Tafsiran 1 Raja-raja 8:64: Tze'enah Ure'enah & Rashi

“On that day, the king consecrated” [8:64]. On that day, the king consecrated the courtyard where the sacrifices were brought. The bronze altar was too small to offer the sacrifices on it.

The inside of the Courtyard. These words are to be taken literally, according to Rabbi Yehudah; [i.e.,] he hallowed the floor of the court with the [same] sanctity of the Altar, [enabling one] to offer sacrifices on the floor.³⁴Maseches Zevochim 59a.

For the copper altar. The stone altar that he [Shlomo] constructed in lieu of the copper altar.³⁵According to Ralbag, the copper was primarily made of stone but was plated with copper.

Too small to contain the burnt-offerings and the meal offerings. For they brought many. Rabbi Yose said to him [Rabbi Yehudah], “Is it not already written, ‘Shlomo offered a thousand burnt-offerings upon that altar,’³⁶I Melochim 3:4. which Moshe had made,” and when you compute the number of amohs and the number of burnt offerings, this one of stones was larger than Moshe’s, for on Moshe’s altar the place used for the sacrifice, was one amoh by one amoh, but this one’s place used for the sacrifice was twenty-four [amohs] by twenty-four [amohs]. Therefore Shlomo’s [altar] was 576 times as large as Moshe’s.³⁷See Maseches Zevochim 59b. If so, what is the meaning of, “the king sanctified the middle of the Courtyard?” [It means] that he set the stone altar into it, firmly connected to the floor.³⁸Ibid.

Was too small to contain. He is referring to Moshe’s [altar], like a person says to his friend, “So and so is a dwarf,” [i.e.,] he is disqualified to perform the service.³⁹See Bamidbar 34:5, 8. There, Targum Yonoson Ben Uziel identifies the “Brook of Egypt” [מצרים נחלה] as the Nile River.