2 Chronicles 3
Contemporary English Version
The Temple Is Built
(1 Kings 6.1-38)
3 1-2 (A) Solomon's workers began building the temple in Jerusalem on the second day of the second month,[a] four years after Solomon had become king of Israel. It was built on Mount Moriah where the Lord had appeared to David at the threshing place that had belonged to Araunah[b] from Jebus.
3 The inside of the temple was 27 meters long and 9 meters wide, according to the older standards.[c] 4 Across the front of the temple was a porch 9 meters wide and 9 meters[d] high. The inside walls of the porch were covered with pure gold.
5 Solomon had the inside walls of the temple's main room paneled first with pine and then with a layer of gold, and he had them decorated with carvings of palm trees and designs that looked like chains. 6 He used precious stones to decorate the temple, and he used gold imported from Parvaim[e] 7 to decorate the ceiling beams, the doors, the door frames, and the walls. Solomon also told the workers to carve designs of winged creatures into the walls.
8 (B) The most holy place was nine meters square, and its walls were covered with over 20 tons of fine gold. 9 Five hundred and seventy grams of gold was used to cover the heads of the nails. The walls of the small storage rooms were also covered with gold.[f]
10 (C) Solomon had two statues of winged creatures[g] made to put in the most holy place, and he covered them with gold. 11-13 Each creature had two wings and was four and a half meters from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other wing. Solomon set them next to each other in the most holy place, facing the doorway. Their wings were spread out and reached all the way across the nine-meter room.
14 (D) A curtain[h] was made of fine linen woven with blue, purple, and red wool, and embroidered with designs of winged creatures.
The Two Columns
(1 Kings 7.15-22)
15 Two columns were made for the entrance to the temple. Each one was 16 meters tall and had a cap on top that was over 2 meters high. 16 The top of each column was decorated with designs that looked like chains[i] and with 100 carvings of pomegranates.[j] 17 Solomon had one of the columns placed on the south side of the temple's entrance; it was called Jachin.[k] The other one was placed on the north side of the entrance; it was called Boaz.[l]
Footnotes
- 3.1,2 second month: Ziv, the second month of the Hebrew calendar, from about mid-April to mid-May.
- 3.1,2 Araunah: The Hebrew text has “Ornan,” another spelling of the name (see 2 Samuel 24.18-25; 1 Chronicles 21.18—22.1).
- 3.3 according to the older standards: There were possibly two different standards of measurement during Israel's history.
- 3.4 9 meters: Some manuscripts of two ancient translations; Hebrew “54 meters.”
- 3.6 Parvaim: An unknown place.
- 3.9 The walls … gold: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
- 3.10 statues of winged creatures: These were symbols of the Lord's throne on earth (see Exodus 25.18-22).
- 3.14 A curtain: To separate the most holy place from the main room of the temple.
- 3.16 designs that looked like chains: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
- 3.16 pomegranates: A pomegranate is a small red fruit that looks like an apple. In ancient times, it was a symbol of life.
- 3.17 Jachin: Or “He (God) makes secure.”
- 3.17 Boaz: Or “He (God) is strong.”
2 Chronicles 3
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 3
Construction of the Temple.[a] 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, at the site that David had chosen, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 2 He commenced building it on the second day of the second month of the fourth year of his reign.
3 These are the measurements specified by Solomon for building the house of God. According to the old standard of measurement, its length was sixty cubits and its width was twenty cubits.[b] 4 The vestibule was twenty cubits long, spanning the entire breadth of the house of God, and its height was also twenty cubits.
5 He overlaid the nave with cypress, which he covered with fine gold and embossed with palms and chains. 6 He also adorned the house beautifully with settings of precious stones and with gold from Parvaim. 7 Then he overlaid the house with gold, including its beams, its thresholds, its walls, and its doors, and he carved cherubim on the walls.
8 He also made the Holy of Holies. Its length, corresponding to the width of the house, was twenty cubits, and its width was also twenty cubits. He overlaid all of it with six hundred talents of fine gold. 9 The weight of the gold nails was fifty shekels. He also overlaid the upper chambers with gold.
10 For the Holy of Holies he made two carved cherubim which were then overlaid with gold. 11 The wings of the cherubim[c] together had a total span of twenty cubits. A wing of one cherub, five cubits in length, extended to a wall of the building, while the other wing reached out to meet a wing of the other cherub. 12 Similarly, one wing of the second cherub also extended five cubits to touch the other wall of the building, while its other wing reached out to meet a wing of the first cherub.
13 The combined wings of these two cherubim extended twenty cubits. They stood with their feet on the ground, facing the nave. 14 Solomon also made the curtain[d] of purple, crimson, and blue fabrics and fine linen and embroidered it with winged creatures.
15 In front of the temple he erected two pillars that totaled thirty-five cubits high, with a capital measuring five cubits on the top of each pillar. 16 Next he made chains in the form of a necklace and put them on the tops of the pillars, and then he carved one hundred pomegranates and attached them to the chains. 17 Finally, he erected the pillars in front of the temple, one on the right and the other on the left. The one on the right he called Jachin, and the one on the left he called Boaz.
Footnotes
- 2 Chronicles 3:1 The inmost place of the sanctuary had changed its name: it is no longer the place where David spoke to the priest, but the Most Holy Place, into which only the high priest entered once a year; a court of the temple was reserved for the priests.
- 2 Chronicles 3:3 In antiquity a cubit was about 52 cm (see Ezek 40:5; 43:13).
- 2 Chronicles 3:11 The cherubim: a special category of mighty angels with well-defined functions.
- 2 Chronicles 3:14 The curtain: in fact, Solomon made a door (1 Ki 6:31) in place of the veil of which Ex 26:31 speaks.
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