In Hebrew this verse begins with the common conjunction, which is left untranslated by Revised Standard Version. Because of the fact that the act recorded here would be considered extraordinary, Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version translate the conjunction with “Even.”

The house … in the inner and outer rooms: See the comments on verse 29. Consistent with the translation in verse 29, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible (similarly Nouvelle Bible Segond) here reads “And he overlaid with gold the floor of the House, on the interior and on the exterior.”

According to verse 20, the Most Holy Place was twenty cubits high. And according to the Masoretic Text in verse 2, the Temple was thirty cubits high. This seems to suggest that either (a) the Most Holy Place was raised ten cubits from the ground and that steps led up into it, or (b) there was an empty space of ten cubits between the ceiling of the Most Holy Place and the ceiling of the Temple (see the comments on verse 2). Translators will find drawings of the Temple in some commentaries and biblical dictionaries that have steps leading up to the Most Holy Place. Other drawings, based on the second interpretation, show a loft, or empty space, above the Most Holy Place.

If the Most Holy Place was raised and had a basement under it, then it is possible, though not likely, that the inner and outer rooms should be translated here as “inside and outside.” That is, if the floor of the Most Holy Place was higher than the floor of the nave, the sense could be that the floor of the Most Holy Place was covered with gold on both the top and bottom of the floor. Compare Nouvelle version Segond révisée: “He covered the floor of the house with gold, on the inside and on the outside.”

However, since the text does not indicate that there were steps leading up to the Most Holy Place, it is better to assume that there was a loft of ten cubits between the ceiling of the Most Holy Place and the ceiling of the Temple itself. The inner and outer rooms will then refer to the Most Holy Place and the nave respectively.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .