2 Chronicles 4
EasyEnglish Bible
Solomon's workers make things for the temple
4 Solomon's workers made a bronze altar. It was 9 metres long, 9 metres wide and 4 metres high. 2 They used bronze to make a big bath which they called ‘the Sea’. It was in the shape of a circle 4½ metres across. It was 2½ metres deep. It was 14 metres around the outside.[a] 3 All around its edge, below the top, there were two rows of images of things that looked like bulls. They were all part of the same piece of bronze as the big bath. There were 20 bulls for every metre around the edge.
4 They put the bronze ‘Sea’ on top of 12 bronze bulls. Three pointed north, three pointed west, three pointed south and three pointed east. Their backs were towards the middle of the ‘Sea’. 5 The bronze walls of the ‘Sea’ were 7½ centimetres thick. Its top edge was like a cup in the shape of a lily flower. The ‘Sea’ contained about 65,000 litres of water.
6 They made ten bowls to wash in. They put five bowls on the south side and five bowls on the north side. The priests used them to wash all the things that they used for the burnt offerings. But the priests washed themselves in the water from the bronze ‘Sea’.
7 They used gold to make ten lampstands. They made them in the way that Solomon told them. They put the lampstands in the temple, five lampstands on the south side and five lampstands on the north side.[b]
8 They also made ten tables. They put them in the temple, five tables on the south side and five tables on the north side. They also used gold to make 100 bowls.
9 They made a small yard for the priests and another big yard with doors. They covered the doors with bronze. 10 They put the bronze ‘Sea’ on the south side of the temple, at its south-east corner.
11 Huram-Abi also made more pots, small tools and bowls. So he finished all the work in God's temple that King Solomon had asked him to do. He made these things:
12 two pillars;
two pieces for the top of each pillar, with the shape of big bowls;
rows of chains on the tops of the pillars;
13 400 images of pomegranates for the two groups of chains (there were two rows of these images around the piece at the top of each pillar, which had the shape of a bowl);
14 the carts with the buckets that were on them;
15 the big bronze bath called ‘the Sea’ and the 12 bulls under it;
16 the pots, small tools and forks for meat.
King Solomon asked Huram-Abi to make all these things for the Lord's temple. He used bright bronze to make all these things. 17 The king told his workers to pour the hot bronze into shapes in the ground. They did that at a special place in the region of the Jordan Valley, between Succoth and Zarethan. 18 Solomon did not weigh any of these things, because there were so many of them. No one ever knew the weight of the bronze.
Inside the temple
19 Solomon's workers also made all these things for God's temple:
the gold altar;
the tables which had the special bread on them;
20 the pure gold lampstands with their lamps (the plans showed how the lamps had to burn at the entrance of the Most Holy Place);
21 the gold images of flowers;
the lamps;
the small tools that held things for the altar;
22 the small tools of pure gold that they used for the lamps;
the bowls for water;
the dishes for ashes;
the baskets that carried hot coals;
the gold pieces that held the doors of the Most Holy Place;
the gold pieces that held the doors of the temple's big hall.
Footnotes
- 4:2 ‘The Sea’ was full of water. The priests used this to wash themselves when they went into the temple.
- 4:7 See 1 Chronicles 28:14-15.
2 Chroniques 4
La Bible du Semeur
L’autel et la grande cuve
4 Salomon fit fabriquer un autel de bronze de dix mètres sur dix et cinq mètres de haut[a].
(1 R 7.23-26)
2 Puis il fit faire la grande cuve ronde en métal fondu. Elle mesurait cinq mètres de diamètre, deux mètres cinquante de hauteur, un cordeau de quinze mètres mesurait sa circonférence. 3 Au-dessous d’elle, sur tout le pourtour, se trouvaient deux rangées de représentations de bœufs[b] coulés d’une seule pièce avec la cuve. Il y en avait dix par demi-mètre. 4 La cuve elle-même reposait sur douze bœufs de bronze ayant leurs têtes tournées trois par trois vers le nord, l’ouest, le sud et l’est, alors que la partie postérieure de leur corps était tournée vers l’intérieur et portait la cuve. 5 La paroi de la cuve avait huit centimètres d’épaisseur et son rebord était façonné comme celui d’une coupe en forme de pétale de lis. Elle pouvait contenir environ quarante mille litres d’eau.
6 Salomon fit encore fabriquer dix bassins[c] ; il les fit disposer cinq à droite et cinq à gauche du Temple pour les lavages. Ils servaient à nettoyer les ustensiles destinés à offrir les holocaustes. La grande cuve servait aux purifications des prêtres.
Les accessoires du culte
7 Salomon fit fabriquer les dix chandeliers d’or selon le modèle prescrit, puis on les plaça dans la grande salle du Temple, cinq à droite et cinq à gauche[d]. 8 Il fit faire dix tables que l’on disposa également dans la grande salle : cinq à droite et cinq à gauche. Il fit aussi façonner cent coupes d’aspersion en or[e]. 9 Il fit aménager le parvis des prêtres et la grande cour, il fit fabriquer les portes de la cour et revêtir leurs battants de bronze.
