2 Chronicles 3

2Ch 3:1, 2.

PLACE AND

TIME OF

BUILDING THE

TEMPLE.

1. Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David--These words

seem to intimate that the region where the temple was built was

previously known by the name of Moriah

(Ge 22:2),

and do not afford sufficient evidence for affirming, as has been done

[STANLEY], that the name was first given to

the mount, in consequence of the vision seen by David. Mount

Moriah was one summit of a range of hills which went under the general

name of Zion. The platform of the temple is now, and has long been,

occupied by the haram, or sacred enclosure, within which stand the

three mosques of Omar (the smallest), of El Aksa, which in early times

was a Christian church, and of Kubbet el Sakhara, "The dome of the

rock," so called from a huge block of limestone rock in the center of

the floor, which, it is supposed, formed the elevated threshing-floor

of Araunah, and on which the great brazen altar stood. The site of the

temple, then, is so far established for an almost universal belief is

entertained in the authenticity of the tradition regarding the rock El

Sakhara; and it has also been conclusively proved that the area of the

temple was identical on its western, eastern, and southern sides with

the present enclosure of the haram [ROBINSON].

"That the temple was situated somewhere within the oblong

enclosure on Mount Moriah, all topographers are agreed, although there

is not the slightest vestige of the sacred fane now remaining; and the

greatest diversity of sentiment prevails as to its exact position

within that large area, whether in the center of the haram, or in its

southwest corner" [BARCLAY]. Moreover, the full

extent of the temple area is a problem that remains to be solved, for

the platform of Mount Moriah being too narrow for the extensive

buildings and courts attached to the sacred edifice, Solomon resorted

to artificial means of enlarging and levelling it, by erecting vaults,

which, as JOSEPHUS states, rested on immense

earthen mounds raised from the slope of the hill. It should be borne in

mind at the outset that the grandeur of the temple did not consist in

its colossal structure so much as in its internal splendor, and the

vast courts and buildings attached to it. It was not intended for the

reception of a worshipping assembly, for the people always stood in the

outer courts of the sanctuary.

2Ch 3:3-7.

MEASURES AND

ORNAMENTS OF THE

HOUSE.

3. these are the things wherein Solomon was instructed for the

building of the house of God--by the written plan and specifications

given him by his father. The measurements are reckoned by cubits,

"after the first measure," that is, the old Mosaic standard. But there

is great difference of opinion about this, some making the cubit

eighteen, others twenty-one inches. The temple, which embodied in more

solid and durable materials the ground-form of the tabernacle (only

being twice as large), was a rectangular building, seventy cubits long

from east to west, and twenty cubits wide from north to south.

4. the porch--The breadth of the house, whose length ran from east to

west, is here given as the measure of the length of the piazza. The

portico would thus be from thirty to thirty-five feet long, and from

fifteen to seventeen and a half feet broad.

the height was an hundred and twenty cubits--This, taking the cubit at

eighteen inches, would be one hundred eighty feet; at twenty-one

inches, two hundred ten feet; so that the porch would rise in the form

of a tower, or two pyramidal towers, whose united height was one

hundred twenty cubits, and each of them about ninety or one hundred

five feet high [STIEGLITZ].

This porch would thus be like the

propylæum or gateway of the palace of Khorsabad

[LAYARD], or at the

temple of Edfou.

5. the greater house--that is, the holy places, the front or outer

chamber (see

1Ki 6:17).

6. he garnished the house with precious stones for beauty--better, he

paved the house with precious and beautiful marble

[KITTO]. It may be,

after all, that these were stones with veins of different colors for

decorating the walls. This was an ancient and thoroughly Oriental kind

of embellishment. There was an under pavement of marble, which was

covered with planks of fir. The whole interior was lined with boards,

richly decorated with carved work, clusters of foliage and flowers,

among which the pomegranate and lotus (or water-lily) were conspicuous;

and overlaid, excepting the floor, with gold, either by gilding or in

plates

(1Ki 6:1-38).

2Ch 3:8-13.

DIMENSIONS,

&C., OF THE

MOST

HOLY

HOUSE.

8. the most holy house--It was a perfect cube (compare

1Ki 6:20).

overlaid it with . . . gold, amounting to six hundred

talents--at £4 per ounce, equal to £3,600,000.

10-13. two cherubims--These figures in the tabernacle were of pure

gold

(Ex 25:1-40)

and overshadowed the mercy seat. The two placed in the temple were made

of olive wood, overlaid with gold. They were of colossal size, like the

Assyrian sculptures; for each, with expanded wings, covered a space of

ten cubits in height and length--two wings touched each other, while

the other two reached the opposite walls; their faces were inward, that

is, towards the most holy house, conformably to their use, which was to

veil the ark.

2Ch 3:14-17.

VEIL AND

PILLARS

(see

1Ki 6:21).

The united height is here given; and though the exact dimensions would

be thirty-six cubits, each column was only seventeen cubits and a half,

a half cubit being taken up by the capital or the base. They were

probably described as they were lying together in the mould before they

were set up [POOLE].

They would be from eighteen to twenty-one feet in

circumference, and stand forty feet in height. These pillars, or

obelisks, as some call them, were highly ornamented, and formed an

entrance in keeping with the splendid interior of the temple.