Bible Commentaries

β. The Building of the Temple, and Making of the Holy Vessels: 2 Chronicles 3:1 to 2 Chronicles 5:1.

2 Chronicles 3:1 And Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem on mount Moriah, which was shown to his father David, and which he had prepared in the place of David, in the floor of Ornan the Jebusite 2 And he began to build in the second month, on the second¹ day in the fourth year of his reign.

3And this is the foundation of Song of Solomon, to build the house of God: the length after the former measure was sixty cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits 4 And the porch that was before the length, before the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits, and the height a hundred and twenty²; and Hebrews 5overlaid it within with pure gold. And the great house he lined with cypress, and overlaid it with fine gold, and made thereon palms and garlands 6 And he garnished the house with precious stones for beauty; and the gold was 7 gold of Parvaim. And he overlaid the house, the beams, the sills, and its walls and its doors, with gold, and graved cherubim on the walls.

8And he made the house of the most holy, that its length before the breadth of the house was twenty cubits, and its width twenty cubits; and overlaid it with fine gold, to six hundred talents 9 And the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold: and he overlaid the upper rooms with gold 10 And he made in the house of the most holy two cherubim of sculptured work, and overlaid them with gold 11 And the wings of the cherubim were twenty cubits long; the wing of the one was five cubits, touching the wall of the house, and the other wing five cubits, touching the wing of the other 12 cherub. And the wing of the other cherub was five cubits, touching the wall of the house, and the other wing five cubits, joining the wing of the first cherub 13 The wings of these cherubim spread forth twenty cubits; and they stood on their feet, and their faces to the house.

14And he made the veil of blue, and purple, and crimson, and byssus, and raised cherubim thereon.

15And he made before the house two pillars of thirty and five³cubits height; and the capital that was on the top was five cubits 16 And he made chains in the ring,⁴ and put them on the pillars; and he made a hundred pomegranates, 17and put them on the chains. And he set up the pillars before the temple, one on the right and one on the left; and he called the name of the right pillar Jachin, and the name of the left Boaz.

2 Chronicles 4:1 And he made an altar of brass, twenty cubits its length, and twenty 2 cubits its breadth, and twenty cubits its height. And he made the sea molten; ten cubits from brim to brim, round about, and five cubits its height; 3and a line of thirty cubits compassed it about. And figures of oxen⁵ were under it, compassing it round about; ten in a cubit, encircling the sea around: two rows the oxen formed, cast out of its mass 4 It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking northward, and three looking westward, and three looking southward, and three looking eastward; and the sea was set on them above, 5and all their hinder parts were inwards. And its thickness was a hand-breadth, and its brim was wrought like the brim of a cup, as a lily blossom, 6holding in it (many) baths; it contained three thousand.⁶ And he made ten lavers, and put five on the right and five on the left, to wash in them; the work of the burnt-offering they washed in them; but the sea was for the priests to wash in 7 And he made ten candlesticks of gold, after their plan, 8and set them in the temple, five on the right and five on the left. And he made ten tables, and placed them in the temple, five on the right, and five on 9 the left: and he made basons of gold a hundred. And he made the court of the priests, and the great court, and doors for the court, and overlaid the door-leaves with brass 10 And he set the sea on the right side eastward, over against the south.

11And Huram made the pots, and the shovels, and the bowls: and Huram⁷ finished the work which he made for King Solomon in the house of God 12 The two pillars, and the balls, and the capitals on the top of the two pillars, and the two grates to cover the two balls of the capitals which were on the 13 top of the pillars. And the four hundred pomegranates on the two grates; two rows of pomegranates on each grate, to cover the two balls of the capitals 14 which were upon the two⁸ pillars. And he made⁹ stands, and he made lavers15, 16upon the stands. One sea, and twelve oxen under it. And the pots, and the shovels, and the forks,¹⁰ and all their vessels, made Huram his father for King Song of Solomon, for the house of the Lord, of bright brass 17 In the plain of Jordan the king cast them, in the clay ground¹¹ between Succoth and Zeredathah 18 dathah. And Solomon made all these vessels in great abundance; for the weight of the brass was not found out.

