2 Chronicles 3:11

3:1-17 The building of the temple. - There is a more particular account of the building of the temple in #1Ki 6". It must be in the place David had prepared, not only which he had purchased, but which he had fixed on by Divine direction. Full instructions enable us to go about our work with certainty and to proceed therein with comfort. Blessed be God, the Scriptures are enough to render the man of God thoroughly furnished for every good work. Let us search the Scriptures daily, beseeching the Lord to enable us to understand, believe, and obey his word, that our work and our way may be made plain, and that all may be begun, continued, and ended in him. Beholding God, in Christ, his true Temple, more glorious than that of Solomon's, may we become a spiritual house, a habitation of God through the Spirit.

2 Chronicles 3:11-13 . The wings of the cherubims were twenty cubits long — Which was just the breadth of the most holy place. And they stood on their feet — As servants, being designed, it seems, to represent the angels, those ministers of God who do his pleasure, Psalm 103:21 , and who always attend the Divine Majesty. And their faces were inward — Toward the ark, that it might appear they were not set there to be adored, for then they would have been formed as sitting on a throne, and their faces would have been toward their worshippers.

Verse 11. - Twenty cubits . This, like all the preceding cubit measurings of the temple foundations and heights, and with all the succeeding cherubim measurings, is the exact double of that observed by Moses ( Exodus 37:6-9 ). The height of the cherubim, ten cubits, not mentioned in our text, is given in the parallel ( 1 Kings 6:26 ). 2 Chronicles 3:11

(11) And the wings of the cherubims were twenty cubits long. — Their length was, altogether, twenty cubits; so that, being outspread, they reached from wall to wall of the Holy of holies, which was twenty cubits wide. Of this breadth each cherub covered half, or ten cubits, with his wings, which were five cubits apiece in length. Obviously the inner wing of each cherub met the inner wing of the other in the middle of the wall. One wing . . . other cherub.—The wing of the one, extending to five cubits, was touching the wall of the chamber, and the other wing—five cubits—was touching the wing of the other cherub.

10-13. two cherubims—These figures in the tabernacle were of pure gold (Ex 25:1-40) and overshadowed the mercy seat. The two placed in the temple were made of olive wood, overlaid with gold. They were of colossal size, like the Assyrian sculptures; for each, with expanded wings, covered a space of ten cubits in height and length—two wings touched each other, while the other two reached the opposite walls; their faces were inward, that is, towards the most holy house, conformably to their use, which was to veil the ark.

The figures of the cherubim are called צעצעים מעשׂה, sculpture work. The ἁπ. λεγ.. צעצעים comes from צוּע, Arab. ṣâǵ, formavit, finxit, and signifies sculptures. The plur. יצפּוּ, "they overlaid them," is indefinite. The length of the wings was five cubits, and the four outspread wings extended across the whole width of the most holy place from one wall to the other. The repetition of the clauses האהר הכּרוּב...האהד כּנף ( 2 Chronicles 3:11 , 2 Chronicles 3:12 ) has a distributive force: the top of one wing of each cherub reached the wall of the house, that of the other wing reached the wing of the other cherub standing by. In the repetition the masc. מגּיע alternates with the fem. מגּעת, being construed in a freer way as the principal gender with the fem. כּנף, and also with דּבקה, adhaerebat, in the last clause. - In 2 Chronicles 3:12 Bertheau would strike out the word כּנפי because it does not suit פּרשׂים, which occurs in 1 Chronicles 28:17 ; 2 Chronicles 5:8 ; 1 Kings 8:7 , in the transitive signification, "to stretch out the wings." But nothing is gained by that, for we must then supply the erased word after פּרשׂים again. And, moreover, the succeeding clause is introduced by והם, just because in the first clause the wings, and not the cherubim, were the subject. We hold the text to be correct, and translate: "the wings of these cherubim were, for they stretched them out, twenty cubits." והם refers to הכּרוּבים.

They stood upon their feet, consequently upright, and were, according to 1 Kings 6:26 , ten cubits high. "And their faces towards the house," i.e., turned towards the holy place, not having their faces turned towards each other, as was the case with the cherubim upon the Capporeth ( Exodus 25:20 ).