The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place before the inner sanctuary: The holy place refers to the nave, that is, to the long room directly in front of the Most Holy Place. The inner sanctuary is the Most Holy Place itself. Only someone standing inside the Temple in the nave directly in front of the doors to the Most Holy Place could see the poles. Compare New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh: “The poles projected so that the ends of the poles were visible in the sanctuary in front of the Shrine” (similarly Bible en français courant). The Hebrew is not clear on how the ends of the poles were seen, but since a veil covered the entrance to the Most Holy Place (see the comments on 1 Kgs 6.21-22), the intended sense seems to be that the ends of the poles were poking into the veil. Perhaps the Covenant Box was placed in the Most Holy Place with the poles pointing in an east-west direction. The intended situation is not clear.

But they could not be seen from outside: Outside refers to the area beyond the nave of the Temple. New Century Version provides a possible model with an active verb: “but no one could see them from outside the Holy Place.”

They are there to this day: To this day means at the time these words were written. This final sentence is the author’s direct statement to his readers and is not part of the narrative story. For this reason Good News Translation places it within parentheses. This statement has special importance in light of the instructions in Exo 25.15 that the poles are not to be removed from the rings of the ark.

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 .