2 Chronicles 4

The Furnishings of Solomon’s Temple

1 And he made an altar of bronze, twenty cubits [was] its length, and twenty cubits [was] its width, and ten cubits [was] its height.
2 Then he made the sea of molten metal, from brim to brim [it was] ten cubits, completely round. And [it was] five cubits in height, and {its circumference measured} thirty cubits.
3 Under it [were] figures of oxen all around it, ten cubits [high], encircling the sea all around. The oxen [were] in two rows {cast as one piece with it}.
4 [It was] standing upon twelve oxen, three facing north, and three facing west, and three facing south, and three facing east. The sea [was set] upon them from above, and all their hindquarters [faced] {inward}.
5 And its thickness [was] a handbreadth, and its brim [was] like the working of the lip of a cup, the blossom of a lily. And it held three thousand baths.
6 And he made ten basins. And he set five on the south and five on the north in which to wash; they washed off the work of the burnt offering in them, but the sea [was] for the priests to wash therein.
7 And he made ten golden lampstands according to their custom, and he set [them] in the temple, five on the south and five on the north.
8 And he made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the south and five on the north. And he made a hundred drinking bowls of gold.
9 And he made the courtyard of the priests and the great outer courtyard and the doors for the outer court. And he overlaid their doors with bronze.
10 And he set the sea at the southeast [corner of the temple].
11 And Huram made the pots, the shovels, and the drinking bowls. So Hiram finished making the work that he made on the house of God for King Solomon:
12 the two columns, the bowls, and the two capitals on top of the columns, and the two latticeworks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that [were] on top of the columns,
13 and the four hundred pomegranates for the two latticeworks, two rows of pomegranates for the latticework, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that [were] before the columns.
14 And he made the water carts, and he made the basins on the water carts,
15 and the one sea and the twelve oxen underneath it.
16 And Huram-abi made for King Solomon the pots, the shovels, the three-pronged meat forks, and all the utensils of polished bronze for the house of Yahweh.
17 The king cast them in the plain of the Jordan, in the clay soil between Succoth and Zeredah.
18 Solomon made all these utensils in great abundance, for the weight of the bronze could not be determined.
19 So Solomon made all the objects that [were in] the house of God: the altar of gold; the tables upon which [was] the bread of the presence;
20 the lampstands, and the lamps for burning according to the custom before the inner sanctuary, of solid gold;
21 and the blossoms, the lamps, and the tongs that [were] of solid gold;
22 and the snuffers, the drinking bowls, the dishes, and the firepans, of solid gold; and the entrance to the house, the inner doors to {the most holy place}, and the doors to the house of the temple [were] 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]. Literally "and it measured a line all around it"
  • [b]. Literally "molten with its casting"
  • [c]. Literally "into the house"
  • [d]. This is the spelling in Hebrew, though many translations have "Hiram"
  • [e]. The spelling ("Hiram") is different here than in the previous occurrences

2 Chronicles 4 Commentaries

Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.