19And Solomon made all the vessels that were for the house of God, the 20 golden altar, and the tables with the shew-bread on them. And the candlesticks with their lamps, to burn after their rule before the oracle of costly gold 21 And the flowers, and the lamps, and the snuffers: this was the most 22 perfect gold.¹² And the knives, and the bowls, and the censers, and the extinguishers of costly gold: and the door of the house, its inner leaves to the most holy place, and the door leaves of the house for the temple, of gold.

Ch 2 Chronicles 5:1.Then was finished all the work that Solomon made for the house of the Lord: and Solomon brought in the holy gifts of David his father; and the silver, and the gold, and all the instruments he put among the treasures of the house of God.

EXEGETICAL

Preliminary Remark.—From the description of the building of the temple in 1 Kings6, 7, the present account is distinguished—1. By this, that in the introduction more precise statements are made with respect to the plan of the building, but less precise with respect to the time when it began, than there (comp. 2 Chronicles 3:1-2 with 1 Kings 6:1); 2. By this, that our author describes, in unbroken connection, first ( 2 Chronicles 3:3-17) the magnitude and arrangement of the edifice itself, then ( 2 Chronicles 4:1-22) those of its several furnishings in the court and the sanctuary, whereas in 1 Kings6, 7 this description meets with two considerable interruptions, inasmuch as—a. an account of a divine promise given to the king during the building ( 2 Chronicles 6:11-13), and—b. a description of a palace-building of Song of Solomon, partly concurrent with that of the temple ( 2 Chronicles 7:1-11), are there inserted; 3. By a somewhat different arrangement of the several objects enumerated and described in 1 Kings4. By the greater fulness and circumstantiality of the description, as contained in 1 Kings (for example, with respect to the ten brazen stands, 1 Kings 7:27-38, which our author, 2 Chronicles 4:14, only slightly mentions); and5. By the here again remarkable excerpting habit of the Chronist. In the following exposition, only that which is peculiar to our author will be fully discussed; but with regard to that which he has in common with 1 Kings, or which Hebrews, compared with the more ample details there, only briefly notices, reference will be made to the exposition of Bähr (Bibelw. vii. pp38–70), which is characterized by solidity and scientific ability.

1. Place and Time of building the Temple: 2 Chronicles 3:1-2.—And Solomon began . . . on mount Moriah. Only here is the site of the temple so named; but the designation is no doubt identical with “the land of Moriah” (אֶרֶץ הַמּוֹרִיָּה, “land of the appearing of the Lord”), Genesis 22:2. The place of the celebrated sacrifice of Abraham was even that floor of Ornan on which David presented his offering, and which he had consequently chosen for the site of the temple, the hill lying north-east of Zion, which is now called “the Haram,” after the holy mosque of the Mahommedans standing on it. Comp. Rosen, Das Haram, Gotha1866, and the plan and description in Ph. Wolff’s Jerusalem (3d edit1872), p89 ff.—Which was shown to his father David, as the future site of the temple; see 1 Chronicles 21:15 ff. Against this most usual exposition it may certainly be objected (with Keil) that the Niphalנִרְאָה elsewhere denotes, not “be shown,” but “be seen, appear.” Yet the rendering of Keil: “where He (Jehovah) appeared to his father David” (so also the Sept.), has this defect, that the subject Jehovah has to be supplied, and that אֲשֶׁר has to be taken in the sense of אֲשֶׁר שָׁם, as elsewhere only in the phrase בַּמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר (Ew. § 331, c, 3)—(and) which he had prepared in the place of David, which site he (Solomon) had prepared on the place fixed by David. So Berth, Kamph, etc, and in the main Luther, Starke, and other ancients (for example, Rambach: quam domum prœparavit Salomo in loco Davidis). On the contrary, the Sept, Vulg, Syr, etc, translate as if במקום stood before אשׁר הֵכִין, “in the place which David had prepared” (the building of the temple); and Keil, in accordance with his supplying of Jehovah as subject to נִרְאָה, interprets: “who (David) had prepared the house, that is, the building of it, in the place appointed of David.” None of these expositions is quite satisfactory; whence it is natural to suppose some corruption of the text.

