2 Chronicles 3:14

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 3:14 . And he made the veil, &c. — The inner veil, which parted between the holy and the most holy place. This denoted the darkness of that dispensation, and the distance at which the worshippers were kept. But at the death of Christ this veil was rent; for through him we are brought nigh, and have boldness, or παρρησια , liberty, Hebrews 10:19 , not only to look, but to enter into the holiest. And wrought cherubims thereon — Hebrew, ויעל , vajagnal, he caused to ascend; that is, they were made in raised work, embossed, and appeared probably on the wing, in an ascending posture, to remind the worshippers to raise their thoughts and affections to God, and to soar upward in their devotions.

14 (cp. Exodus 26:31-32 ). The Vail No vail for Solomon’s Temple is mentioned in 1 Kings, but ( 1 Kings 6:31-32 ) doors of olive wood with cherubim carved upon them stood at the entrance of the Holy of Holies. The vail here described seems to have been borrowed by the Chronicler from the account of the tabernacle given in Exodus.

Verse 14. - The veil of blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine linen (so Exodus 26:31, 33, 35 ; Exodus 36:35 ; Exodus 40:3, 21 ). It is remarkable that our parallel ( 1 Kings 6 .) does not make mention of the veil, though a feature of which so much was always made ( Matthew 27:51 ; Mark 15:38 ; Luke 23:45 ; Hebrews 6:19 ; Hebrews 9:3 ). On the other hand, it is remarkable that our present passage does not make mention of the folding "doors of olive tree," which, with "the veil," intercepted the approach to the oracle ( 1 Kings 6:31, 32 ), nor of the partition walls ( 1 Kings 6:16 ) in which they were situate, nor of the "partition chains [ 1 Kings 6:21 ] of gold before the oracle." 2 Chronicles 3:14

(14) The vail. —The Pārōkheth, or curtain, which divided the holy place from the holy of holies, is not mentioned in the existing text of 1Kings 6:21 , which passage, however, speaks of the chains of gold by which the vail was probably suspended. Blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine linen.—See Notes on 2Chronicles 2:7; 2Chronicles 2:14. Wrought.—See Note on “set,” 2Chronicles 3:5. Here raised figures in tapestry or broidered work are meant. (See Exodus 26:31, which gives an identical description of the vail of the tabernacle.)

2Ch 3:14-17. Veil and Pillars (see 1Ki 6:21). The united height is here given; and though the exact dimensions would be thirty-six cubits, each column was only seventeen cubits and a half, a half cubit being taken up by the capital or the base. They were probably described as they were lying together in the mould before they were set up [Poole]. They would be from eighteen to twenty-one feet in circumference, and stand forty feet in height. These pillars, or obelisks, as some call them, were highly ornamented, and formed an entrance in keeping with the splendid interior of the temple.

The veil between the holy place and the most holy, not mentioned in 1 Kings 6:21 , was made of the same materials and colours as the veil on the tabernacle, and was inwoven with similar cherub figures; cf. Exodus 26:31 . וּבוּץ כּרמיל as in 2 Chronicles 2:13 . עלה על, to bring upon; an indefinite expression for: to weave into the material.