Five-minute study · Day 223 · 1 Kings 6
1 Kings 6:23
A word worth stopping on: cherubim כְּרוּב keruv
'And within the oracle he made two cherubims of olive tree, each ten cubits high.' Ten cubits is roughly fifteen feet. Two olive-wood figures, overlaid in gold, standing fifteen feet tall with wingspans of fifteen feet, filling the innermost room of Solomon's Temple. The Hebrew word is keruv (plural keruvim, anglicized as cherubim). These are nothing like the chubby infants of Renaissance art. The cherubim of the Hebrew Bible are massive, composite, winged beings assigned to guard sacred space. They stood over the ark of the covenant in absolute silence, their wings touching wall to wall.
Word study: cherubim
- Hebrew
- כְּרוּב
- Pronounced
- keruv
- Strong's
- H3742
- Definition
- A composite winged being associated with the presence and protection of God. Plural: keruvim (cherubim). Guardians of sacred space, throne-bearers of the divine presence. Their exact form is never fully described in a single passage.
Keruv appears 91 times in the Hebrew Bible. BDB suggests a possible connection to the Akkadian karibu or kuribu, an intercessor figure, a winged being that mediated between humans and the gods in Mesopotamian religion. Freedman's work on temple theology notes that the etymology remains debated, but the functional parallel is clear: in both Mesopotamian and Israelite contexts, these composite creatures stood at the boundary between the human and divine realms.
The cherubim appear in four major biblical contexts. First, Genesis 3:24: God places cherubim at the east of Eden with a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life. Second, the mercy seat: Exodus 25:18-22 describes two gold cherubim on top of the ark of the covenant, their wings overshadowing the kapporet (mercy seat), the place where God promises to meet with Moses. Third, Solomon's Temple: 1 Kings 6:23-28 describes the two massive olive-wood cherubim in the Holy of Holies. Fourth, Ezekiel's visions: Ezekiel 1 and 10 describe the 'living creatures' (later identified as cherubim in Ezekiel 10:20) with four faces (human, lion, ox, eagle), four wings, and wheels within wheels.
The Solomonic cherubim of 1 Kings 6 were enormous. Each figure was ten cubits (approximately fifteen feet) tall with a wingspan of ten cubits. Together, their outstretched wings spanned the entire width of the inner sanctuary (the devir), twenty cubits wall to wall. They were carved from olive wood (etz shemen, literally 'oil tree') and overlaid with gold. They stood over the ark of the covenant, their inner wings touching each other at the center of the room, their outer wings touching the walls.
Messopotamian archaeology provides extensive parallels. The lamassu, colossal winged bulls or lions with human heads, guarded the entrances to Assyrian palaces at Nineveh, Nimrud, and Khorsabad. These figures, some weighing over thirty tons, stood at doorways and gates as protective sentinels. The Babylonian karibu figures, smaller winged beings with human features, were positioned at temple entrances and were understood to intercede with the gods on behalf of worshipers. The composite nature of these beings (animal body, human face, bird wings) expressed a theology of mediation: the creature that stood between worlds combined features from multiple realms.
Psalm 18:10 describes God riding on a keruv: 'He rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.' Psalm 80:1 addresses God as the one 'that dwellest between the cherubims.' Psalm 99:1 declares: 'The LORD reigneth; let the people tremble: he sitteth between the cherubims.' The cherubim are consistently associated with divine presence, divine mobility, and divine enthronement. They are the living throne of the invisible God.
Historical context · Construction of Solomon's Temple, approximately 966-959 BC (1 Kings 6:1, 37-38)
Gold Giants in the Holy of Holies
Solomon's Temple (the First Temple) was constructed on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem over a period of seven years, from Solomon's fourth to eleventh year of reign (1 Kings 6:1, 37-38). The Temple followed the basic plan of the tabernacle described in Exodus 25-27: an outer court, a holy place (the hekal), and a most holy place (the devir, or Holy of Holies). The devir was a perfect cube, twenty cubits in each dimension (1 Kings 6:20). It was here that the two cherubim stood, filling the room with their golden wings.
Archaeological parallels for the Temple's design have been found across the Levant. The Ain Dara temple in northern Syria (c. 1300-740 BC), excavated in the 1980s and 1990s, shows a tripartite structure (porch, main hall, inner sanctuary) remarkably similar to the biblical description of Solomon's Temple. The Ain Dara temple also featured carved cherub-like (sphinx) figures flanking the entrance and lining the interior walls. The temple at Tell Tayinat in southeastern Turkey (c. 9th century BC) provides another close parallel in plan and scale.
Olive wood (etz shemen) was chosen for the cherubim for practical and symbolic reasons. Olive trees grow slowly and produce dense, fine-grained wood that carves well and resists decay. In Israelite culture, olive oil was sacred: used for anointing kings (1 Samuel 16:13), consecrating priests (Exodus 29:7), and fueling the Temple lampstand (Exodus 27:20). Building the cherubim from olive wood connected them to the broader symbolism of anointing, consecration, and light.
The gold overlay was extensive. First Kings 6:28 states simply: 'And he overlaid the cherubims with gold.' The gold came from sources that Solomon accessed through trade networks. First Kings 9:28 describes gold from Ophir (likely in modern Yemen or East Africa), and 1 Kings 10:14-22 details Solomon's vast gold income. The gold overlay transformed the olive-wood carvings into luminous figures. In the windowless Holy of Holies, lit only by the oil lamps of the adjacent holy place, the gold cherubim would have reflected whatever light entered the room.
The cherubim in the devir served as the throne of the invisible God. The ark of the covenant, with its own smaller gold cherubim on the mercy seat, sat beneath the wings of the larger pair. The arrangement was layered: the small mercy-seat cherubim directly over the ark, the massive free-standing cherubim arching over both. God's presence, the Shekinah, dwelt between and above the cherubim. The throne was occupied, but the seat was empty. No image of God stood between the wings. In a world saturated with divine images, the empty throne made a radical theological statement.
For reflection
The innermost room of Solomon's Temple contained no image of God. Every surrounding culture placed a statue of their deity in the sacred chamber. Israel left the space between the cherubim empty. The throne was real. The presence was real. The visibility was denied. Consider what it means to worship a God who refuses to be reduced to something you can see and manage. Where in your life have you tried to build a visible, controllable version of God, a mental image, a formula, a predictable pattern? The empty throne says: I am here, and I am larger than anything you can construct.
Fifteen-foot gold-covered figures guarding an empty throne. The silence in the Holy of Holies was deafening.
Sources: BDB; Freedman, 'Temple Without Hands'; Ain Dara temple parallels; 1 Kings 6:23-28; Ezekiel 1, 10