Chapter Four
1–8. The arrangement of the furnishings for worship in Solomon’s temple: the bronze altar, the bronze sea, 10 basins, 10 lampstands, 10 tables, and 100 bowls. 9–22. The priests’ court and the great court of the temple; remarks on various vessels of the temple.
2 Chronicles 4:1. He made an altar of bronze, 20 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 10 cubits high. While 3 Kings does not mention the altar for burnt offering among the vessels made by the craftsman Hiram, 2 Chronicles not only mentions it but sets it at the head of the external furnishings of the temple. In its dimensions — 20 cubits in length and width and 10 in height — Solomon’s altar was almost four times larger than that of Moses (5×5×3 cubits, (Exod 27:1)). Commentary Bible I, 446), and while the latter was made of wood, Solomon’s altar is expressly called bronze, that is, had at least bronze walls, while its interior, according to the requirements of the law of Moses, was filled with uncut stones, and the upper platform for burning fire was covered with earth (Prof. A. A. Olesnitsky, The Old Testament Temple, p. 321–322; Compare Commentary Bible, vol. I, p. 435).
2 Chronicles 4:2. He made the molten sea: it was round, 10 cubits from rim to rim, and 5 cubits high. A line of 30 cubits would encircle it completely; 2 Chronicles 4:3. under it were panels of oxen all around, each of 10 cubits, surrounding the sea; the oxen were cast as part of the sea. 2 Chronicles 4:4. It stood on 12 oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east; the sea rested on them. Their hindquarters were turned inward. 2 Chronicles 4:5. Its thickness was a handbreadth; its rim was shaped like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold 3,000 baths. The description of the bronze or molten sea in 2 Chronicles is almost entirely, even word-for-word, identical with the parallel description of this basin in (1 Kgs 7:23-26) (see Commentary Bible II, p. 459–460). Two differences: 1) according to 3 Kings the capacity of the bronze sea was 2,000 baths, according to 2 Chronicles — 3,000 baths; 2) in 3 Kings under the rims of the bronze sea in two rows ran balls shaped like gourds (wild cucumbers), according to 2 Chronicles, these reliefs had the form of oxen. See the place named in Commentary Bible, vol. II; see Prof. Olesnitsky, The Old Testament Temple, p. 329.
2 Chronicles 4:6. He made 10 basins; he put five on the right side and five on the left. In them the burnt offering was rinsed; the sea was for the priests to wash in. The “bronze sea” served for the ablutions of priests before sacred rites; for rinsing the sacrificial parts before they were burned there served 10 vessels — the basins, Hebrew kiyrot, LXX λουτῆρες, Vulgate conchae. The arrangement of these vessels and especially their bases is described with greater detail in (1 Kgs 7:27-39). (Commentary Bible II, 458–460).
2 Chronicles 4:7. He made 10 golden lampstands as prescribed, and set them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. 2 Chronicles 4:8. He made 10 tables and put them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. He also made 100 bowls of gold. Instead of one lampstand in the holy shrine of Moses’ tabernacle (Exod 25:31-37) (Commentary Bible I, 358), in Solomon’s temple, owing to its greater dimensions and the need for greater illumination, the number of lampstands was increased to ten, and all of them were cast by Hiram from gold — “as prescribed” (Hebrew kemishpatim — according to law, that is, according to the just-mentioned (Exod 25:31-37); LXX κατὰ τὸ κρίμα αὐτῶν, Slavonic “according to their measure”; Vulgate secundum speciem, qua jussa erant fieri), consequently, for example, each lampstand had 7 lamps, so that the total number of lamps was 70 (see Prof. A. A. Olesnitsky, The Old Testament Temple, p. 317–318). And the number of tables in the holy temple was 10 (verse 8), although the table for the showbread could be served by only one of them, named in (1 Kgs 7:48), while the others could serve for non-liturgical furnishings and secondary vessels of the temple, for example, the 100 gold bowls mentioned here (Olesnitsky, The Old Testament Temple, p. 319).
2 Chronicles 4:9. He made the court of the priests, and the great court, and doors for the court; and he overlaid the doors with bronze. Unlike Moses’ tabernacle, which had one court, Solomon’s temple had two courts: one was the place for the performance of worship or the court of the priests, and the other was designated for the people who gathered in the temple (compare Ezek 40:17). The supposition of some scholars that Solomon’s temple also had a third, the court of the gentiles (as the temple of Herod, which also had a court of women), lacks foundation.
2 Chronicles 4:11. Hiram made the pots, the shovels, and the bowls [and the censers and all the vessels for sacrifice]. Thus Hiram finished the work that he had done for King Solomon on the house of God: Compare (1 Kgs 7:45).
2 Chronicles 4:12. the two pillars, the two capitals on top of the pillars, and the two networks to cover the two capitals of the pillars; 2 Chronicles 4:13. and the 400 pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two capitals that were on the pillars. Compare (1 Kgs 7:15; 2 Chr 3:16).
2 Chronicles 4:14. He made the stands, and the basins on the stands, 2 Chronicles 4:15. the one sea, and the twelve oxen under it. Compare verses 4–5. In the Hebrew text of verse 14, the verb עשה, asa, “made,” is twice erroneously written instead of the numeral עשד, asár (esár), “ten” in the parallel passage (1 Kgs 7:43); this error is repeated in the Vulgate (fecit, superposuit) and the Russian Synodal (“made... made”), but is properly emended in the LXX (ἐποίησε δέκα) and in the Slavonic text (“made ten”).
2 Chronicles 4:17. The king cast all these in the Jordan valley in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredah. The place where Solomon cast the ornaments of the temple (baavigaadama, in argillosa terra, in clay ground; LXX ἐν τῶ πάκει τῆς γῆς, Slavonic “in the thickness of the earth”) is located between Succoth and Zeredah. Succoth ((Ps 59:8); Onomasticon, 884) — a city in the tribe of Gad (Josh 13:27), in Transjordan. Zeredah (in (1 Kgs 7:46) “Zartan” (compare Judg 7:22; 1 Kgs 4:12), Slavonic: “Saridaf” or in 3 Kings — Siram, LXX Σαρηδαθά, Vulgate Saredatha) — on the western side of the Jordan, not far from Jericho; identified with present-day Karan-Sartaba (Onomasticon, 832). Zeredah, according to (1 Kgs 11:26) (Slavonic: “Sarira”), was the homeland of Jeroboam I.
2 Chronicles 4:18. Solomon made all these vessels in great quantities, so that the weight of the bronze could not be determined. 2 Chronicles 4:19. Solomon made all the vessels for the house of God: the golden altar also, and the tables on which the bread of the Presence was set; 2 Chronicles 4:20. and the lampstands and their lamps of pure gold, to burn before the inner sanctuary as prescribed; 2 Chronicles 4:21. the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs, of purest gold; 2 Chronicles 4:22. and snuffers, basins, dishes, and censers of finest gold, and the doors of the temple, the inner doors to the most holy place and the doors of the main hall of the temple, of gold. Compare (1 Kgs 7:46-50). Commentary Bible, vol. II, 398–399.