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The Histories · Old Testament

2 Chronicles 3

2 Chronicles 3: building the house on mount Moriah

General context

Solomon begins to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared to David, in the place David prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite, on the second day of the second month of his fourth year. The measures follow: sixty cubits long and twenty broad; a porch twenty cubits across and a hundred and twenty high, overlaid inside with pure gold. The greater house is cieled with fir, overlaid with fine gold, set with palm trees and chains, garnished with precious stones; the gold is gold of Parvaim. Beams, posts, walls and doors are overlaid with gold, and cherubims are graved on the walls. The most holy house is twenty cubits by twenty, overlaid with six hundred talents of fine gold; the nails weigh fifty shekels of gold, and the upper chambers are overlaid too. Inside it stand two cherubims of image work overlaid with gold, their wings together spanning twenty cubits, each wing five cubits, one touching the wall and the other the wing of the second cherub; they stand on their feet with their faces inward. Solomon makes the vail of blue, purple, crimson and fine linen with cherubims wrought on it. Before the house he sets two pillars thirty five cubits high with chapiters of five cubits, chains on their heads and a hundred pomegranates on the chains, and names the right pillar Jachin and the left Boaz.

Cited passages: 2 Chronicles 3:1, 2 Chronicles 3:2, 2 Chronicles 3:3, 2 Chronicles 3:4, 2 Chronicles 3:5, 2 Chronicles 3:6, 2 Chronicles 3:7, 2 Chronicles 3:8, 2 Chronicles 3:9, 2 Chronicles 3:10, 2 Chronicles 3:11, 2 Chronicles 3:13, 2 Chronicles 3:14, 2 Chronicles 3:15, 2 Chronicles 3:16, 2 Chronicles 3:17

2 Chronicles 3 (KJV)

1Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

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

3Now these are the things wherein Solomon was instructed for the building of the house of God. The length by cubits after the first measure was threescore cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits.

4And the porch that was in the front of the house, the length of it was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and the height was an hundred and twenty: and he overlaid it within with pure gold.

5And the greater house he cieled with fir tree, which he overlaid with fine gold, and set thereon palm trees and chains.

6And he garnished the house with precious stones for beauty: and the gold was gold of Parvaim.

7He overlaid also the house, the beams, the posts, and the walls thereof, and the doors thereof, with gold; and graved cherubims on the walls.

8And he made the most holy house, the length whereof was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits: and he overlaid it with fine gold, amounting to six hundred talents.

9And the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. And he overlaid the upper chambers with gold.

10And in the most holy house he made two cherubims of image work, and overlaid them with gold.

11And the wings of the cherubims were twenty cubits long: one wing of the one cherub was five cubits, reaching to the wall of the house: and the other wing was likewise five cubits, reaching to the wing of the other cherub.

12And one wing of the other cherub was five cubits, reaching to the wall of the house: and the other wing was five cubits also, joining to the wing of the other cherub.

13The wings of these cherubims spread themselves forth twenty cubits: and they stood on their feet, and their faces were inward.

14And he made the vail of blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine linen, and wrought cherubims thereon.

15Also he made before the house two pillars of thirty and five cubits high, and the chapiter that was on the top of each of them was five cubits.

16And he made chains, as in the oracle, and put them on the heads of the pillars; and made an hundred pomegranates, and put them on the chains.

17And he reared up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand, and the other on the left; and called the name of that on the right hand Jachin, and the name of that on the left Boaz.

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Historical context

The site is fixed by three references the chapter does not retell: mount Moriah, the place where the Lord appeared to David his father, and the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite that David had prepared. The only date is the second day of the second month in Solomon's fourth year. The measures are said to be after the first measure, a phrase the chapter leaves unexplained, and the narrator says Solomon was instructed in these things without naming who instructed him. The porch is given a height of a hundred and twenty cubits, far above the other figures, and the text offers no comment on it. Parvaim is named as the source of the gold but not located. The pillars are named Jachin and Boaz without any meaning being given. The pomegranates are counted as a hundred on the chains here, while the next chapter counts four hundred on the two wreaths; both figures stand in the text with different descriptions and are not reconciled by the narrator. No one but Solomon acts in the chapter's present, and no speech is recorded.

Cited passages: 2 Chronicles 3:1, 2 Chronicles 3:2, 2 Chronicles 3:3, 2 Chronicles 3:4, 2 Chronicles 3:6, 2 Chronicles 3:17, 2 Chronicles 3:16, 2 Chronicles 4:13

Literary context

The chapter moves inward and then back out: site and date, the outer dimensions, the porch, the greater house, the most holy house and its cherubims, the vail, and finally the two pillars standing before the house. The phrase overlaid with gold recurs through the description of porch, greater house, walls, most holy house, upper chambers and cherubims, so that gold, more than fir or precious stone, is the material the narrator keeps naming. The cherubim passage is written in mirrored halves, each cherub having one wing reaching to the wall and one reaching to the other cherub, and the total of twenty cubits is stated twice. The blue, purple, crimson and fine linen of the vail repeat the materials Solomon asked Huram's craftsman to work in. There is no speech and no reaction; the one act of naming comes in the last verse, when the pillars receive their names amid the measurements.

Cited passages: 2 Chronicles 3:1, 2 Chronicles 3:4, 2 Chronicles 3:5, 2 Chronicles 3:7, 2 Chronicles 3:10, 2 Chronicles 3:11, 2 Chronicles 3:12, 2 Chronicles 3:13, 2 Chronicles 3:14, 2 Chronicles 2:7, 2 Chronicles 3:17

Key moments

  1. The site on mount Moriah (2 Chronicles 3:1). Solomon begins the house where the Lord appeared to David, in Ornan's threshingfloor.
  2. Building begins (2 Chronicles 3:2). The work starts on the second day of the second month in Solomon's fourth year.
  3. The porch overlaid with gold (2 Chronicles 3:4). The porch is twenty cubits across and a hundred and twenty high, overlaid inside with pure gold.
  4. The most holy house (2 Chronicles 3:8). The inner room is twenty cubits square and overlaid with six hundred talents of fine gold.
  5. Cherubims with faces inward (2 Chronicles 3:13). Two cherubims spread their wings twenty cubits and stand on their feet facing inward.
  6. The vail (2 Chronicles 3:14). Solomon makes the vail of blue, purple, crimson and fine linen with cherubims on it.
  7. Jachin and Boaz (2 Chronicles 3:17). Solomon sets up the two pillars before the temple and names them.

For reflection

The chapter gives the weight of the nails and the span of each cherub's wing but records no word spoken and no one's response to the work. What does a reader gain, or miss, from a description that measures everything and reports no feeling?

People in this chapter

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