And the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. — Literally, And a weight for nails for shekels — fifty in gold. The LXX. and Vulg. take this to mean that the weight of each nail was fifty shekels; and this is probably right, for fifty shekels as a total would be a trifling sum to record along with six hundred talents. The nails were used to fasten the golden plates to the wooden wainscoting of the edifice.
Whatever may be thought of the apparently incredible quantities of gold and silver stated to have been amassed by David for the Temple (1 Chronicles 22:14; 1 Chronicles 29:4; 1 Chronicles 29:7), it is clear that no inconsiderable amount of the former metal would be required for the plating of the chambers as described in this chapter. And it is well known, from their own monuments, that the Babylonian sovereigns of a later age were in the habit of thus adorning the houses of their gods. Nebuchadnezzar, for instance, who restored the great temple of Borsippa, says: “E-zida, the strong house, in the midst thereof I caused to make, with silver, gold, alabaster, bronze... cedar I caused to adorn (or, completed) its sibir. The cedar of the roof (?) of the shrines of Nebo with gold I caused to clothe.” In another inscription we read: “The shrine of Nebo, which is amid E-Sagili, its threshold, its bolt, and its babnaku, with gold I caused to clothe.” And again: “The cedar roof of the oracle I caused to clothe with bright silver.” The Assyrian Esarhaddon, a century earlier, boasts that he built ten castles in Assyria and Accad, and “made them shine like day with silver and gold.”
And he overlaid. — And the upper chambers he covered with gold. The chambers over the Holy of holies are mentioned in 1 Chronicles 28:11. The two statements of this verse are peculiar to the chronicle. The Syriac and Arabic omit the verse.