CEILED; CEILING

seld, sel'-ing (the King James Version and the English Revised Version Cieled, Cieling; the Hebrew words for "ceiled" are chippah, caphan, sachiph; for "ceiling," cippun): Ceiling occurs only in 1 Kings 6:15. It comes from the root caphan, meaning "to cover." It has its common meaning of the upper surface of a room; there is, however, some doubt of the textual Ceiled is found in 2 Chronicles 3:5 ((chippah); Jeremiah 22:14; Haggai 1:4 (caphan in both); Ezekiel 41:16 (sachiph)), the text of the last passage being doubtful. In none of these cases does "ceiled" refer to the upper surface of a room, but to the covering or paneling of the inner walls of a house with cedar or other costly wood. This is in accordance with a common early use of the English word, no longer frequent.

George Ricker Berry

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.