LINTEL*

Horizontal beam placed above a doorway, supported by structures called “jambs” or simply “doorposts.”

In Exodus 12, the Israelites are instructed to prepare for the tenth plague, the plague of death, and for the first Passover. After killing a lamb, the people were to take the blood and “put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses” (Ex 12:7).

First Kings 6:31 describes Solomon’s building of the temple. The kjv says, “He made doors of olive tree: the lintel and side posts were a fifth part of the wall.” The meaning in the Hebrew is a little difficult to determine. The nasb translates it as “the lintel and five-sided doorposts.” The neb replaces the word “lintel” with “pilasters.” It may be that the top of the doorway was slanted, formed by beams leaning toward each other (archlike) instead of one horizontal beam.

In Amos 9:1 the kjv has “lintel,” whereas the rsv has “capital.” The Hebrew word here appears to mean the capital of a column. The same is true in Zephaniah 2:14, where the kjv has “lintels” and the nasb has “tops of her pillars.” See Architecture.