2 Chronicles 4: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter lists the bronze and gold furnishings Solomon had made for the temple in Jerusalem. It describes the large bronze altar, the huge round basin called the Sea that rested on twelve bronze oxen, ten washing basins, ten gold lampstands, ten tables, and the courtyards. It then names the craftsman Huram, tells where the bronze pieces were cast, and lists the gold items for the inside of the building, ending with the gold doors.

Claim by Claim

1. 4:1
   • He made an altar of bronze.
   • The altar was twenty cubits long.
   • The altar was twenty cubits wide.
   • The altar was ten cubits high.
2. 4:2
   • He made the sea of cast metal.
   • The sea measured ten cubits from one rim to the other.
   • The sea was round in shape.
   • The sea was five cubits high.
   • A line of thirty cubits went around the sea.
3. 4:3
   • Figures of oxen were under the sea, surrounding it all around.
   • There were ten oxen figures per cubit, encircling the sea all around.
   • The oxen figures were in two rows.
   • The oxen figures were cast together with the sea in one casting.
4. 4:4
   • The sea stood on twelve oxen.
   • Three of the oxen faced north.
   • Three of the oxen faced west.
   • Three of the oxen faced south.
   • Three of the oxen faced east.
   • The sea rested on top of the oxen.
   • All the hindquarters of the oxen were turned inward.
5. 4:5
   • The sea was a handbreadth thick.
   • The rim of the sea was made like the rim of a cup.
   • The rim of the sea was shaped like a lily blossom.
   • The sea held three thousand baths.
6. 4:6
   • He made ten basins.
   • He put five of the basins on the right side.
   • He put five of the basins on the left side.
   • The basins were for washing.
   • What was prepared for the burnt offering was rinsed in the basins.
   • The sea was for the priests to wash in.
7. 4:7
   • He made ten lampstands of gold.
   • The lampstands were made according to their prescribed design.
   • He set the lampstands in the temple hall.
   • Five lampstands were on the right side.
   • Five lampstands were on the left side.
8. 4:8
   • He made ten tables.
   • He placed the tables in the temple hall.
   • Five tables were on the right side.
   • Five tables were on the left side.
   • He made a hundred bowls of gold.
9. 4:9
   • He made the court of the priests.
   • He made the great court.
   • He made doors for the great court.
   • He overlaid the doors with bronze.
10. 4:10
    • He set the sea on the right side, toward the east, opposite the south.
11. 4:11
    • Huram made the pots.
    • Huram made the shovels.
    • Huram made the bowls.
    • Huram finished the work he did for King Solomon in the house of God.
12. 4:12
    • The work included two pillars.
    • The work included the bowl-shaped tops.
    • The work included the two capitals on top of the pillars.
    • The work included two networks.
    • The two networks were to cover the two bowls of the capitals on top of the pillars.
13. 4:13
    • The work included four hundred pomegranates for the two networks.
    • There were two rows of pomegranates for each network.
    • The networks were to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars.
14. 4:14
    • He made the stands.
    • He made the basins on the stands.
15. 4:15
    • There was one sea.
    • There were twelve oxen under the sea.
16. 4:16
    • Huram his father made the pots.
    • Huram his father made the shovels.
    • Huram his father made the meat forks.
    • Huram his father made all the vessels belonging to them.
    • He made them for King Solomon for the house of the LORD.
    • These objects were of polished bronze.
    • The designation of the craftsman is ambiguous between the title 'Huram his father' and the name Huram-abi.
17. 4:17
    • The king cast them in the plain of the Jordan.
    • The king cast them in the thick clay ground.
    • The casting place was between Succoth and Zeredathah.
18. 4:18
    • Solomon made all these vessels in very great abundance.
    • The weight of the bronze was not determined.
19. 4:19
    • Solomon made all the vessels that were for the house of God.
    • Solomon made the golden altar.
    • Solomon made the tables.
    • The bread of the Presence was on the tables.
20. 4:20
    • Solomon made the lampstands with their lamps.
    • The lamps were to burn before the inner sanctuary according to the prescribed manner.
    • The lampstands were of pure gold.
21. 4:21
    • The flowers were of gold.
    • The lamps were of gold.
    • The tongs were of gold.
    • The gold was the most perfect gold.
22. 4:22
    • The snuffers were of pure gold.
    • The bowls were of pure gold.
    • The ladles were of pure gold.
    • The censers were of pure gold.
    • The inner doors of the house, leading to the most holy place, were of gold.
    • The doors of the house leading to the temple hall were of gold.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

4:1

A cubit was roughly eighteen inches, about the length of a forearm from elbow to fingertip, so this altar was some thirty feet square and fifteen feet high. This was the altar in the open courtyard where animals were burned as offerings, not a table, but a large raised structure with a fire on top.

