2nd Chronicles Chapter 3

From The Open Bible Project

3:1 Then Solomon began to build the house of Yahweh at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where [Yahweh] appeared to David his father, which he made ready in the place that David had appointed, in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

• (a) Which is the mountain where Abraham was thought to have sacrificed his son, (Genesis 22:2).

3:2 He began to build in the second [day] of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign.

3:3 Now these are the foundations which Solomon laid for the building of the house of God. The length by cubits after the first measure was sixty cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits.

• (b) According to the whole length of the temple,

3:4 The porch that was before [the house], its length, according to the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits, and the height one hundred twenty; and he overlaid it within with pure gold.

• (c) It contained as much as the breadth of the temple did, (1 Kings 6:3).
• (d) From the foundation to the top: for in the book of the kings mention is made from the foundation to the first stage.

3:5 The greater house he made a ceiling with fir wood, which he overlaid with fine gold, and ornamented it with palm trees and chains.

3:6 He garnished the house with precious stones for beauty: and the gold was gold of Parvaim.

• (e) Some think it is Peru.

3:7 He overlaid also the house, the beams, the thresholds, and its walls, and its doors, with gold; and engraved cherubim on the walls.

3:8 He made the most holy house: its length, according to the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits, and its breadth twenty cubits; and he overlaid it with fine gold, amounting to six hundred talents.

3:9 The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. He overlaid the upper chambers with gold.

3:10 In the most holy house he made two cherubim of image work; and they overlaid them with gold.

3:11 The wings of the cherubim were twenty cubits long: the 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.

3:12 The 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.

3:13 The wings of these cherubim spread themselves forth twenty cubits: and they stood on their feet, and their faces were toward the house.

3:14 He made the veil of blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine linen, and ornamented it with cherubim.

• (f) Which separated the temple from the most holy place.

3:15 Also he made before the house two pillars of thirty-five cubits high, and the capital that was on the top of each of them was five cubits.

• (g) Every one was eighteen cubits long, but the half cubit could not be seen, for it was hid in the roundness of the chapiter, and therefore he gives to every one only 17 and a half.

3:16 He made chains in the oracle, and put [them] on the tops of the pillars; and he made one hundred pomegranates, and put them on the chains.

• (h) For every pillar a hundred, read (1 Kings 7:20).

3:17 He set 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, and the name of that on the left Boaz.