(1 R 7.38-51)
10 La grande cuve fut placée du côté droit du Temple, vers l’angle sud-est. 11 Houram fabriqua les chaudrons, les pelles et les coupes à aspersion.
Récapitulation des objets fabriqués pour le Temple
Houram termina ainsi le travail que le roi Salomon lui avait confié dans le temple de Dieu : 12 les deux colonnes avec les chapiteaux évasés qui les surmontaient, les deux treillis pour recouvrir les évasements de ces chapiteaux, 13 les quatre cents grenades accrochées aux treillis – deux rangées de grenades par treillis – 14 les dix chariots et les dix bassins placés dessus, 15 la grande cuve, unique en son genre, et les douze bœufs qui la supportaient, 16 les chaudrons, les pelles et les crochets à viande. Houram-Abi avait fabriqué en bronze poli, pour Salomon, tous les objets destinés au temple de l’Eternel. 17 Le roi les fit fondre dans la plaine du Jourdain, dans des couches d’argile, entre Soukkoth et Tserédata. 18 Salomon fit fabriquer tous ces objets en si grande quantité qu’on ne pouvait évaluer le poids de bronze utilisé.
19 Il fit encore fabriquer tous les autres objets destinés au temple de Dieu : l’autel des parfums en or, les tables sur lesquelles on plaçait les pains exposés devant l’Eternel[f], 20 les chandeliers d’or fin avec leurs lampes, que l’on devait allumer selon la règle devant la salle du fond, 21 avec leurs fleurons, leurs lampes et les mouchettes en or, en or très pur, 22 les couteaux, les calices, les coupes et les brasiers d’or fin, ainsi que les gonds en or pour les portes de l’intérieur du Temple, à l’entrée du lieu très saint, et pour les portes de la grande salle, à l’entrée du Temple.
Footnotes
- 4.1 Voir Ex 27.1-2. Cet autel était quatre fois plus long, quatre fois plus large et trois fois plus haut que celui du tabernacle de Moïse.
- 4.3 Dans 1 R 7.24, il s’agit de coloquintes. En hébreu, les deux mots se ressemblent, ce qui expliquerait une erreur de copiste dans l’un des deux textes.
- 4.6 Voir Ex 30.17-21.
- 4.7 Voir Ex 25.31-40.
- 4.8 Voir Ex 25.23-30.
- 4.19 Voir Lv 24.5-9.
2 Chronicles 4
King James Version
4 Moreover he made an altar of brass, twenty cubits the length thereof, and twenty cubits the breadth thereof, and ten cubits the height thereof.
2 Also he made a molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and five cubits the height thereof; and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.
3 And under it was the similitude of oxen, which did compass it round about: ten in a cubit, compassing the sea round about. Two rows of oxen were cast, when it was cast.
4 It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east: and the sea was set above upon them, and all their hinder parts were inward.
5 And the thickness of it was an handbreadth, and the brim of it like the work of the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies; and it received and held three thousand baths.
6 He made also ten lavers, and put five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them: such things as they offered for the burnt offering they washed in them; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.
7 And he made ten candlesticks of gold according to their form, and set them in the temple, five on the right hand, and five on the left.
8 He made also ten tables, and placed them in the temple, five on the right side, and five on the left. And he made an hundred basons of gold.
9 Furthermore he made the court of the priests, and the great court, and doors for the court, and overlaid the doors of them with brass.
10 And he set the sea on the right side of the east end, over against the south.
11 And Huram made the pots, and the shovels, and the basons. And Huram finished the work that he was to make for king Solomon for the house of God;
12 To wit, the two pillars, and the pommels, and the chapiters which were on the top of the two pillars, and the two wreaths to cover the two pommels of the chapiters which were on the top of the pillars;
13 And four hundred pomegranates on the two wreaths; two rows of pomegranates on each wreath, to cover the two pommels of the chapiters which were upon the pillars.
14 He made also bases, and lavers made he upon the bases;
15 One sea, and twelve oxen under it.
16 The pots also, and the shovels, and the fleshhooks, and all their instruments, did Huram his father make to king Solomon for the house of the Lord of bright brass.
17 In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredathah.
18 Thus Solomon made all these vessels in great abundance: for the weight of the brass could not be found out.
19 And Solomon made all the vessels that were for the house of God, the golden altar also, and the tables whereon the shewbread was set;
20 Moreover the candlesticks with their lamps, that they should burn after the manner before the oracle, of pure gold;
21 And the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs, made he of gold, and that perfect gold;
22 And the snuffers, and the basons, and the spoons, and the censers, of pure gold: and the entry of the house, the inner doors thereof for the most holy place, and the doors of the house of the temple, were of gold.
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