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<title>Blue Letter Bible: Text Commentaries</title>
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<h2><a onclick="return mV('2Ch',4,'all');">2Ch 4</a> - Furnishings for the Temple and Its Court</h2>
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<p><span>A. The furnishings of the temple.</span></p>
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<p class="c1"><span>1. (<a onclick="return mV('2Ch',4,1);">1</a>) <span>The</span> bronze altar.</span></p>
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<p class="c2">Moreover he made a bronze altar: twenty cubits was its length, twenty cubits its width, and ten cubits its height.</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">He made a bronze altar</span></b>: The idea behind the Hebrew word for <b><span class="c3">altar</span></b> is essentially, “killing-place.” This was the place of sacrifice, the center for worship and service for the priests and the people.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. “Just as in the tabernacle, the altar was the first main object to be met as one entered the sanctuary court. It demonstrates that God may be approached only through sacrifices.” (Payne)</p>
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<p class="c5">ii. We also have an altar: <i>We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat</i> (<a onclick="return mV('Hbr',13,10);">Hbr 13:10</a>). Our altar - our “killing-place” - is the cross, where Jesus died for our sins and we follow by dying unto self and living for Jesus.</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">Twenty cubits</span></b>: Essentially, this altar was large (about 30 feet or 10 meters square) and about twice as large as the altar originally built for the tabernacle (<a onclick="return mV('Exd',27,'1-2');">Exd 27:1-2</a>).</p>
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<p class="c4">c. <b><span class="c3">Ten cubits its height</span></b>: The altar was raised significantly. The altar was set up high, “That all the people might see the burnt-offerings, and be imminded of their sins and of their Saviour; for the ceremonial law was their gospel.” (Trapp)</p>
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<p class="c1">2. (<a onclick="return mV('2Ch',4,'2-6');">2-6</a>) <span>The</span> washing basins for the temple.</p>
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<p class="c2">Then he made the Sea of cast <i>bronze, </i>ten cubits from one brim to the other; <i>it was </i>completely round. Its height <i>was </i>five cubits, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference. And under it <i>was </i>the likeness of oxen encircling it all around, ten to a cubit, all the way around the Sea. The oxen <i>were </i>cast in two rows, when it was cast. It stood on twelve oxen: three looking toward the north, three looking toward the west, three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east; the Sea <i>was set </i>upon them, and all their back parts <i>pointed </i>inward. It <i>was </i>a handbreadth thick; and its brim was shaped like the brim of a cup, <i>like </i>a lily blossom. It contained three thousand baths. He also made ten lavers, and put five on the right side and five on the left, to wash in them; such things as they offered for the burnt offering they would wash in them, but the Sea <i>was </i>for the priests to wash in.</p>
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<p class="c4"><span>a. </span><b><span class="c3">Then he made the Sea of cast bronze, ten cubits from one brim to the other</span></b>: The huge laver was more than 15 feet (5 meters) across, and was used for the ceremonial washings connected with the priests themselves. </p>
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<p class="c5">i. “Priests who did not wash to make themselves clean would die (<a onclick="return mV('Exd',30,20);">Exd 30:20</a>).” (Selman)</p>
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<p class="c5">i. “It was used by priests for cleansing their hands and feet and perhaps also to supply water to the standing basins for the rinsing of offerings (<a onclick="return mV('2Ch',4,10);">2Ch 4:10</a>).” Poole believes that perhaps water came out of the bulls that formed the foundation of the Sea.</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">It stood on twelve oxen</span></b>: This large pool of water was set upon sculptured <b><span class="c3">oxen</span></b>. “Prefiguring, say some, the twelve apostles, who carried the water of life all the world over.” (Trapp)</p>
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<p class="c5">i. <b><span class="c3">It contained three thousand baths</span></b>: “In <a onclick="return mV('1Ki',7,26);">1Ki 7:26</a>, it is said to hold only <i>two thousand baths</i>. Since this book was written <i>after</i> the Babylonian captivity, it is very possible that reference is here made to the Babylonian <i>bath</i>, which might have been <i>less</i> than the Jewish.” (Clarke)</p>
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<p class="c4">c. <b><span class="c3">He also made ten lavers</span></b>: These additional basins were used for washing and cleaning the animal parts in the rituals of sacrifice.</p>
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<p class="c1">3. (<a onclick="return mV('2Ch',4,7);">7</a>) <span>The</span> lampstands, tables, and bowls.</p>