4:2

"The Sea" was the name given to this enormous bronze water tank; it is called that simply because of its size. "Cast metal" means the bronze was melted and poured into a mold rather than hammered into shape. The figures given, ten cubits across and thirty around, are round numbers; a circle ten across is closer to thirty-one and a half around.

4:3

"Compass" in the King James means to encircle or go around, not the instrument. Ten oxen figures to a cubit means small decorative shapes, roughly ten to every eighteen inches, running in a band around the outside.

4:5

A handbreadth is the width of four fingers, about three inches. A bath was a liquid measure of roughly five to six gallons (around twenty-two liters), so three thousand baths is somewhere near seventeen thousand gallons. The parallel account in 1 Kings 7:26 gives the capacity as two thousand baths.

4:6

A burnt offering was an animal killed and then burned whole on the altar; the parts had to be rinsed before being placed on the fire. The priests' own washing was a matter of ritual cleanness required before handling holy things, not ordinary hygiene. "Right" and "left" here are the Hebrew wording; since the temple faced east, they correspond to south and north.

4:7

A lampstand was a branched stand holding oil lamps, small vessels of olive oil with a wick, rather than anything with candles. "The plan given for them" refers to the pattern or specification laid down for their design.

4:8

"Basons" is just the older spelling of basins. These were shallow bowls used to catch the blood of sacrificed animals and throw it against the altar, a required part of the ritual.

4:9

There were two enclosures: an inner courtyard that only priests could enter, holding the altar and the Sea, and a larger outer court where the people gathered.

4:10

The King James says "the right side," which reads as vague until you know that Hebrew descriptions of place assume you are facing east. Facing that way, your right hand points south, so "right" and "south" are the same direction here.

4:11

This Huram is the master craftsman Solomon brought from Tyre, not King Hiram of Tyre who supplied the timber. The sprinkling bowls were used for catching and throwing the blood of sacrificed animals against the altar.

4:12

A capital is the decorated block or crown at the top of a column. These two pillars stood free at the entrance of the temple and had names, Jachin and Boaz (2 Chronicles 3:17). The "networks" were latticework or chain-work of bronze draped over the bowl-shaped capitals.

4:13

Pomegranates, a round red fruit full of seeds, were a standard decorative motif in the region, used here as hanging ornaments cast in bronze.

4:14

These stands were wheeled bronze carts, described in more detail in 1 Kings 7:27–37, made to move the washing basins around the courtyard.

4:16

"Huram-abi" combines his name with a word meaning "my father," used here as a title of respect for a master craftsman rather than as a family relationship. Meat forks were long hooks for lifting cuts of sacrificial meat out of the boiling pots.

4:17

Bronze was cast by pouring molten metal into molds; the heavy clay soil of the Jordan valley held the shape well and could stand the heat. Succoth and Zeredathah were towns in that valley, north of the Dead Sea.

4:19

This gold altar is the small incense altar that stood inside the building, distinct from the large bronze altar for animal offerings outside. The bread set out before God was twelve loaves laid out in the holy place and replaced each week; older translations call it "shewbread," meaning bread of the presence.

4:20

The inner room is the innermost chamber of the temple, the Most Holy Place. The King James word for it, "oracle," means the inner sanctuary itself, not a prophecy or a person who gives one.

4:21

"Perfect gold" in the King James means refined gold with the impurities smelted out, not gold that was flawlessly shaped.

4:22

Wick trimmers were small tongs or snuffers for cutting back a burnt lamp wick. The ladles (King James "spoons") were dishes for handling incense, and the firepans were shallow metal pans for carrying burning coals to make the incense smoke.