Bible Commentaries

IV.

(a) The principal vessels of the Temple (2Chronicles 4:1-10).

(b) Huram’s works in brass (2Chronicles 4:11-18).

(c) Catalogue of golden objects, and conclusion 2Ch 4:19 -2Ch_5:1).

(a) THE PRINCIPAL VESSELS OF THE TEMPLE (2Chronicles 4:1-10).

THE BRAZEN ALTAR (2Chronicles 4:1).

(l) An altar of brass.—The brazen altar, or altar of burnt offering, made by Solomon, is not noticed in the parallel chapters of Kings (1 Kings 6, 7) which describe the construction of the temple and its vessels of service, but it is incidentally mentioned in another passage of the older work (1Kings 9:25), and its existence seems to be implied in 1Kings 8:22; 1Kings 8:64. This altar stood in the inner court of the temple. It rose from a terraced platform. (Comp. Ezekiel 43:13-17.) The Hebrew of this verse is such as to suggest that it must have existed in the original document. The style is the same. (Comp. the construction of the numerals with the noun, and note the word qômāh, “height,” now used for the first time by the chronicler.) It would appear, therefore, that the verse has been accidentally omitted from the text of Kings.

THE BRAZEN SEA (2Chronicles 4:2-5).

(Comp. 1Kings 7:23-26.)

(2) Also he made a molten sea.—And he made the sea (i.e., the great basin) molten—i.e., of cast metal.

Of ten cubits . . . thereof.—Ten in the cubit from its lip to its lip, circular all round; and five in the cubit was its height. Word for word as in 1Kings 7:23, save that Kings has one different preposition (‘ad, “unto,” instead of ‘el, “to”). “Lip.” Comp. “lip of the sea,” Genesis 22:17; “lip of the Jordan,” 2Kings 2:13; a metaphor which is also used in Greek.

And a line of thirty cubits . . .—Line, i.e., measuring-line, as in Ezekiel 47:3. The Hebrew is qāw. In Kings we read a rare form, qāwèh. The rest of the clause is the same in both texts.

Did compass.—Would compass, or go round it.

(2) Even if pôthôth be correct in Kings, the chronicler might have understood the word to mean openings, rather than hinges, and so have substituted the common word pethah, which has that sense. The resemblance of the one word to the other would be a further consideration in its favour, according to ancient notions of interpretation.

(3) And under it was the similitude of oxen.—Literally, And a likeness of oxen (figured oxen) under it around surrounding it, ten in the cubit encompassing the sea around: two rows were the oxen, smelted in the smelting of it. In the parallel passage (1Kings 7:24) we read: And wild gourds underneath its lip around surrounding it,” &c., as here; two of rows were the gourds, smelted in the smelting thereof. The Hebrew words for “oxen” and “gourds” might easily be confused by a transcriber, and accordingly it is assumed by most commentators that the text of the chronicler has suffered corruption, and should be restored from that of Kings. But there seems no reason—unless we suppose that each writer has given an exhaustive description, which is clearly not the case—why the ornamental rows which ran round the great basin should not have included both features, small figures of oxen, as well as wild gourds. Reuss objects on the ground of the diminutive size of the axon (“ten in a cubit”); but such work was by no means beyond the resources of ancient art. (Comp. the reliefs on the bronze doors of Shalmaneser 11. (859-825 B.C. ); 1Kings 7:29 actually gives an analogous instance.) The word pĕqā’îm, “wild gourds,” only occurs in one other place of Kings, viz., 1Kings 6:18. (Comp. paqqû‘ôth, 2Kings 4:39.) A copyist of Kings might nave inadvertently repeated the word from the former passage in 1Kings 7:24. In any case it is sheer dogmatism to assert that “the copyists (in the Chronicle) have absurdly changed the gourds into oxen” (Reuss). The Syriac and Arabic omit this verse; but the LXX. and Vulg. have it.

