2 Chronicles 3:1-17 - Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

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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.

Related Commentaries of 2 Chronicles 3:1

2 Chronicles 3:1-17

1 Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the LORD appeareda unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

2 And he began to build in the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign.

3 Now these are the things wherein Solomon was instructedb for the building of the house of God. The length by cubits after the first measure was threescore cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits.

4 And the porch that was in the front of the house, the length of it was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and the height was an hundred and twenty: and he overlaid it within with pure gold.

5 And the greater house he cieled with fir tree, which he overlaid with fine gold, and set thereon palm trees and chains.

6 And he garnishedc the house with precious stones for beauty: and the gold was gold of Parvaim.

7 He overlaid also the house, the beams, the posts, and the walls thereof, and the doors thereof, with gold; and graved cherubims on the walls.

8 And he made the most holy house, the length whereof was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits: and he overlaid it with fine gold, amounting to six hundred talents.

9 And the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. And he overlaid the upper chambers with gold.

10 And in the most holy house he made two cherubims of imaged work, and overlaid them with gold.

11 And the wings of the cherubims were twenty cubits long: one wing of the one cherub was five cubits, reaching to the wall of the house: and the other wing was likewise five cubits, reaching to the wing of the other cherub.

12 And one wing of the other cherub was five cubits, reaching to the wall of the house: and the other wing was five cubits also, joining to the wing of the other cherub.

13 The wings of these cherubims spread themselves forth twenty cubits: and they stood on their feet, and their faces were inward.e

14 And he made the vail of blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine linen, and wroughtf cherubims thereon.

15 Also he made before the house two pillars of thirty and five cubits high,g and the chapiter that was on the top of each of them was five cubits.

16 And he made chains, as in the oracle, and put them on the heads of the pillars; and made an hundred pomegranates, and put them on the chains.

17 And he reared up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand, and the other on the left; and called the name of that on the right hand Jachin,h and the name of that on the left Boaz.