2 Chronicles 3:2. And he began to build in the second month, in the second. As בַּשֵּׁנִי cannot well (comp: Luther, etc.) signify “on the second day,” for this would be expressed by בִּשְׁנַיִם לַחֹדֶשׁ or the like (with the cardinal number), it is strongly to be suspected that the word has come into the text by an error of transcription; comp. Crit. Note. The second month is Ziph, corresponding nearly with our May (comp. 1 Kings 6:37).—In the fourth year of his reign, that is, as Solomon reigned from1015, about the year1012 b.c. (comp. Hitzig, Gesch. p10 f, whose chronological determinations otherwise contain much that is arbitrary; among other things, the assumption that Solomon reigned from1035 b.c, thus, on the whole, not forty but sixty years).

2. The building of the Temple itself; and first, of the Porch and the Holy Place (or the Front and Middle Room): 2 Chronicles 3:3-7.—And this is the foundation of Solomon; these are the fundamental proportions which he employed in building. The inf. Hoph. חוּסַד is used substantively, as in Ezra 3:11.—The length after the former measure, the Mosaic or holy cubit, that, Ezekiel 40:5; Ezekiel 43:13, was a handbreadth longer than the civic cubit of the later time, in and after the exile (comp. on 1 Chronicles 22:13 f.). Only the length and the width of the temple are here given, not its height, which was, 1 Kings 6:2, thirty cubits.

2 Chronicles 3:4. And the porch, that was before the length, that extended in front of the oblong house as its entrance,—before the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits, was measured in front of the width of the house, twenty cubits. That the breadth or depth of this porch was not twenty cubits, but only ten ( 1 Kings 6:3), is not here said, but follows of necessity from the following statements concerning the size of the most holy place compared with that of the holy place, which was twice as long (comp. 2 Chronicles 3:3 with 2 Chronicles 3:8).—And the height a hundred and twenty. A certainly erroneous statement; a front building of120 cubits height, before a house only thirty cubits high, could not be called אוּלָם, but would have been a מִגְדָּל, “tower” (Keil). Behind the present defective reading is perhaps concealed the statement that the breadth of the porch was ten cubits: Berth. and Kamph. wish to arrange the text after 1 Kings 6:3 : “And the porch, which was before the house, its breadth was ten cubits before it, and the length, which was before the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits.” But there are some objections to this emendation; see Keil, p235 (Remark1).

2 Chronicles 3:5. And the great house he lined with cypress. The holy place is called the great house, as forming the chief room of the whole house. “Line,” חִפָּה, coinciding essentially with the foregoing צִפָּה “overlay,” stands here twice, first of lining the stone with wood, and then of overlaying or plating this wood with gold.—Made thereon palms and garlands, applied to it ornaments of palms and garlands (according to 1 Kings 6:18, in the form of bas-reliefs cut in the panels of the wall). תִּמֹּרִים = the fem.תִּמֹּרוֹת used in the same sense, 1 Kings 6:29; 1 Kings 6:35, figures of palms; this masc. form occurs also Ezekiel 41:28. שַׁרְשְׁרוּת, properly, chains of gold wire,—see 2 Chronicles 3:16 and Exodus 28:14,—but here ornaments wound like a chain on the gilded walls, representing garlands.

2 Chronicles 3:6. And he garnished the house with precious stones for beauty; comp. 1 Chronicles 29:2, and Bähr on 1 Kings 6:7.—And the gold was gold of Parvaim, from Parvaim, a country, as the etymon of the probable Indian name seems to indicate, situated in the east, but of unknown, and not to be determined, site. On its conjectured identity with Ophir, and the opinions regarding it, see the excursus after 2 Chronicles8

2 Chronicles 3:7. And he overlaid the house, the beams, those of the ceiling, as those next named, the sills that are under the doors. Somewhat more precise than the present statements concerning the internal decorations of the house (the holy place with its porch, which are here in question, as 2 Chronicles 3:8 ff. show) are those contained in 1 Kings 6:18; 1 Kings 6:29-30.

