And the house, when it was being built, was built of stone made ready before it was brought there: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was being built.
Read Chapter 6
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Christ knocks with his hand that you may open, whereas the adversary cuts the door down with axes; and therefore it is written that hammer and axe should not enter into the house of God. Pride and deceit ought to be outdoors, not inside; conflicts indeed ought to be outside; but within, the peace that surpasses all understanding. Let not your soul be cut with the iron, but even as Joseph’s soul, so may your soul pass by the iron. Otherwise, your ruling part, which is like a kind of tabernacle of the Word, may be destroyed at the very beginning of faith and the entrance into spiritual learning. - "The Prayer of Job and David 4.7.28"
Made ready So the stones for the building of God's eternal temple, in the heavenly Jerusalem, (who are the faithful) must first be hewn and polished here by many trials and sufferings, before they can be admitted to have a place in that celestial structure. (Challoner)
Those who have the happiness to be chosen, will be no more disturbed with the noise or inconvenience of persecution, (Haydock) which they ought to bear in silence upon earth. (Worthington)
Building. Screw nails were probably used. The ancient Romans wrought the mouldings, of their pillars, after they were erected. The Rabbins pretend that a little worm, or stone schamir, which was brought from the earthly paradise by an eagle, or by the devil, Asmodeus, polished all the stones. Maimonides has even written a book on this famous worm. (Grotius)
Theodoret (q. 23.) also asserts, without proof, that the stones were found ready cut, in the quarry, and that they had only to be polished. We may form a grand idea of the workme...
Made ready: So the stones for the building of God's eternal temple in the heavenly Jerusalem, (who are the faithful,) must first be hewn and polished here by many trials and sufferings, before they can be admitted to have a place in that celestial structure.
