II Chronicles 3:15

The two brazen pillars before the house, i.e., before the porch, whose form is more accurately described in Kg1 7:15-22. The height of it is here given at thirty-five cubits, while, according to Kg1 7:15; Kg2 25:17; Jer 52:21, it was only eighteen cubits. The number thirty-five has arisen by confounding יח = 18 with לה = 35; see on Kg1 7:16. הצּפת (ἁπ. λεγ.) from צפה, overlay, cover, is the hood of the pillar, i.e., the capital, called in Kg1 7:16. כּתרת, crown, capital, five cubits high, as in Kg1 7:16. Ch2 3:16 "And he made little chains on the collar (Halsreife), and put it on the top of the pillars, and made 100 pomegranates, and put them on the chains." In the first clause of this verse, בּדּביר, "in (on) the most holy place," has no meaning, for the most holy place is not here being discussed, but the pillars before the porch, or rather an ornament on the capital of these pillars. We must not therefore think of chains in the most holy place, which extended thence out to the pillars, as the Syriac and Arabic seem to have done, paraphrasing as they do: chains of fifty cubits (i.e., the length of the holy place and the porch). According to Kg1 7:17-20 and Kg1 7:41., compared with Ch2 4:12-13, each capital consisted of two parts. The lower part was a circumvolution (Wulst) covered with chain-like net-work, one cubit high, with a setting of carved pomegranates one row above and one row below. The upper part, or that which formed the crown of the capital, was four cubits high, and carved in the form of an open lily-calyx. In our verse it is the lower part of the capital, the circumvolution, with the chain net-work and the pomegranates, which is spoken of. From this, Bertheau concludes that דּביר must signify the same as the more usual שׂבכה, viz., "the lattice-work whi…

It was a much larger and more particular account of the building of the temple which we had in the book of Kings than is here in this book of Chronicles. In this chapter we have, I. The place and time of building the temple (Ch2 3:1, Ch2 3:2). II. The dimensions and rich ornaments of it (Ch2 3:3-9). III. The cherubim in the most holy place (Ch2 3:10-13). IV. The veil (Ch2 3:14). V. The two pillars (Ch2 3:15-17). Of all this we have already and an account, 1 Kings 6, 7.

3:15-16 The two pillars set in the porch of the Temple were made of bronze and were ornately decorated (cp. 1 Kgs 7:15-22).