consumed on the altar by the officiating priests: the greater part
furnished meat for the assembled multitude. The Festival of the
Dedication lasted a week, and this was succeeded by the Feast of the
Tabernacles; and from that time the Temple became the pride and glory of
the nation. To see it periodically and worship in its courts became the
intensest desire of every Hebrew. Three times a year some great festival
was held, attended by a vast concourse of the people. The command was
that every male Israelite should "appear before the Lord" and make his
offering; but this of course had its necessary exceptions, as multitudes
of women and children could not go, and had to be cared for at home. We
cannot easily understand how on any other supposition they were all
accommodated, spacious as were the various courts of the Temple; and we
conclude that only a large representation of the tribes and families
took place, for how could four or five millions of people assemble
together at any festival?

Contemporaneous with the building of the Temple, or immediately after it
was dedicated, were other gigantic works, including the royal palace,
which it took thirteen years to complete, and upon which, as upon the
Sacred House, Syrian artists and workmen were employed. The principal
building was only one hundred and fifty feet long, seventy-five broad,
and forty-five feet high, in three stories, with a grand porch supported
on lofty pillars; but connected with the palace were other edifices to
support the magnificence in which the king lived with his court and his
harem. Around the tower of the House of David were hung the famous
golden shields, one thousand in number, which had been made for the
body-guard, with other glittering ornaments, which were likened by the
poets to the neck of a bride decked with rays of golden coins. In the
great Judgment Hall, built of cedar and squared stone, was the throne of
the monarch, made of ivory, inlaid with gold. A special mansion was