3. The Most Holy Place, with its Cherubic Figures and Veil: 2 Chronicles 3:8-14.—And he made the house of the most holy, that its length . . . twenty cubits. That, besides the length and breadth, the height also was the same, and thus its form was cubic, see 1 Kings 6:20. Our author does not specially set forth this certainly symbolic circumstance; on the contrary, his love of the ornamental and magnificent leads him to set forth another circumstance omitted in 1 Kings, that the weight of the gold plating for the inner wall of the most holy place was600 talents.

2 Chronicles 3:9. And the weight of the nails, that served for fastening the gold plate on the wooden lining of the walls. And this statement concerning the weight of the nails being fifty shekels is peculiar to our author, and characteristic of him; as also the following one in b, concerning the inner gilding of the upper chambers over the most holy place (comp. 1 Chronicles 28:11).

2 Chronicles 3:10. Two cherubim of sculptured work, literally, “a work of imagery.” צַֽעֲצֻעִים, from the Arab, root zua, finxit, formavit, only here in the O. T.—Overlaid them with gold, a remark occurring also 1 Kings 6:28, but there forming the end of the description of the cherubim.

2 Chronicles 3:10-12. The description of the size and position of the four outspread wings, each five cubits long, is clumsy and circumstantial, after the Eastern fashion, but at the same time perfectly obvious and clear. The expressions for the mutual contact of the tips of the wings are הִגִּיעַ and (once 2 Chronicles 3:12) דבק, properly; cleave, adhœrere.

2 Chronicles 3:13. The wings of these cherubim spread forth twenty cubits, literally, “were spreading forth (effected an expansion of) twenty cubits;” comp. on פּרשׁ, 1 Chronicles 28:18; 2 Chronicles 5:8. Against Berth, who would expel כַּנְפֵי out of the text; see Keil on this passage.—Stood on their feet, and their faces to the house, that is, to the holy place, not to one another, as the faces of the cherubs on the mercy-seat ( Exodus 25:20). That they had in this upright position a height of ten cubits, the author of 1 Kings ( 2 Chronicles 6:26) affirms in his more exact statement of the proportions. Are we entitled to infer from the statement of our author the human form of the cherubim? This appears at all events very probable; comp. Bähr on 1 Kings 6:23 ff, and Riehm, “Die Cherubim in der Stiftshütte und im Tempel,” Theol. Stud. und Krit. 1871, iii. p399 ff, where (as in the treatise De natura et notione symbolica cheruborum, 1864) this theologian certainly, for the oldest time, conceives the cherubim as theophanic storm-clouds, and represents them in the form of birds, but, for the latter time (and certainly for that of Solomon), affirms a change of this prey-bird form to a winged human form. Similarly H. Schultz, Alttestamentl. Theol. i337 ff, and Dillmann, Art. “Cherubim” in Schenkel’s Bibel-Lexikon.

2 Chronicles 3:14. And he made the veil of blue, and purple, etc, thus of the same four materials of which the veil in the tabernacle had been made, and interwoven with the same cherubic figures as it was; see Exodus 26:31. On this פָּרֹכֶת, the inner veil between the holy and the most holy place, the older description of the temple in 1 Kings 6:21 says nothing.

4. The Two Pillars Jachin and Boaz: 2 Chronicles 3:15-17; comp. the much fuller description in 1 Kings 7:15-22; 1 Kings 7:41-42 (also 2 Chronicles 4:12 f.).—And he made before the house (in the porch) two pillars of thirty and five cubits height; in 1 Kings, rather of eighteen cubits; see Crit. Note.—And the capital that was on the top. Instead of the הַצֶּפֶת, head-piece (from צפה, cover, overlay), the parallel 1 Kings 7:16 gives the term כֹּתֶרֶת, “crown, pommel.”