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<p class="c2">And he made ten lampstands of gold according to their design, and set <i>them </i>in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. He also made ten tables, and placed <i>them </i>in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. And he made one hundred bowls of gold.</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">And he made ten lampstands . . . He also made ten tables</span></b>: The work of the temple required <b><span class="c3">lampstands</span></b> for light and <b><span class="c3">tables</span></b> to hold the <i>showbread</i>, the bread that represented the continual fellowship of Israel with God. Notably, the old tabernacle had <i>one</i> lampstand and <i>one</i> table. The temple fittingly displayed a greater light and a greater dynamic of fellowship.</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">And he made one hundred bowls of gold</span></b>: “The ‘sprinkling bowls’ were not particularly associated with the tables by seem rather to have been used for collecting the blood of sacrifices, which was then sprinkled about the altar in the temple services of atonement.” (Payne)</p>
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<p class="c1">4. (<a onclick="return mV('2Ch',4,'9-10');">9-10</a>) <span>The</span> court of the temple.</p>
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<p class="c2">Furthermore he made the court of the priests, and the great court and doors for the court; and he overlaid these doors with bronze. He set the Sea on the right side, toward the southeast.</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">He made the court of the priests</span></b>: This was also known as the <i>inner</i> court, the court of the temple open only to the priests.</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">And the great court</span></b>: This was the <i>outer</i> court, the place in the temple precincts open to the assembly of Israel as a whole.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. “Yet this very division into two courts (<a onclick="return mV('2Ki',23,12);">2Ki 23:12</a>) gave concrete expression to the fact that under the older testament there had not yet been achieved that universal priesthood of the believers that would come about through Jesus Christ. In him all the people of God have direct access to the Father.” (Payne)</p>
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<p>B. The work of Huram from Tyre.</p>
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<p class="c1">1. (<a onclick="return mV('2Ch',4,'11-17');">11-17</a>) Huram’s furnishings for the temple.</p>
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<p class="c2">Then Huram made the pots and the shovels and the bowls. So Huram finished doing the work that he was to do for King Solomon for the house of God: the two pillars and the bowl-shaped capitals <i>that were </i>on top of the two pillars; the two networks covering the two bowl-shaped capitals which <i>were </i>on top of the pillars; four hundred pomegranates for the two networks (two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowl-shaped capitals that <i>were </i>on the pillars); he also made carts and the lavers on the carts; one Sea and twelve oxen under it; also the pots, the shovels, the forks; and all their articles Huram his master <i>craftsman </i>made of burnished bronze for King Solomon for the house of the <span class="c6">Lord</span>. In the plain of Jordan the king had them cast in clay molds, between Succoth and Zeredah.</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">Then Huram made</span></b>: Huram was <span>half Israeli and half Gentile, and he was the best craftsman around. Solomon hired him t</span>o do all his work - that is, the fine artistic work of the temple.</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">The pots and the shovels and the bowls</span></b>: These articles were of special note for the Chronicler, because these were some of the only articles that were recovered and used from the first temple period into the days of the Chronicler.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. “The emphasis on the temple vessels, as well as the association between Tent and temple, underlines the continuity represented by the temple. The return of the temple vessels to the second temple was one of the chief signs that post-exilic Israel remained a worshipping community of covenant people (<i>cf</i>. <a onclick="return mV('Ezr',1,'7-11');">Ezr 1:7-11</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Ezr',6,5);">6:5</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Ezr',8,'24-34');">8:24-34</a>).” (Selman)</p>
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<p class="c1">2. (<a onclick="return mV('2Ch',4,'18-22');">18-22</a>) Summary of the furnishings for the temple.</p>
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<p class="c2">And Solomon had all these articles made in such great abundance that the weight of the bronze was not determined. Thus Solomon had all the furnishings made for the house of God: the altar of gold and the tables on which <i>was </i>the showbread; the lampstands with their lamps of pure gold, to burn in the prescribed manner in front of the inner sanctuary, with the flowers and the lamps and the wick-trimmers of gold, of purest gold; the trimmers, the bowls, the ladles, and the censers of pure gold. As for the entry of the sanctuary, its inner doors to the Most Holy <i>Place, </i>and the doors of the main hall of the temple, <i>were </i>gold.</p>
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<p class="c4"><span>a. <b><span class="c3">Such great abundance that the weight of the bronze was not determined</span></b></span>: “<i>The weight could not be found out</i>. This was as it should be. There was no attempt to keep an accurate account of what was given to the service of God. Even Solomon’s left had did not know what his right hand did. There is a tendency in all of us to keep a strict account of what we give to God . . . but the loftiest form of devotion overleaps such calculation.” (Meyer)</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">With the flowers and the lamps</span></b>: “The symbolism of flora and fauna in the temple may either indicate God’s sovereignty over the created order to be another allusion to the harmony of all created things in God’s presence as in the Garden of Eden.” (Selman)</p>
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