Divrey Hayamim Bais 3:2

2 And he began to build in the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his [Sh’lomo’s 970-930 B.C.E.] reign.

Divrey Hayamim Bais 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.

Divrey Hayamim Bais 3:2 In-Context

1 Then Sh’lomo began to build the Bais Hashem at Yerushalayim in Mt Moriyah, where Hashem appeared unto Dovid Avihu, in the makom (place) which Dovid had prepared in the goren (threshing floor) of Ornan the Yevusi.

2 And he began to build in the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his [Sh’lomo’s 970-930 B.C.E.] reign.

3 Now these are the foundations which Sh’lomo laid for the building of the Bais HaElohim. The length by cubits using the middah harishonah (old standard) was threescore cubits, and the width twenty cubits.

4 And the Ulam that was in the front of the Bais (porch or vestibule in front of the Holy Place), the length of it was according to the width of the Bais, twenty cubits, and the height was twenty, and he overlaid it within with zahav tahor.

5 And the Bais HaGadol he paneled with cypress, which he overlaid with zahav tov, and carved thereon timorim (palm trees) and sharsherot (chainwork).