2 Chronicles 3:16. And he made chains in the ring, in the girdle-formed network encircling the top of the pillars, that served for the fastening of the pomegranates, and is otherwise called שְׂבָכָה, network, but here רָבִיד, collar (comp. Genesis 41:42; Ezekiel 16:11); for רָבִיד is certainly to be read instead of דְּבִיר, which gives no tolerable sense, and has drawn away the old translations to strange explanations (Vulg.: quasi catenulas in oraculo; Syr. and Arab.: “chains of fifty cubits length,” that is, reaching from the most holy place to the pillars, etc.); comp. the Crit. Note. Moreover, the term רָבִיד seems to be a synonym rather of the שְׂבָכָה, network, mentioned 2 Chronicles 4:12-13, than of the גּלֻּוֹת “balls, rolls,” mentioned in the same place (against Keil).—Made a hundred pomegranates, and put them on the chains, perhaps so “that there was an apple on every link of the chain-like ornament” (Berth.). The number100, which is given also in Jeremiah 52:23, determines also merely the one of the two rows of pomegranates which hung on every ring or girdle of the network. That each of these bore100 apples, and thus the sum total of all the apples on both pillars amounted to400, is stated 2 Chronicles 4:13, in accordance with 1 Kings 7:42. On 2 Chronicles 3:17, especially on the names Jachin and Boaz, see Bähr on 1 Kings 7:21.

5. The Holy Furniture of the Temple and its Court: 2 Chronicles 4:1-10.

2 Chronicles 4:1. The brazen altar. And he made an altar of brass, the altar of burnt-offering. See more particularly concerning its construction, more exactly described in Ezekiel 43:13-17, and its probably terrace-like appearance, in Keil, Archœol. p127, with the plan, plate iii. fig2. That our verse has no parallel in 1 Kings6, 7 is perhaps only accidental, but may arise from this, that there only articles made by Huram (Hiram) are fully described, to which the altar of burnt-offering did not belong. It is, moreover, only incidentally mentioned in 1 Kings, namely, in 2 Chronicles 822, 64, on occasion of the dedication of the temple, and again in 2 Chronicles 9:25.

2 Chronicles 4:2-5. The Brazen Sea; comp. 1 Kings 7:23-26 and the expositors thereon.—A line of thirty cubits compassed it about, formed the measure of its circumference (the actual existence of such a line is not to be supposed).

2 Chronicles 4:3. And figures of oxen were under it, instead of which 1 Kings 7:24 has: “and colocynths (or flower buds, according to Bähr) were under the brim of it round about.” Our בְּקָרִים therefore appears an error of transcription for פְּקָעִים, as in the second member הַבָּקָר for הַפְּקָעִים.

2 Chronicles 4:5. Holding in it (many) baths; it contained three thousand. According to 1 Kings 7:26, rather only2000, which number alone suits the size of the vessel as described in 2 Chronicles 4:2 (comp. Crit. Note). Moreover, the יָכִיל, “it contained,” is by no means disturbing, as Berth. and Kamph. think, who condemn it as a gloss coming into the text from 1 Kings. The pleonastic phrase rather suits the effort of the author to represent the size of the vessel as very great; and the construction is essentially the same as in the following verse.

2 Chronicles 4:6. The Ten Lavers, with the incidental Statement of the Use of the Brazen Sea.—And he made ten lavers. Much more full is 1 Kings 7:27-38, where the stands bearing these lavers are described with special minuteness.—To wash in them; the work of the burnt-offering they washed in them, the flesh of the burnt-offerings to be burned on the altar. On הֵדִיחַ, scour, rinse, as a synonym of רחץ, comp. Joshua 4:4; Ezekiel 40:38.

2 Chronicles 4:7. The Golden Candlesticks in the Holy Place. The notice of these is wanting, as well as the following one referring to the ten tables, and the next referring to the two courts, in the parallel text 1 Kings 7:39, perhaps from a gap in the text. Yet incidental references to these objects are found there; see 1 Kings 6:36; 1 Kings 7:12; 1 Kings 7:48-49.—After their plan, properly, according to their right, כְּמִשְׁפָּטָם, a reference to Exodus 25:31 ff.

2 Chronicles 4:8. And he made ten tables, on which to place the ten candlesticks, scarcely for the shew-bread, as seems to follow from 2 Chronicles 4:19; see rather on this passage, as on 1 Chronicles 28:16 (against Light-foot), Starke, Bähr, Keil, etc.—And he madebasins of gold, bowls or tankards for pouring the libation; comp. Amos 6:6; scarcely bowls for receiving the blood of the victim (as Berth. thinks).

