2 Chronicles 3

Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. This was the place David had made ready, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, the flat open ground where Ornan beat out his grain.

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

Note"The house of the LORD" means the temple; in the ancient world a temple was routinely spoken of as the god's house, and "house" is used for the building all through this chapter. Mount Moriah is named nowhere else in the Bible except Genesis 22, where Abraham is sent to "the land of Moriah"; the Chronicler is identifying the temple hill with that place. The Jebusites were the people living in Jerusalem before David captured the city, so Ornan was one of the original inhabitants; the earlier account of David buying his threshing floor after a plague is in 1 Chronicles 21.

2He began to build on the second day of the second month, in the fourth year that he was king.

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

NoteThe Hebrew year began in spring, so the second month falls roughly in April–May. Dating events by the year of a king's reign was the standard way of fixing a date; there was no continuous era-numbering like AD.

3These are the measurements Solomon followed for building the house of God. Using the older standard, the length was sixty cubits and the width was twenty cubits.

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

NoteA cubit was the distance from elbow to fingertips, about eighteen inches (45 cm), so the building was roughly ninety feet by thirty. "The older standard" points to the fact that more than one cubit was in use (a longer, older one of about twenty-one inches and a shorter later one) and the writer is telling us which he means.

4The porch across the front of the house was as long as the house was wide, twenty cubits, and its height was a hundred and twenty. He covered the inside of it with pure gold.

4And 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.

NoteThe porch is a covered entrance portico across the front of the building. The height of "a hundred and twenty" cubits (about 180 feet) is out of all proportion to a building thirty feet wide, and some ancient copies and versions read twenty cubits instead; the Hebrew text as it stands says 120, and the discrepancy has never been resolved.

5He lined the main room with fir wood, covered that wood with fine gold, and decorated it with palm trees and chains.

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

Note"The main room" is the large outer hall, between the porch and the innermost room. The wood named here is a conifer, the exact species behind the Hebrew word is uncertain, and translators render it fir, cypress or juniper. "Chains" means chainwork: linked metal ornament used as a decorative border.

6He decorated the house with precious stones to make it beautiful. The gold he used was gold from Parvaim.

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

NoteParvaim is otherwise unknown. It is presumably a place famous for the quality of its gold, as Ophir was, but no one has identified it.

7He covered the house, its beams, its doorposts, its walls, and its doors with gold, and he carved cherubim on the walls. Cherubim are winged heavenly beings.

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

NoteCherubim (singular cherub) are not the plump babies of later art. In the ancient Near East they were composite winged creatures, part animal and part human, carved or embroidered as guardians flanking thrones, doorways and sacred places, which is how they function here.

8Then he made the Most Holy Place. Its length matched the width of the house, twenty cubits, and its width was twenty cubits. He covered it with six hundred talents of fine gold.

8And 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.

NoteThe Most Holy Place is the innermost room of the temple, a windowless cube shut off from the main hall, entered by no one but the high priest. A talent was a weight of about seventy-five pounds (34 kg), so six hundred talents is on the order of twenty tons of gold, a figure meant to convey overwhelming lavishness.

9The gold nails weighed fifty shekels. He also covered the upper rooms with gold.

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

NoteA shekel weighed about two-fifths of an ounce (11.5 g), so fifty shekels is roughly a pound and a quarter. In this period a shekel was a unit of weight, not a stamped coin.

10In the Most Holy Place he made two cherubim as carved figures, and he covered them with gold.

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

11The wings of the cherubim measured twenty cubits across in all. One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long and reached the wall of the house, and its other wing was five cubits long and reached the wing of the second cherub.

11And 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.

12One wing of the second cherub was five cubits long and reached the other wall of the house, and its other wing was five cubits long and touched the wing of the first cherub.

12And 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.

13So the wings of these cherubim stretched out twenty cubits in all. The cherubim stood on their feet, and their faces looked inward, toward the main room.

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

14He made the curtain out of blue, purple, and crimson yarn and fine linen, with cherubim worked into it.

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

NoteThis is the curtain that screened off the Most Holy Place. The three dyes named were the costly ones: blue and purple came from a secretion of murex sea snails, and crimson from the crushed bodies of an insect that lives on oak trees. Cloth of these colors signaled royalty and great expense.

15In front of the house he also made two pillars, thirty-five cubits high, and the decorated top on each pillar was five cubits.

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

NoteThese were free-standing ornamental pillars, not roof supports. The figure of thirty-five cubits (about fifty feet) conflicts with 1 Kings 7:15 and 2 Kings 25:17, which give each pillar as eighteen cubits; thirty-five may be the two pillars reckoned together, or a copying error. The "decorated top" is the capital, the carved block crowning a column.

16He made chains like those in the inner room and put them on the tops of the pillars. He made a hundred pomegranates and fastened them to the chains.

16And 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.

Note"As in the oracle" is the King James rendering of an obscure Hebrew phrase; "oracle" is that version's word for the inner sanctuary, but the Hebrew here may instead mean chains worn as a necklace, and translators differ. Pomegranates were a standard decorative motif in Israelite and Phoenician craftwork, valued for the shape of the fruit.

17He set the pillars up in front of the temple, one on the right side and one on the left. He named the one on the right Jachin and the one on the left Boaz.

17And 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, and the name of that on the left Boaz.

NoteSomeone standing in front of the temple faced east, so the right-hand pillar stood to the south and the left-hand one to the north. The names are Hebrew words, not simply labels: Jachin means roughly "he establishes" or "he will set firm," and Boaz is usually taken to mean "in him is strength" or "by strength." The text does not explain them.