---
title: 1 Kings 6:29
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-kings-6-29/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-kings-6-29.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 1 Kings 6:29
testament: OT
section: History
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 1 Kings 6:29

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Then he carved the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer sanctuaries, with carved engravings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers.

## JW Usage

1 Kings 6:29 is rarely quoted in Watchtower literature on images, because Solomon's divinely-sanctioned temple decoration — "cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers" carved on all the inner and outer sanctuary walls — directly counters the absolutist reading of Exodus 20:4 that rs pp. 183-187 advances. The verse sits in the Torah-Kings witness to sacred representational art that is simply not engaged when the second-commandment argument is pressed.

## Protestant Usage

Use 1 Kings 6:29 as one of the five "commanded images" exhibits in the temple witness: Exodus 25:18 (cherubim of hammered gold on the mercy seat), Exodus 26:1 (cherubim woven into the tabernacle curtains), 1 Kings 6:29 (wall carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and flowers in both sanctuary rooms), 1 Kings 7:25 (twelve bronze oxen supporting the Sea), 1 Kings 7:29 and 7:36 (carved lions, oxen, and cherubim on the stands). If Exodus 20:4 forbids all representational art, the temple itself was the most idolatrous building on the planet — and Jehovah commanded its construction. Exodus 20:4-5 is a single compound prohibition: the making and the bowing form one command, and verse 5 supplies the rationale ("I, Jehovah your God, am a God who requires exclusive devotion"). The forbidden thing is cultic image-use, not representation per se. 1 Kings 6:29 settles the question by divine example.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Images Are Not the Problem — Worship Is](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/images-in-worship-protestant-response.md) — Numbers 21:8 / 2 Kings 18:4 / Exodus 25:18 [Practice]