So he built the house, and finished it: He refers to King Solomon. Solomon has not been mentioned by name since the second verse of this chapter. So it is probably a good idea to use his name as in Revised English Bible or both his name and title as in Good News Translation.

The two verbs, built and finished, may be translated in some languages by a single verb form indicating that “he completed the building.” Nouvelle version Segond révisée says “After having finished building the house, Solomon….”

He made the ceiling of the house of beams and planks of cedar: The meaning of the Hebrew in the second half of this verse is not clear, but it clearly refers to the construction of the roof. The two Hebrew nouns rendered beams and planks are rare words whose exact meanings are uncertain. One common understanding is that the Temple had horizontal cedar beams and planks (or, “boards”) for the covering of the beams. New American Bible says “it was roofed in with rafters and boards of cedar.” Others, however, understand the terms to refer to paneled ceilings and aligned beams in which the beams crisscrossed and the empty spaces between the beams were covered with panels. The technical English term for recessed paneling is “coffers.” Compare “he roofed the Temple with a coffered ceiling of cedar wood” (New Jerusalem Bible; similarly Traduction œcuménique de la Bible) and “and roofed it with beams and coffering of cedar” (Revised English Bible).

For the word cedar, see the comments at 1 Kgs 4.33.

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 .