Bible Commentaries

2 Chronicles 3:1. Mount Moriah, or the land of vision; the place which the rabbins generally allow to be the same where Abraham offered up his son Isaac.

2 Chronicles 3:2. Began to build. See the chronology at the end of Ruth, and 2 Kings 6:1. According to archbishop Usher the temple was finished in November, and exactly a thousand years before the birth of Christ. This differs eleven or twelve years from the chronology of our bibles, and of Royamont’s chronology. The temple was finished in seven years and a half: this was expeditious. York minster was built during the session of four archbishops.

2 Chronicles 3:4. The height was a hundred and twenty cubits. The LXX, and most of the ancient versions, read twenty cubits. 1 Kings 6:2.

2 Chronicles 3:6. Gold of Parvaim. Leaves richly gilt, for overlaying the inner walls of the house; and as we find no patriarch of the name of Parvaim, it may mean highly-coloured gold, receiving a superior tint from the matrices in which it was formed.

2 Chronicles 3:13. They stood on their feet. Parkhurst, from whomsoever he took his plate of the cherubim, committed an obvious mistake, for he makes the cherub to stand on one foot, and the head to consist of four living creatures. See Ezekiel 1:10. Revelation 4:6.

2 Chronicles 3:17. He reared up the pillars, Jachin and Boaz, names importing stability and strength. They gave a grand and imposing aspect at the entrance of the temple.