2 Chronicles3
New International Version
1Then Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David.
2He began building on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.
3The foundation Solomon laid for building the temple of God was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide (using the cubit of the old standard).
4The portico at the front of the temple was twenty cubits long across the width of the building and twenty cubits high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold.
5He paneled the main hall with juniper and covered it with fine gold and decorated it with palm tree and chain designs.
6He adorned the temple with precious stones. And the gold he used was gold of Parvaim.
7He overlaid the ceiling beams, doorframes, walls and doors of the temple with gold, and he carved cherubim on the walls.
8He built the Most Holy Place, its length corresponding to the width of the temple—twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. He overlaid the inside with six hundred talents of fine gold.
9The gold nails weighed fifty shekels. He also overlaid the upper parts with gold.
10For the Most Holy Place he made a pair of sculptured cherubim and overlaid them with gold.
11The total wingspan of the cherubim was twenty cubits. One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long and touched the temple wall, while its other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of the other cherub.
12Similarly one wing of the second cherub was five cubits long and touched the other temple wall, and its other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of the first cherub.
13The wings of these cherubim extended twenty cubits. They stood on their feet, facing the main hall.
14He made the curtain of blue, purple and crimson yarn and fine linen, with cherubim worked into it.
15For the front of the temple he made two pillars, which together were thirty-five cubits long, each with a capital five cubits high.
16He made interwoven chains and put them on top of the pillars. He also made a hundred pomegranates and attached them to the chains.
17He erected the pillars in the front of the temple, one to the south and one to the north. The one to the south he named Jakin and the one to the north Boaz.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for 2 Chronicles 3.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The building of the temple. (1-17).
vv1-17
There is a more particular account of the building of the temple in 1Ki 6. It must be in the place David had prepared, not only which he had purchased, but which he had fixed on by Divine direction. Full instructions enable us to go about our work with certainty and to proceed therein with comfort. Blessed be God, the Scriptures are enough to render the man of God thoroughly furnished for every good work. Let us search the Scriptures daily, beseeching the Lord to enable us to understand, believe, and obey his word, that our work and our way may be made plain, and that all may be begun, continued, and ended in him. Beholding God, in Christ, his true Temple, more glorious than that of Solomon's, may we become a spiritual house, a habitation of God through the Spirit.
Key Words
שְׁלֹמֹה: Shelomah, David's successor
חָלַל: properly, to bore, i.e. (by implication) to wound, to dissolve; figuratively, to profane (a person, place or thing), to break (one's word), to begin (as if by an 'opening wedge'); to play (the flute)
בָּנָה: to build (literally and figuratively)
בַּיִת: a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etc.)
יְרוּשָׁלַ͏ִם: Jerushalaim or Jerushalem, the capital city of Palestine
הַר: a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figuratively)
מוֹרִיָּה: Morijah, a hill in Palestine
אֲשֶׁר: who, which, what, that; also (as an adverb and a conjunction) when, where, how, because, in order that, etc.
רָאָה: to see, literally or figuratively (in numerous applications, direct and implied, transitive, intransitive and causative)
דָּוִד: David, the youngest son of Jesse
Cross References
2 Chronicles 3The primary parallel account detailing the timing and initial construction of Solomon's temple.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
David offers sacrifices on Ornan's threshingfloor, and God answers by fire, consecrating the temple site.
Supported by Matthew Poole
David explicitly identifies this site as the house of the Lord God and the altar of burnt offering.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Identifies Mount Moriah, the temple site, as the mountain where Abraham was commanded to offer Isaac.
Supported by JFB
David gives Solomon the divinely inspired plans and specifications for building the temple.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
The parallel detailed account of crafting the two colossal cherubim of olive wood.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The Mosaic pattern for the veil of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen, with cherubim.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The parallel account describing the erection and naming of the two pillars, Jachin and Boaz.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The New Jerusalem is adorned with precious stones and pure gold, fulfilling the temple's typological beauty.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Parallel details of the inner oracle, its cubical dimensions, and overlaying it with gold.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
The tearing of the temple veil at Christ's death, signifying open access to God.
New Testament explanation of the tabernacle layout, highlighting the veil before the Most Holy place.
The historical account of David purchasing the threshingfloor from Araunah (Ornan) the Jebusite.
Parallel description of ceiling the temple walls and floors with cedar and fir planks.
Supported by JFB
Parallel engineering details of casting the massive bronze pillars and their chapiters.