דברי הימים א, פרק כ״ט, פסוק ד׳

King David dedicates a massive portion of his personal treasury to the construction of the Temple, ensuring that simple building materials are replaced with unparalleled splendor. His contribution includes thousands of talents of gold and refined silver. The silver undergoes a strict refining process to become exceptionally white and pure, a necessary step since metals cannot be used for plating unless they are completely purified [רש"י].

These precious metals are intended to coat the walls of the Temple [מצודת ציון]. The concept of coating is borrowed from ordinary construction, where workers apply a basic plaster made of clay and sand. In this context, however, the idea is used metaphorically. Instead of simple plaster, the walls of the Temple are covered with solid sheets of precious metals [מצודת ציון, ביאור שטיינזלץ].

There are different perspectives regarding which metals were actually used for this overlay. One approach suggests that both gold and silver were used together to plate the walls of the Holy and the Holy of Holies [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. However, the primary approach among commentators asserts that the walls were coated exclusively with gold, containing no silver at all. According to this view, the instruction to coat the walls refers back to the gold mentioned earlier, rather than the silver listed immediately before it [רלב"ג, רד"ק, מצודת דוד]. To resolve the confusion of why silver is mentioned in this context if it was not used for the walls, a tradition from the Sages explains that the metal described as silver is not actually regular silver. Rather, it is a rare, superior type of gold. It earns the name "silver" because its extraordinary quality outshines and brings shame to all other types of gold, making them pale in comparison [רד"ק, מצודת דוד].