2 Chronicles 4

Solomon’s temple equipment

1 He also made a bronze altar thirty feet long, thirty feet wide, and fifteen feet high.
2 Then he made a tank of cast metal called the Sea. It was circular in shape, fifteen feet from rim to rim, seven and a half feet high, and forty-five feet in circumference.
3 Under the rim were two rows of oxlike figures completely encircling it, ten every eighteen inches, each cast in its mold.
4 The Sea rested on twelve oxen with their backs toward the center, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east.
5 The Sea was as thick as the width of a hand. Its rim was shaped like a cup or an open lily blossom. It could hold three thousand baths.
6 He also made ten washbasins and put five on the south and five on the north. The items used for the entirely burned offerings were rinsed in these. The priests washed in the Sea.
7 He made ten gold lampstands as prescribed and put them in the sanctuary, five on the south and five on the north.
8 He also made ten tables and put them in the sanctuary, five on the south and five on the north, as well as a hundred gold bowls.
9 He made the courtyard of the priests and the great courtyard, with doors covered with bronze for the courtyard.
10 He placed the Sea at the southeast corner.
11 Huram made the pots, the shovels, and the bowls. So Huram finished all his work on God's temple for King Solomon:
12 two columns; two circular capitals on top of the columns; two networks adorning the two circular capitals on top of the columns;
13 four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, with two rows of pomegranates for each network that adorned the two circular capitals on top of the columns;
14 ten stands with ten basins on them;
15 one Sea; twelve oxen beneath the Sea;
16 and the pots, the shovels, and the meat forks. All the things that Huram-abi made for King Solomon for the LORD's temple were made of polished bronze.
17 The king cast them in clay molds in the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Zarethan.
18 Due to the very large number of objects, Solomon didn't even try to weigh the bronze.
19 Solomon also made all the equipment for God's temple: the gold altar; the tables for the bread of the presence;
20 the lampstands with their lamps, all of pure gold, to burn before the inner sanctuary as prescribed;
21 the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs of pure gold;
22 and the wick trimmers, bowls, ladles, and censers of pure gold. As for the temple entrance, the inner doors to the most holy place as well as the doors to the main hall were made of gold.

2 Chronicles 4 Commentary

Chapter 4

The furniture of the temple.

- Here is a further account of the furniture of God's house. Both without doors and within, there was that which typified the grace of the gospel, and shadowed out good things to come, of which the substance is Christ. There was the brazen altar. The making of this was not mentioned in the book of Kings. On this all the sacrifices were offered, and it sanctified the gift. The people who worshipped in the courts might see the sacrifices burned. They might thus be led to consider the great Sacrifice, to be offered in the fulness of time, to take away sin, and put an end to death, which the blood of bulls and goats could not possibly do. And, with the smoke of the sacrifices, their hearts might ascend to heaven, in holy desires towards God and his favour. In all our devotions we must keep the eye of faith fixed upon Christ. The furniture of the temple, compared with that of the tabernacle, showed that God's church would be enlarged, and his worshippers multiplied. Blessed be God, there is enough in Christ for all.

Footnotes 5

  • [a]. Solomon or Huram; this ambiguity with the pronoun continues in the following verses, but compare 2 Chron 3:1, 3; 4:11. If Huram is meant, this is a worker whose name is spelled Hiram in 1 Kgs 7:13-14.
  • [b]. One bath is approximately twenty quarts or five gallons.
  • [c]. LXX and 1 Kgs 7:43; MT he made
  • [d]. 1 Kgs 7:43; MT he made
  • [e]. With 1 Kgs 7:46; Heb Zeredah

2 Chronicles 4 Commentaries

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