2 Chronicles 4:9. And he made the courts of the priests, the smaller or inner court ( 1 Kings 6:36; 1 Kings 7:12), or also the upper court, as it is called, Jeremiah 36:10, on account of its greater elevation.—And the great court, the outer (הָֽעֲזָרָה connected with חצר); comp. Ezekiel 43:14 ff; Ezekiel 45:19, where it is distinguished as the “lower” or “new” court, from the inner or upper court of the priests. A more precise description of this outer court is wanting as well in 1 Kings6, 7, where it is not even mentioned, as in our passage, where only its door leaves overlaid with brass are mentioned.

2 Chronicles 4:10. Addendum concerning the Position of the Brazen Sea; comp. 1 Kings 7:39 b.

6. The Brass Works of Huram: 2 Chronicles 4:11-18. The list is opened with the “pots, shovels, and bowls,” objects belonging to the furniture of the altar of burnt-offering in the court, that belong properly to the foregoing section. Even so 1 Kings 7:40, where likewise with וַיְּכַל in the middle of the verse we pass to all that was made by Huram.—The pots, and the shovels, and the bowls. הַסִּירוֹת (for which 1 Kings 7:40, defectively: הַכִּירוֹת) are the pots for taking away the ashes; הַיָּעִים, the shovels for removing the ashes from the altar; הַמִּזְרָקוֹת (perhaps to be distinguished from מִזְרֽקִים, the sprinkling-bowls or wine tankards in 2 Chronicles 4:8 b), the bowls for receiving and sprinkling the blood.—And Huram finished the work. Comp. from this to the end of the section the almost literally agreeing verses 1 Kings 7:40 b–47, and Bähr on the passage. For the partial deviations and errors in our text, see Crit. Note.

2 Chronicles 4:16. And all their vessels. Most recent expositors (also Keil) wish to read, after 1 Kings 7:45 : “all these vessels,” אֵת בָּל־ הַכֵּלִים הָאֵלֶּה, because we cannot think in the “vessels” of the vessels hitherto named. But might not the forms (models) be meant in which the various vessels were cast? The allusion to the foundries of the king in the next verse makes this very probable; but the reading הָאֵלֶּה in 1 Kings 7:45 appears by no means absolutely settled.—Made Huram his father. For אָבִיו, see on 2 Chronicles 2:12.—Of bright brass, נְחשֶׁת מָרוּק, accus. materiœ; in 2 Kings the equivalent נְחשֶׁת מְמֹרָט stands for this.

2 Chronicles 4:17. In the plain of Jordan (properly, in the circuit of Jordan) the king cast them, in the clay ground, properly, “in the densities of the ground,” בַּֽעֲבֵי הָאֲדָמָה (or, if the reading בַּֽעֲבִי is to be preferred, sing.: in the density of the ground; ἐν τῷ πάχει τῆς γῆς, Sept.). According to the older exegesis, the phrase denoted: in the clay ground, in argillosa terra (Vulg.). The designation of the hard forms for the casting, which Berth. thinks are mentioned here, should rather be the כָּל־כְּלֵיהֶם of 2 Chronicles 4:16.—Between Succoth and Zeredathah. In 1 Kings 7:46 the name of the second place is Zarthan, which is only another form of Zeredathah; comp. Judges 7:22.

2 Chronicles 4:18. For the weight of the brass was not found out, or was not determined (Berth.); that is, there was so great a quantity, that, etc. (comp. 2 Chronicles 5:6).

7. Enumeration of the Golden Vessels of the Sanctuary, with the Close of the whole Account of the Building: 2 Chronicles 4:19–ch. 2 Chronicles 5:1; comp. 1 Kings 7:48-51, which section also deviates much in its first verses from the present one.—And the tables with the shew-bread on them. Originally, perhaps, only an inexact expression (synecdoche), as in 1 Chronicles 28:16, this mention of the שֻׁלְחָנוֹת has here certainly the appearance of a multiplicity of tables for the shew-bread. But 1 Kings 7:48 names quite distinctly only one table.

