Through My Bible Yr 2 – October 19

2 Chronicles 3

Solomon Builds the Temple

¹ Then 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 ^[a] 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.

³ The foundation Solomon laid for building the temple of God was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide ^[b] (using the cubit of the old standard). ⁴ The portico at the front of the temple was twenty cubits ^[c] long across the width of the building and twenty cubits ^[d] high.
He overlaid the inside with pure gold. ⁵ He paneled the main hall with pine and covered it with fine gold and decorated it with palm tree and chain designs. ⁶ He 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.

⁸ He 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 ^[e] of fine gold. ⁹ The gold nails weighed fifty shekels. ^[f]He also overlaid the upper parts with gold.

¹⁰ In the Most Holy Place he made a pair of sculptured cherubim and overlaid them with gold. ¹¹ The total wingspan of the cherubim was twenty cubits. One wing of the first cherub was five cubits ^[g] long and touched the temple wall, while its other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of the other cherub. ¹² Similarly 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. ¹³ The wings of these cherubim extended twenty cubits. They stood on their feet, facing the main hall. ^[h]

¹⁴He made the curtain of blue, purple and crimson yarn and fine linen, with cherubim worked into it.

¹⁵ In the front of the temple he made two pillars, which together were thirty-five cubits ^[i] long, each with a capital on top measuring five cubits. ¹⁶ He made interwoven chains ^[j] and put them on top of the pillars. He also made a hundred pomegranates and attached them to the chains. ¹⁷ He 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 ^[k] and the one to the north Boaz. ^[l]

2 Chronicles 4

The Temple’s Furnishings

¹ He made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high. ^[m]2 He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits ^[n] high. It took a line of thirty cubits ^[o] to measure around it. ³ Below the rim, figures of bulls encircled it—ten to a cubit. ^[p]The bulls were cast in two rows in one piece with the Sea.

⁴ The Sea stood on twelve bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south and three facing east. The Sea rested on top of them, and their hindquarters were toward the center. ⁵ It was a handbreadth ^[q] in thickness, and its rim was like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held three thousand baths. ^[r]

⁶He then made ten basins for washing and placed five on the south side and five on the north. In them the things to be used for the burnt offerings were rinsed, but the Sea was to be used by the priests for washing.

⁷He made ten gold lampstands according to the specifications for them and placed them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north.

⁸He made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north. He also made a hundred gold sprinkling bowls.

⁹ He made the courtyard of the priests, and the large court and the doors for the court, and overlaid the doors with bronze. ¹⁰He placed the Sea on the south side, at the southeast corner.

¹¹ He also made the pots and shovels and sprinkling bowls.
So Huram finished the work he had undertaken for King Solomon in the temple of God:

¹² the two pillars;
the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars;
the two sets of network decorating the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars;

¹³the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of network (two rows of pomegranates for each network, decorating the bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars

¹⁴the stands with their basins;

¹⁵the Sea and the twelve bulls under it;

¹⁶ the pots, shovels, meat forks and all related articles.
All the objects that Huram-Abi made for King Solomon for the temple of the LORD were of polished bronze. ¹⁷ The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zarethan. ^[s]18All these things that Solomon made amounted to so much that the weight of the bronze was not determined.

¹⁹ Solomon also made all the furnishings that were in God’s temple:
the golden altar;
the tables on which was the bread of the Presence;

²⁰the lampstands of pure gold with their lamps, to burn in front of the inner sanctuary as prescribed;

²¹the gold floral work and lamps and tongs (they were solid gold

²²the pure gold wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes and censers; and the gold doors of the temple: the inner doors to the Most Holy Place and the doors of the main hall.

2 Chronicles 5

¹ When all the work Solomon had done for the temple of the LORD was finished, he brought in the things his father David had dedicated—the silver and gold and all the furnishings—and he placed them in the treasuries of God’s temple.

Footnotes:

1. 2 Chronicles 3:1 Hebrew Ornan , a variant of Araunah
2. 2 Chronicles 3:3 That is, about 90 feet (about 27 meters) long and 30 feet (about 9 meters) wide
3. 2 Chronicles 3:4 That is, about 30 feet (about 9 meters also in verses 8, 11 and 13
4. 2 Chronicles 3:4 Some Septuagint and Syriac manuscripts; Hebrew and a hundred and twenty
5. 2 Chronicles 3:8 That is, about 23 tons (about 21 metric tons)
6. 2 Chronicles 3:9 That is, about 1 1/4 pounds (about 0.6 kilogram)
7. 2 Chronicles 3:11 That is, about 7 1/2 feet (about 2.3 meters also in verse 15
8. 2 Chronicles 3:13 Or facing inward
9. 2 Chronicles 3:15 That is, about 52 feet (about 16 meters)
10. 2 Chronicles 3:16 Or possibly made chains in the inner sanctuary ; the meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.
11. 2 Chronicles 3:17 Jakin probably means he establishes .
12. 2 Chronicles 3:17 Boaz probably means in him is strength .
13. 2 Chronicles 4:1 That is, about 30 feet (about 9 meters) long and wide, and about 15 feet (about 4.5 meters) high
14. 2 Chronicles 4:2 That is, about 7 1/2 feet (about 2.3 meters)
15. 2 Chronicles 4:2 That is, about 45 feet (about 13.5 meters)
16. 2 Chronicles 4:3 That is, about 1 1/2 feet (about 0.5 meter)
17. 2 Chronicles 4:5 That is, about 3 inches (about 8 centimeters)
18. 2 Chronicles 4:5 That is, about 17,500 gallons (about 66 kiloliters)
19. 2 Chronicles 4:17 Hebrew Zeredatha , a variant of Zarethan

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.