he maketh for the house windows of narrow lights.
read chapter 6 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 4. - And for the house he made windows of narrow lights. [There has been much disputation over these words. The older expositors generally follow (as does the marg.) the Chaldee and Rabbins: "windows broad within and narrow without;" windows, i.e. somewhat like the loopholes of ancient castles. The windows of the temple would then have resembled those of Egyptian sacred buildings. (It is not implied that there was any conscious imitation of Egypt, though Fergusson surely forgets the affinity with Pharaoh (1 Kings 3:1), the trade with Egypt (1 Kings 10:28), and the favour with which some Egyptian fashions were regarded (Song of Solomon 1:9), when he contends that the chosen people would never take the buildings of their ancestral enemy for a model.) But this meaning is not supported by the original (שְׁקֻפִים אֲטֻמִים), the literal interpretation of which is "closed beams" (cf. chap. 7:4, 5), and which the most competent scholars now understand to mean "closed or fixed lattices, i.e., the lattices or the temple windows were not movable, as in domestic architecture (2 Kings 1:2; 2 Kings 13, 17; Daniel 6:10). So Gesenius, De Wette, Keil, Bahr, al.]
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(4) Windows of narrow lights.--The marginal reading, "windows broad within and narrow without"--splayed as in ordinary Gothic architecture--is supported by very good authorities; but the most probable meaning is "windows with fixed beams"--that is, with fixed lattices, like jalousies, useful for ventilation, but immovable, so that no one could look out or in.
