2 Chronicles 2:7

Send now therefore a man cunning to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in iron,.... There being many things relating to the temple about to be built, and vessels to be put into it, which were to be made of those metals: and in purple, and crimson, and blue; used in making the vails for it, hung up in different places: and that can skill to grave; in wood or stone: with the cunning men that are with me in Judah and Jerusalem, whom my father David did provide; see 1 Chronicles 22:15.

2:1-18 Solomon's message to Huram respecting the temple, His treaty with Huram. - Solomon informs Huram of the particular services to be performed in the temple. The mysteries of the true religion, unlike those of the Gentile superstitions, sought not concealment. Solomon endeavoured to possess Huram with great and high thoughts of the God of Israel. We should not be afraid or ashamed to embrace every opportunity to speak of God, and to impress others with a deep sense of the importance of his favour and service. Now that the people of Israel kept close to the law and worship of God, the neighbouring nations were willing to be taught by them in the true religion, as the Israelites had been willing in the days of their apostacy, to be infected with the idolatries and superstitions of their neighbours. A wise and pious king is an evidence of the Lord's special love for his people. How great then was God's love to his believing people, in giving his only-begotten Son to be their Prince and their Saviour.

2 Chronicles 2:7 . Send me therefore a man cunning to work in gold, &c. — There were admirable artists, in all the works here referred to, at Tyre; some of whom Solomon desired to be sent to him, that they might assist those whom David had provided, but who were not so skilful as those of Tyre.

Verse 7. - Send me... a man cunning to work , etc. The parenthesis is now ended. By comparison of ver. 3, it appears that Solomon makes of Hiram's services to David his father a very plea why his own requests addressed now to Hiram should be granted. If we may be guided by the form of the expressions used in 1 Chronicles 14:1 and 2 Samuel 5:11, 12 , Hiram had in the first instance volunteered help to David, and had not waited to be applied to by David. This would show us more clearly the force of Solomon's plea.

Further, if we note the language of 1 Kings 5:1 , we may be disposed to think that it fills a gap in our present connection, and indicates that, though Solomon appears here to have had to take the initiative, an easy opportunity was opened, in the courteous embassy sent him in the persons of Hiram's "servants." That the king of this most privileged, separate, and exclusive people of Israel (and he the one who conducted that people to the very zenith of their fame) should have to apply and be permitted to apply to foreign and, so to say, heathen help, in so intrinsic a matter as the finding of the "cunning" and the "skill" of head and hand for the most sacred and distinctive chef d'oeuvre of the said exclusive nation, is a grand instance of nature breaking all trammels, even when most divinely purposed, and a grand token of the dawning comity of nations, of free-trade under the unlikeliest auspices, and of the brotherhood of humanity, never more broadly illustrated than when on an international scale. The competence of the Phoenicians and the people of Sidon and those over whom Hiram immediately reigned in the working of the metals, and furthermore in a very wide range of other subjects, is well sustained by the allusions of very various authorities (already instanced under 1 Chronicles 14:1, and passim ; Homer, 'Iliad,' 6:289-294; 23. 743; 'Odys.,' 4:614; 15:415-426; Herod., 3:19; 7:23, 44, 96; Strabo, 16:2. § 23).

See 1 Kings 5:6 , note; 1 Kings 7:13 , note. Purple ... - "Purple, crimson, and blue," would be needed for the hangings of the temple, which, in this respect, as in others, was conformed to the pattern of the tabernacle (see Exodus 25:4; Exodus 26:1, etc.). Hiram's power of "working in purple, crimson," etc., was probably a knowledge of the best modes of dyeing cloth these colors. The Phoenicians, off whose coast the murex was commonly taken, were famous as purple dyers from a very remote period. Crimson - כרמיל karmı̂̂yl, the word here and elsewhere translated "crimson," is unique to Chronicles and probably of Persian origin. The famous red dye of Persia and India, the dye known to the Greeks as κόκκος kokkos, and to the Romans as coccum, is obtained from an insect. Whether the "scarlet" שׁני shânı̂y of Exodus (Exodus 25:4, etc.) is the same or a different red, cannot be certainly determined.

(7) Send me now . . . — And now send me a wise man, to work in the gold and in the silver ( 1Chronicles 22:15 ; 2Chronicles 2:13 ). And in (the) purple, and crimson, and blue.—No allusion is made to this kind of art in 2Chronicles 4:11-16, nor in 1Kings 7:13 seq., which describe only metallurgic works of this master, whose versatile genius might easily be paralleled by famous names of the Renaissance. Purple (’argĕwān).—Aramaic form. (Heb. ’argāmān, Exodus 25:4.) Crimson (karmîl).—A word of Persian origin, occurring only here and in 2Chronicles 2:13, and 2Chronicles 3:14. (Comp. our word carmine.) Blue (tĕkēleth).—Dark blue, or violet (Exodus 25:4, and elsewhere.) Can skill.—Knoweth how. To grave.—Literally, to carve carvings; whether in wood or stone. (1Kings 6:29; Zechariah 3:9; Exodus 28:9, on gems.) With the cunning men.—The Hebrew connects this clause with the infinitive to work at the beginning of the verse. There should be a stop after the words to grave. Whom David my father did provide (prepared, 1Chronicles 29:2).—1Chronicles 22:15; 1Chronicles 28:21.