Biblical Hebrew Forum

[ian goldsmith <iangoldsmith1969 AT yahoo.co.uk>]

James,

Well spotted. You're quite right the temple hadn't
been built, but it's important to remember that some
Hebrew words haven't the strictly fixed meaning that
they have in English, 'heykal' is a good example of
this. In English 'palace' means 'palace', somewhere
where royalty tend to live.
'heykal' on the other hand means lofty/spacious in the
context of buildings, palacial, a temple.
Eli sat on a seat near the post of the
temple/palace/residence of the king.. God.
George is quite right, here is an early reference to a
royal residence before more advance buildings of brick
and stone came to be recognised as the archetyple
temple or palace.
The word for temple though is still heykal. Surely
'Beyit' George, just means house, ie the house of the
Lord.

Regards.
Ian.


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