The Second Book of the Chronicles
2 Chronicles 3
Chapter III · Vol. II, p. 848
1 The place and time of building the temple. 3 The dimensions and ornaments of the house. 11 The cherubims. 14 The vail and pillar.
1 Then Solomona began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem bin mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the thrashing-floor of Ornan the cJebusite.
2 And he began to build din the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign
d 1 Ki.6.1. Just 2993 years after the creation.
3 Now these are the things wherein Solomon was instructed for the building of the house of God: the length by cubits, after the first measure,2 was threescore cubits[≈ 27 m · 90 ft],3 and the breadth twenty cubits[≈ 9.1 m · 30 ft].4
2 'The first,' that is, the Mosaic measure. The books of Chronicles were drawn up, or revised and arranged by the prophets, after the Babylonish captivity; and the Babylonish cubit was a palm or one-sixth shorter than that of Moses; a circumstance that will serve to reconcile several apparent discrepancies in the sacred history, with respect to the estimate of measures.—C.
3 109 feet 6 inches.
4 36 feet 6 inches.
4 And the gporch that was in the front of the house, the length of it was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits[≈ 9.1 m · 30 ft], and the height was an hundred and twenty:5 and he overlaid it within with pure gold.
g 1 Ki.6.3-22.
5 219 feet. It was a very high steeple.
5 And the greater6 house7 he hceiled with fir-tree, which he overlaid with fine gold, and set thereon palm-trees and chains.8
6 Less holy place.
7 The outer apartment of the temple as distinguished from the most holy place (see ver. 8), for the ark, mercy-seat, and cherubim.—C.
8 The account of the building of the temple given here, and that given in 1 Ki. vi. vii., are evidently independent records. The arrangement of the two narratives is quite distinct. In Kings the external building is first described, and then the historian takes up the internal decorations. In Chronicles the two are mixed up. The writer after giving the size of the building, describes the porch, and then the internal decorations. The one account cannot be regarded as complete without the other; the two together form a pretty full and accurate description of the whole structure.—P.
6 And he garnished9 the house with precious stones for beauty:1 and the gold was gold of Parvaim.2
9 Heb. covered.
1 This, most probably, refers to the pavement of the temple.—C.
2 This country or city is now unknown, and conjecture is useless.—C.
7 He ioverlaid also the house, the beams, the posts, and the walls thereof, and the doors thereof, with gold; and graved cherubims on the walls.
i 1 Ki.6.20-22,30. Eze.7.20. 1 Ch.29.1; 22.5.
8 And he kmade the most holy house,3 the length whereof was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits[≈ 9.1 m · 30 ft],4 and the breadth thereof twenty cubits[≈ 9.1 m · 30 ft]: and he overlaid it with fine gold, amounting to six hundred talents[≈ 21 tonnes · 20 tons].5
3 House of holiness of holinesses, or oracle.
4 36 feet 6 inches.
5 About 25 ton, in value £3,285,000 sterling.
9 And the weight6 of the nails7 was fifty shekels of gold[≈ 570 g · 1.3 lb · gold worth ≈ US$74,000]. And he overlaid the upper chambers with gold.
6 Each nail, i.e. near one pound eleven ounces.
7 In modern language, bolts.—C.
10 Andl in the most holy house he made two cherubims of image-work,8 and overlaid them with gold.
l 1 Ki.6.23-28.
8 Or (as some think) of movable work.
11 And the mwings of the cherubims were twenty cubits[≈ 9.1 m · 30 ft] long: one wing of the one cherub was five cubits[≈ 2.3 m · 7 ft 6 in], reaching to the wall of the house; and the other wing was likewise five cubits[≈ 2.3 m · 7 ft 6 in], reaching to the wing of the other cherub.
m 1 Ki.6.23-28. These two cherubims of olive-tree were added to the golden ones formed by Moses, Ex.25.18; 37.7-9. They represented angels and ministers wondering at, and serving in, the work of our redemption.
12 And one wing of the other cherub was five cubits[≈ 2.3 m · 7 ft 6 in], reaching to the wall of the house; and the other wing was five cubits[≈ 2.3 m · 7 ft 6 in] also, joining to the wing of the other cherub.
13 The wings of these cherubims spread themselves forth twenty cubits[≈ 9.1 m · 30 ft]: and they stood on their feet, and their faces were ninward.9
A.M. 2994. B.C. 1010.
n Or, toward the house, Ex.25.20.
9 Looking towards one another, Ex.25.20. Being the emblems of angelic attendance, Is.6.5; Mat.26.53; intellectual study, 1 Pe.1.12; spiritual worship, Is. 6. 3; He.1.6; and winged obedience, Is. 6. 2, 6. The cherubim do also set forth, by their very attitude, the communion of saints with God and with one another, Jn. 14.23. 1 Jn.1.7.—C.
14 And he made the ovail of blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine linen, and 1wrought cherubims thereon.
o Ex.26.31-35; 36.35,36. Mat.27.51. 1 Ki.6.21.
1 Heb. caused to ascend.
15 Also he made before the house ptwo pillars of thirty and five cubits[≈ 16 m · 52 ft] high,2 and the chapiter that was on the top of each of them was five cubits[≈ 2.3 m · 7 ft 6 in].
p 1 Ki.7.15-22. Je.52.21-23. 2 Ki.25.13. ch.4.12,13.
2 Heb. long, taken together, and each was near eighteen cubits.
16 And he made chains, as in the oracle, and put them on the heads of the pillars; and made an qhundred pomegranates, and put them on the chains.
q 1 Ki.7.20. Je.52.22. 2 Ki.25.17.
17 And he rreared up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand, and the other on the left; and called the name of that on the right hand Jachin,3 and the name of that on the left Boaz.4
r 1 Ki.7.21.
3 That is, He shall establish.
4 That is, In it is strength. They represented Christ, his word, ordinances, and ministers, as the establishers and strength of his church.
Notes
Reflections.—Every circumstance in the worship of God must be ordered according to his appointment: and if God meet with us in a place or ordinance, let us hope that he will do it again if it be for his glory and our good. Meanwhile let me consider Jesus, who came in the promised time and spot, as the great temple of our fellowship with God. The dignity, glory, fulness, and usefulness of his person, particularly in his exalted state, infinitely transcend this astonishing structure of Solomon: and angels, ministers, and saints shall always admire his glory. With respect to the temple of his church, of his saints, and of heaven, he is the foundation, the wall, the door, the pillars, the ark, the table, the altars, the light, the sea, the laver, yea, the All in All.
Measures in square brackets are modern equivalents added for this edition. They are not in the King James text or in Brown’s notes. They use common scholarly estimates: a cubit is about 45.7 cm (18 in), a shekel about 11.4 g (0.4 oz), an ephah about 22 litres. Money values give the worth of the silver or gold at spot prices on 28 October 2026, not what the sum would buy in the ancient world.