2 Chronicles 4:20. And the candlesticks . . . to burn after their rule (כַּמִּשְׁפָּט, as 2 Chronicles 4:7) before the oracle, the “debir,” that is, the most holy place. The candlesticks had accordingly their place in the holy place immediately before the veil; and so the altar of incense (comp. Hebrews 9:4).

2 Chronicles 4:21. And the flowers, and the lamps. Comp. Bähr on 1 Kings 7:49.—This was the most perfect gold. מִכְלוֹת זָהְב, properly, “perfections of gold”; the elsewhere not occurring מִכְלוֹת (equivalent to מִכְלָל, Psalm 50:2, or מִכְלוֹל, Ezekiel 23:12) appears unintelligible to the Sept, and hence the whole clause is omitted. As it appears superfluous along with the costly gold at the close of the verse before, and is wanting in 1 Kings 7:49, it awakens critical suspicion.

2 Chronicles 4:22. And the knives, serving perhaps to clean the lamps (with the snuffers), but also for other purposes. Their place among the vessels of the temple is attested also by 2 Kings 12:14; Jeremiah 52:18. For the next named bowls see on 2 Chronicles 4:11. The כַּפּוֹת (trays for the incense) and מַחְתּוֹת (extinguishers) are also named 1 Kings 7:50 : on the contrary, the סִפּוֹת (basons) named there first are wanting here.—And the door of the house. וּפֶתַח הַבַּיִת appears to be a general collective phrase for the “opening, doorway, outlet of the house;” for it includes two doors, that into the holy place, and that into the holy of holies. The parallel 1 Kings 7:50 : וְהַפֹּתוֹת לְדַלְתוֹת הַבַּיִת, leads to the conjecture that וּפֶתַח is perhaps an error for וּפֹתוֹת, “and the hinges” (in which case also לְדַלְתוֹתָו must be put for דַּלְתוֹתָיו).

2 Chronicles 5:1 agrees almost to the letter with 1 Kings 7:51. The ו before אֶת־הַכֶּסֶף is best rendered by “namely”; comp. 2 Chronicles 4:19; less probable is the rendering: “as: well the silver as also the gold” (Keil). For these gifts of David, see the account in 1 Chronicles 18:10 f.; also 1 Chronicles 26:26 f, 2 Chronicles 29:3 ff.

γ. The Dedication of the Temple: 2 Chronicles 5:2 to 2 Chronicles 7:10

1. Removal of the Ark from Zion to the Temple: 2 Chronicles 5:2-14

2Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chiefs of the fathers of the sons of Israel, to Jerusalem, to bring up the ark 3 of the covenant of the Lord from the city of David, which is Zion. And all the men of Israel assembled unto the king in the feast, which was the seventh month 4 And all the elders of Israel came j and the Levites bore the ark 5 And they brought up the ark and the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels 6 that were in the tent; the priests, the Levites,¹³ brought them up. And king Song of Solomon, and all the assembly of Israel that assembled with him before the ark, sacrificed sheep and oxen, that could not be told or numbered for multitude 7 And the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord into its place, into the oracle of the house, the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim 8 For the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the 9 cherubim covered the ark and its staves above. And they made the staves so long that the ends of the staves were seen from the ark,¹⁴ before the oracle, but 10 they were not seen without: and they were there unto this day. Nothing was in the ark save the two tables, which Moses put into it at Horeb, where the Lord made [a covenant] with the sons of Israel, when they came out of Egypt 11 And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy place—for all the priests 12 that were present had sanctified themselves, without observing the courses. And the Levites, the singers all of them, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, and their sons and brethren, arrayed in byssus, with cymbals, and psalteries, and harps, stood at the east of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests 13 sounding with trumpets.¹⁵ And the trumpeters and singers were as one [man] to sound aloud with one voice to praise and thank the Lord, and when they lifted up the voice with trumpets, and cymbals, and instruments of Song of Solomon, and with praising the Lord: For He is good; for His mercy endureth for ever: then the 14 house was filled with the cloud of the house of the Lord. And the priests could not stand to minister before the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.

Footnotes