**Roof Beams Organized in Groups of Three (***Slaot***)**

The expression *slaot* appears in various contexts in the description of the Temple. In principle, the term refers to wooden planks, for example in "planks of cedar" and "planks of cypress" (1 Kings 6:15). Such planks were used to panel the interior walls of the Outer Sanctum and the Holy of Holies. We do

not accept the traditional interpretation of the term *slaot* as side chambers. The Khirbet Qeiyafa stone building model clearly indicates that these are wooden planks organized in groups of three, like the triglyphs of Classical architecture (Garfinkel and Mumcuoglu 2013).

There are also planks surrounding the Outer Sanctum and the Holy of Holies in the description of the Temple (1 Kings 6:5). Here, we should note the words of the prophet Ezekiel, who describes the Temple with *slaot*, in groups of three, 30 times, surrounding the Outer Sanctum and the Holy of Holies (Ezekiel 41:6). In this way's Ezekiel presents the *slaot* as wooden planks organized in groups of three, like the triglyphs in the Khirbet Qeiyafa building model.

From Ezekiel's description of the Temple and the building model from Khirbet Qeiyafa, we conclude that the *slaot* that surrounded the Outer Sanctum and the Holy of Holies were roof beams organized in groups of three.
