is explained by the fact that in the Chronicle the total number of overseers, of higher and lower rank, is given, while in the book of Kings only the number of overseers of the lower rank is given without the higher overseers. Solomon had in all 550 higher overseers of the builders (Israelite and Canaanite), - cf. 1Ki 9:23; and of these, 250 were Israelites, who alone are mentioned in 2Ch 8:10, while the remaining 300 were Canaanites. The total number of overseers is the same in both accounts, - 3850; who are divided in the Chronicle into 3600 Canaanitish and 250 Israelitish, in the book of Kings into 3300 lower and 550 higher overseers (see on 1Ki 5:16). It is, moreover, stated in 1Ki 5:12. that Solomon had levied a force of 30,000 statute labourers from among the people of Israel, with the design that a third part of them, that is, 10,000 men, should labour alternately for a month at a time in Lebanon, looking after their own affairs at home during the two following months. This levy of workmen from among the people of Israel is not mentioned in the Chronicle.
Chap. 3
Verses 1-2
The Building of the Temple - 2 Chronicles 3-5:1 (Cf. 1 Kings 6; 7:13-51.)
The description of the building begins with a statement of the place where and of the time when the temple was built (2Ch 3:1-2). Then follows an account of the proportions of the building, a description of the individual parts, commencing on the outside and advancing inwards. First we have the porch (2Ch 3:3, 2Ch 3:4), then the house, i.e., the interior apartment or the holy place (2Ch 3:5-7), then the holiest of all, and cherubim therein (2Ch 3:8-13), and the veil of partition between the holy place and the most holy (2Ch 3:14). After that we have the furniture of the court, the pillars of the porch (2Ch 3:15-17), the brazen altar (2Ch 4:1), the brazen sea (2Ch 4:2-5), the ten lavers (2Ch 4:6), the furniture of the holy place, candlesticks and tables (2Ch 4:7, 2Ch 4:8), and of the two courts (2Ch 4:9, 2Ch 4:10), and finally a summary enumeration of the brazen and golden utensils of the temple (2Ch 4:11, 2Ch 4:12). The description in 1 Kings 6 and 7 is differently arranged; the divine promise which Solomon received while the building was in progress, and a description of the building of the palace, being inserted: see on 1 Kings 6 and 7.
2Ch 3:1-2
