2 Chronicles 4:22

4:1-22 The furniture of the temple. - Here is a further account of the furniture of God's house. Both without doors and within, there was that which typified the grace of the gospel, and shadowed out good things to come, of which the substance is Christ. There was the brazen altar. The making of this was not mentioned in the book of Kings. On this all the sacrifices were offered, and it sanctified the gift. The people who worshipped in the courts might see the sacrifices burned. They might thus be led to consider the great Sacrifice, to be offered in the fulness of time, to take away sin, and put an end to death, which the blood of bulls and goats could not possibly do. And, with the smoke of the sacrifices, their hearts might ascend to heaven, in holy desires towards God and his favour. In all our devotions we must keep the eye of faith fixed upon Christ. The furniture of the temple, compared with that of the tabernacle, showed that God's church would be enlarged, and his worshippers multiplied. Blessed be God, there is enough in Christ for all.

4:1-22 The furniture of the temple. - Here is a further account of the furniture of God's house. Both without doors and within, there was that which typified the grace of the gospel, and shadowed out good things to come, of which the substance is Christ. There was the brazen altar. The making of this was not mentioned in the book of Kings. On this all the sacrifices were offered, and it sanctified the gift. The people who worshipped in the courts might see the sacrifices burned. They might thus be led to consider the great Sacrifice, to be offered in the fulness of time, to take away sin, and put an end to death, which the blood of bulls and goats could not possibly do. And, with the smoke of the sacrifices, their hearts might ascend to heaven, in holy desires towards God and his favour. In all our devotions we must keep the eye of faith fixed upon Christ. The furniture of the temple, compared with that of the tabernacle, showed that God's church would be enlarged, and his worshippers multiplied. Blessed be God, there is enough in Christ for all.

22 . the censers ] R.V. the firepans , in which fire was carried to and from the altar. and the entry ] R.V. and as for the entry . the doors of the house of the temple ] R.V. the doors of the house, to wit, of the temple . The “[greater] house” or “temple” is here distinguished from the “most holy place” or “shrine.” Cp. 2 Chronicles 3:5 ; 2 Chronicles 3:8 . were of gold ] According to 1 Kings 7:50 the hinges were of gold; the doors themselves were of olive wood overlaid with gold ( 1 Kings 6:31-32 ).

Verse 22. - The snuffers ; Hebrew, מְזַמְרות , occurring five times, and always translated "snuffers." A slightly different form of the word is translated "pruning-hooks "four times in the Prophets Isaiah, Joel, Micah. No doubt these snuffers were something different from the tongs of the preceding verse; the use of one may have been rather to cut the wicks, and the other to trim them. The spoons; Hebrew, כַפ . This is the word used so often for the "hand," but the essential idea of which is the hollow of either hand or foot or other thing, and among other things of a spoon shape. The word is used of the frankincense-cups ( Numbers 7:14, 20, 26 ) brought to the dedication of the tabernacle by the several princes. The censers; Hebrew, מַחְתּות . These were "snuff-dishes" ( Exodus 25:38 ; Exodus 37:23 ; Numbers 4:9 ). The entry of the house; Hebrew, פֶּתַח . Some think this word refers to the door-frames , as distinct from the door-leaves or doors themselves. But the parallel ( 1 Kings 7:50 ) gives us what is translated as "hinges" (Hebrew, פות ), a word that occurs only here in any such sense, as presumably (Gesenius, ' Lexicon ') "the hollowed part of a hinge," and Isaiah 3:17 for the pudenda muliebria. The mistaken transcribing of a kheth for a tau will amply account for the difference. 2 Chronicles 4:22

מזמּרות, knives, probably used along with the snuffers for the cleansing and trimming of the candlesticks and lamps, are not met with among the utensils of the tabernacle, but are here mentioned (Chr. and Kings), and in 2 Kings 12:14 and Jeremiah 52:18 , among the temple utensils. Along with the מזרקות, sacrificial vessels (see on 2 Chronicles 4:8 ), in 1 Chronicles 28:17 מזלנות, forks of gold, are also mentioned, which are not elsewhere spoken of. Among the utensils of the tabernacle we find only מזלגות of brass, flesh-forks, as an appurtenance of the altar of burnt-offering ( Exodus 27:3 ; Exodus 38:3 ; Numbers 4:14 ; cf. 1 Samuel 2:13 .), which, however, cannot be intended here, because all the utensils here enumerated belonged to the holy place. What purpose the golden forks served cannot be determined, but the mention of golden knives might lead us to presuppose that there would be golden forks as well. That the forks are not mentioned in our verse does not render their existence doubtful, for the enumeration is not complete: e.g., the ספּות, 1 Kings 7:50 , are also omitted. כּפּות, vessels for the incense, and מחתּות, extinguishers, as in 1 Kings 7:50 .

Instead of דּלתותיו הבּית וּפּתח הבּית , "and as regards the opening (door) of the house, its door-leaves," in 1 Kings 7:50 we have הבּית לדלתות והפּתת, "and the hinges of the door-leaves of the house." This suggests that פתח is only an orthographical error for פּתת; but then if we take it to be so, we must alter דּלתותיו into לדלתותיו. And, moreover, the expression הבּית פּתת, door-hinges of the house, is strange, as פּות properly denotes a recess or space between, and which renders the above-mentioned conjecture improbable. The author of the Chronicle seems rather himself to have generalized the expression, and emphasizes merely the fact that even the leaves of the doors in the most holy place and on the holy place were of gold; - of course not of solid gold; but they were, as we learn from 2 Chronicles 3:7 , overlaid with gold. This interpretation is favoured by the simple זהב being used without the predicate סגוּר. To the sing. פּתח no objection can be made, for the word in its fundamental signification, "opening," may easily be taken collectively.

4 . gold of Ophir ] Solomon brought much gold from Ophir . ( 2 Chronicles 8:18 ; 2 Chronicles 9:10 = 1 Kings 9:28 ; 1 Kings 10:11 ), which is probably to be identified with some part of the south-east coast of Arabia. LXX. gives Σουφεὶρ , i.e. perhaps India . For the amount see note on 1 Chronicles 22:14 . to overlay ] Cp. 2 Chronicles 3:4-8 . the houses ] i.e. the porch, the greater house, and the most holy house; 2 Chronicles 3:4-5 ; 2 Chronicles 3:8 .