2 Chronicles 4:6

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.

6 (cp. 2 Chronicles 4:14 and 1 Kings 7:38-39 ). The Lavers 6 . such things as they offered for the burnt offering ] R.V. such things as belonged to the burnt offering . The lavers were mounted on bases; cp. 2 Chronicles 4:14 . for the priests ] Cp. Exodus 30:18-21 ; Exodus 38:8 ; Exodus 40:30-32 . 7 (= 1 Kings 7:49 ). The Golden Candlesticks ten candlesticks ] Rather, the ten lamp-stands ; cp. Exodus 40:4 . according to their form ] R.V. according to the ordinance concerning them ; cp. Exodus 25:31-37 ; Exodus 40:4 . in the temple ] In 1 Kings 7:49 more precisely, before the oracle , i.e. before the Holy of Holies.

THE TEN LAVERS: THEIR USE, AND THAT OF THE SEA (2Chronicles 4:6). (Comp. 1Kings 7:27-39.) (6) The chronicler now returns to his abbreviating style, and omits altogether the description of the ten bases, or stands, upon which the lavers were placed, and which are described in full and curious detail in 1Kings 7:27-39. The unusual difficulty of the passage may have determined the omission, but it seems more likely that the sacred writer thought the bases of less importance than the objects described in 2Chronicles 4:7-9, the account of which he has interpolated between the first and second half of 1Kings 7:39. He made also ten lavers.—And he made ten pans. The word kîyôr is used in 1Samuel 2:14 as a pan for cooking, and in Zechariah 12:6 as a pan holding fire. Its meaning here and in the parallel place is a pan for washing. (Comp. Exodus 30:18; Exodus 30:28.) The LXX. renders λουτῆρας, “baths;” the Syriac, laqnê, “flagons” (lagenae, λάγηνοι). To wash in them.—This statement, and, indeed, the rest of the verse is peculiar to the chronicler. On the other hand, 1Kings 7:38 specifies the size and capacity of the lavers here omitted. Such things as they offered for the burnt offering they washed in them.—This gives the meaning. Literally, the work (comp. Exodus 29:36, “to do” being equivalent to “to offer”) of the burnt offering they used to rinse (strictly, thrust, plunge) in them. But the sea was for the priests to wash in.—The Hebrew words have been transposed apparently.

The same infinitive (lĕrohçāh) occurs in Exodus 30:18; Exodus 40:30, in a similar context. Instead of all this, the Syriac and Arabic versions read: “put them five on the right hand and five on the left, that the priests might wash in them their hands and their feet,” which appears to be derived from Exodus 30:19; Exodus 40:31.

2Ch 4:6-18. The Ten Lavers, Candlesticks, and Tables. 6. ten lavers—(See on [415]1Ki 7:27). The laver of the tabernacle had probably been destroyed. The ten new ones were placed between the porch and the altar, and while the molten sea was for the priests to cleanse their hands and feet, these were intended for washing the sacrifices.

The ten lavers which, according to 1 Kings 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 1 Kings 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 1 Kings 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.