2 Chronicles 3:2

2 Forsooth he began to build in the second day of the (second) month, in the fourth year of his realm. (And he began to build on the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign, or of his kingdom.)

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 And Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, in the hill of Moriah, that was showed to David, his father, in the place that David had made ready in the cornfloor of Ornan (the) Jebusite. (And so Solomon began to build the House of the Lord in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, on the place that David had prepared at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.)

2 Forsooth he began to build in the second day of the (second) month, in the fourth year of his realm. (And he began to build on the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign, or of his kingdom.)

3 And these were the foundaments, which Solomon setted, that he should build the house of God; sixty cubits of length in the first measure, and twenty cubits of breadth. (And these were the foundations, which Solomon laid, that he would build for the House of God; sixty cubits in length, at the old measure, and twenty cubits in breadth.)

4 And he builded a porch before the front, that was stretched forth along beside, or at the measure of, the breadth of the house, of twenty cubits, and the highness was of an hundred and twenty cubits; and he overgilded it within with cleanest gold. (And he built a vestibule, or an entrance room, at the front, that was stretched forth along beside, or at the measure of, the breadth of the House, of twenty cubits, and its highness was a hundred and twenty cubits; and he overgilded it within with the purest gold.)

5 Also he covered the greater house with boards of box, and he fastened plates of gold of the best colour all about; and he graved therein palm trees, and as small chains embracing themselves together. (And he covered the large inner chamber with box boards, and he fastened gold plates of the best colour, that is, most pure, all about; and he carved on them palm trees, and small chains linked together.)