2 Chronicles 3:2

2 He began building on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.

2 Chronicles 3:2 in Other Translations

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

2 He began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign.

2 The construction began in midspring, during the fourth year of Solomon’s reign.

2 He broke ground on the second day in the second month of the fourth year of his rule.

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

2 Chronicles 3:2 Meaning and Commentary

2 Chronicles 3:23

Neither shall thou lie with any beast, to defile thyself
therewith
A female one, as Aben Ezra notes, as a mare, cow, or ewe, or any other beast, small or great, as Ben Gersom, or whether tame or wild, as Maimonides ^F2; and even fowls are comprehended, as the same writers observe: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto:
that is, stand before a beast, and by a lascivious and obscene behaviour solicit the beast to a congress with her, and then lie down after the manner of four-footed beasts, as the word signifies, that it may have carnal copulation with her: for a man to lie with a beast is most shocking and detestable, but for a woman to solicit such an unnatural mixture is most horrible and astonishing: perhaps reference may be had to a most shocking practice among the Egyptians, from among whom the Israelites were lately come, and whose doings they were not to imitate, ( Leviticus 18:3 ) ; and which may account for this law, as Bishop Patrick observes: at Mendes, in Egypt, a goat was worshipped, as has been remarked ( Leviticus 18:7 ) ; and where the women used to lie with such creatures, as Strabo ^F3 and Aelianus ^F4 from Pindar have related; yea, Herodotus ^F5 reports, of his own knowledge, that a goat had carnal copulation with a woman openly, in the view of all, in his time; and though that creature is a most lascivious and lustful one, yet, as Bochart ^F6 from Plutarch has observed, when it is provoked by many and beautiful women, is not inclined and ready to come into their embraces, but shows some abhorrence of it: nature in brutes, as that learned man observes, is often more prevalent in them than in mankind: it [is] confusion;
a mixing of the seed of man and beast together, a blending of different kinds of creatures, a perverting the order of nature, and introducing the utmost confusion of beings, from whence monsters in nature may arise.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 Hilchot Issure Biah, c. 1. sect. 16.
F3 Geograph. l. 17. p. 551.
F4 De Animal. l. 7. c. 19.
F5 Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 46.
F6 Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 2. c. 53. col. 642.

2 Chronicles 3:2 In-Context

1 Then Solomon began to build the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David.

2 He began building on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.

3 The foundation Solomon laid for building the temple of God was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide (using the cubit of the old standard).

4 The portico at the front of the temple was twenty cubits long across the width of the building and twenty cubits high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold.

5 He paneled the main hall with juniper and covered it with fine gold and decorated it with palm tree and chain designs.

Cross References

• 1. Ezra 5:11