l of the temple, and rising to half its height,
were rows of small apartments, three stories high, in which were kept
the treasures and vessels of the sanctuary. While the high priest was
allowed to enter the Holy of Holies only once a year, the holy place was
accessible at all times to the priests engaged in the services, and it
was there that the daily ceremonies of the temple-worship took place;
there stood also the altar of incense and the table of shewbread. The
altar of sacrifice stood on the platform in front of the entrance; it
was a cube of masonry with a parapet, and was approached by stone steps;
it resembled, probably, in general outline the monumental altars which
stood in the forecourts of the Egyptian temples and palaces. There stood
by it, as was also customary in Chaldaea, a "molten sea," and some ten
smaller lavers, in which the Levites washed the portions of the victims
to be offered, together with the basins, knives, flesh-hooks, spoons,
shovels, and other utensils required for the bloody sacrifice. A low
wall surmounted by a balustrade of cedar-wood separated this sacred
enclosure from a court to which the people were permitted to have
free access. Both palace and temple were probably designed in that
pseudo-Egyptian style which the Phoenicians were known to affect. The
few Hebrew edifices of which remains have come down to us, reveal
a method of construction and decoration common in Egypt; we have an
example of this in the uprights of the doors at Lachish, which terminate
in an Egyptian gorge like that employed in the naos of the Phonician
temples.

[Illustration: 377.jpg AN UPRIGHT OF A DOOR AT LACHISH]

Drawn by Paucher-Gudin, from the drawing by Petrie.

The completion of the whole plan occupied thirteen years; at length both
palace and temple were finished in the XVIIth year of the king's
reign. Solomon, however, did not wait for the completion of the work
to dedicate the sanctuary to God. As soon as the inner court was ready,
which was in his XIth year, he proceeded to transfer the ark to its new
resting-place; it was raised upon a cubical base, and the long staves by
which it had been carried were left in their rings, as was usual in the
case of the sacred barks of the Egyptian deities.* The God of Israel
thus took up His abode in the place in which He was henceforth to
be honoured. The sacrifices on the occasion of the dedication were
innumerable, and continued for fourteen days, in t