burnt-offering, and probably of brass plates, which enclosed the inner core, consisting of earth and unhewn stones; and if we may judge from Ezekiel's description, Eze 43:13-17, it rose in steps, as it were, so that at each step its extent was smaller; and the measurement of twenty cubits refers only to the lowest scale, while the space at the top, with the hearth, was only twelve cubits square; cf. my Bibl. Archaeol. i. S. 127, with the figure, plate iii. fig. 2.
Verses 2-5
2Ch 4:2-5The brazen sea described as in 1Ki 7:23-26. See the commentary on that passage, and the sketch in my Archaeol. i. plate iii. fig. 1. The differences in substance, such as the occurrence of בּקרים and הבּקר, 2Ch 4:3, instead of פּקעים and הפּקים, and 3000 baths instead of 2000, are probably the result of orthographical errors in the Chronicle. יכיל in 2Ch 4:5 appears superfluous after the preceding מחזיק, and Berth. considers it a gloss which has come from 1 Kings into our text by mistake. But the expression is only pleonastic: “receiving baths, 3000 it held;” and there is no sufficient reason to strike out the words.
Verse 6
2Ch 4:6The ten lavers which, according to 1Ki 7:38, stood upon ten brazen stands, i.e., chests provided with carriage wheels. These stands, the artistic work on which is circumstantially described in 1Ki 7:27-37, are omitted in the Chronicle, because they are merely subordinate parts of the lavers. The size or capacity of the lavers is not stated, only their position on both sides of the temple porch, and the purpose for which they were designed, “to wash therein, viz., the work of the burnt-offering (the flesh of the burnt-offering which was to be burnt upon the altar) they rinsed therein,” being mentioned. For details, see in 1Ki 7:38. and the figure in my Archaol. i. plate iii. fig. 4. Occasion is here taken to mention in a supplementary way the use of the brazen sea.
Verses 7-8
2Ch 4:7-8The golden furniture of the holy place and the courts. These three verses are not found in the parallel narrative 1 Kings 7, where in 1Ki 7:39 the statement as to the position of the brazen sea (2Ch 4:10) follows immediately the statement of the position of the stands with the lavers. The candlesticks and the table of the shew-bread are indeed mentioned in the summary enumeration of the temple furniture, 1Ki 7:48 and 1Ki 7:49, as in the corresponding passage of the Chronicle (2Ch 4:19, 2Ch 4:20) they again occur; and in 1Ki 6:36 and 1Ki 7:12, in the description of the temple building, the inner court is spoken of, but the outer court is not expressly mentioned. No reason can be given for the