(4) It stood.—The whole verse coincides verbally with 1Kings 7:25, with one slight exception: the common form of the numeral “twelve,” shnêm ‘āsār, is substituted for the rare shnê ‘āsār.

(5) And the thickness . . . a cup.—Identical with 1Kings 7:26.

With flowers of lilies.—See margin. “Lily” here is shôshannāh; in Kings, shôshān. LXX., “graven with lily buds.” Syriac and Arabic, “and it was very beautiful.” Vulg., “like the lip of a cup, or of an open lily.”

And it received and held three thousand baths.—Literally, holding (whole) baths: three thousand would it contain. The bath was the largest of Hebrew liquid measures. Perhaps the true reading is, “holding three thousand baths,” the last verb being a gloss borrowed from Kings. So Vulg. Syriac and Arabic omit the clause. The LXX. had the present reading. 1Kings 7:26 reads, two thousand baths would it contain. Most critics assume this to be correct. Some scribe may have read ’alāphîm, “thousands,” instead of ‘alpayim, “two thousand,” and then have added “three” (shĕlōsheth) under the influence of the last verse. But it is more likely that the numeral “three” having been inadvertently omitted from the text of Kings, the indefinite word “thousands” was made definite by turning it into the dual “two thousand” Either mistake would be possible, because in the unpointed text ‘alāphîm and ’alpayim are written alike. The Syriac has the curious addition, “And he made ten poles, and put five on the right and five on the left, and bare with them the altar of burnt offerings.” Similarly the Arabic version.

THE TEN LAVERS: THEIR USE, AND THAT OF THE SEA

(2Chronicles 4:6). (Comp. 1Kings 7:27-39.)

(6) The chronicler now returns to his abbreviating style, and omits altogether the description of the ten bases, or stands, upon which the lavers were placed, and which are described in full and curious detail in 1Kings 7:27-39. The unusual difficulty of the passage may have determined the omission, but it seems more likely that the sacred writer thought the bases of less importance than the objects described in 2Chronicles 4:7-9, the account of which he has interpolated between the first and second half of 1Kings 7:39.

He made also ten lavers.—And he made ten pans. The word kîyôr is used in 1Samuel 2:14 as a pan for cooking, and in Zechariah 12:6 as a pan holding fire. Its meaning here and in the parallel place is a pan for washing. (Comp. Exodus 30:18; Exodus 30:28.) The LXX. renders λουτῆρας, “baths;” the Syriac, laqnê, “flagons” (lagenae, λάγηνοι).

To wash in them.—This statement, and, indeed, the rest of the verse is peculiar to the chronicler. On the other hand, 1Kings 7:38 specifies the size and capacity of the lavers here omitted.

Such things as they offered for the burnt offering they washed in them.—This gives the meaning. Literally, the work (comp. Exodus 29:36, “to do” being equivalent to “to offer”) of the burnt offering they used to rinse (strictly, thrust, plunge) in them.

But the sea was for the priests to wash in.—The Hebrew words have been transposed apparently. The same infinitive (lĕrohçāh) occurs in Exodus 30:18; Exodus 40:30, in a similar context. Instead of all this, the Syriac and Arabic versions read: “put them five on the right hand and five on the left, that the priests might wash in them their hands and their feet,” which appears to be derived from Exodus 30:19; Exodus 40:31.

THE TEN GOLDEN CANDLESTICKS, THE TEN TABLES, THE HUNDRED GOLDEN BOWLS, AND THE COURTS (2Chronicles 4:7-9).

This section is peculiar to Chronicles.

(7) And he made ten candlesticks of gold according to their form.—And he made the golden lampstands ten, according to their rule, or, prescribed manner. (Comp. 1Kings 7:49; and Exodus 25:31-40, where their type is described.) So the Vulg., “secundum speciem quâ jussa erant fieri.” Syriac and Arabic, “according to their laws.” Others explain “as their use required,” which is less likely.

In the temple.—And before the chancel (1Kings 7:49; 2Chronicles 4:20, infra).