2 Chronicles · Chapter 2

V. 1. His kingdom-A royal palace for himself and his successors.

Verse 1. A house for the name of the Lord] A temple for the worship of Jehovah.

A house for his kingdom.] A royal palace for his own use as king of Israel.

Verse 1. And a house for his kingdom — A royal palace for himself and his successors. The substance of this whole chapter is contained in 1 Kings 5., and is explained in the notes there, and the seeming differences between the contents of this and it reconciled.

Verse 1. A house. The word temple among the Jews, gradually obtained from the Gentiles. The Egyptians were the first that built temples; the Greeks and the Tyrians followed, as they rose to wealth and science. It was therefore wise in Solomon to employ the Tyrian artificers which now excelled the Egyptians. The hundred and fifty three thousand six hundred workmen engaged in this national enterprise did each a little, and did it well.

1. A house for his kingdom — That is, a royal palace.

Verse 3. Solomon sent to Huram] This man’s name is written חירם Chiram in Kings; and in Chronicles, חורם Churam: there is properly no difference, only a y yod and a w vau interchanged. See on 1 Kings 5:2.

Verse 3. And Solomon sent to Huram — Or Hiram, as he is called in the first book of Kings where we learn that he first sent to Solomon to congratulate him on his accession to the throne, and then Solomon sent to him.

3. Huram — The original and more correct form of the name was Hiram. Comp. 2 Samuel 5:11.

Verse 4. To dedicate it to him — To his honour and worship. For the continual show-bread — So called here and Numbers 4:7, because it stood before the Lord continually, by a constant succession of new bread, when the old was removed. See Exodus 25:30; Leviticus 24:8.

V. 5. Great-For though the temple strictly so called, was but small, yet the buildings belonging to it, were large and numerous.

Verse 5. The house which I build is great — Though the temple, strictly so called, was small, yet the buildings belonging to it were large and numerous. For great is our God above all gods — Above all idols, above all princes. Idols are nothing, princes are little, and both are under the control of the God of Israel. Therefore the house must be great; not indeed in proportion to the greatness of that God to whom it is to be dedicated, for between finite and infinite there can be no proportion; but in some proportion to the exalted conceptions we have of him, and the great esteem we have for him.

V. 6. Contain-When I speak of building an house for our great God, let none think I mean to comprehend God within it, for he is infinite. To sacrifice-To worship him there where he is graciously present.

Verse 6. Seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens] “For the lower heavens, the middle heavens, and the upper heavens cannot contain him, seeing he sustains all things by the arm of his power. Heaven is the throne of his glory, the earth his footstool; the deep, and the whole world, are sustained by the spirit of his WORD, [ hyrmym jwrb beruach meymereih.] Who am I, then, that I should build him a house?”-Targum. Save only to burn sacrifice] It is not under the hope that the house shall be able to contain him, but merely for the purpose of burning incense to him, and offering him sacrifice, that I have erected it.

Verse 6. But who is able to build him a house — No house, be it ever so great, can be a habitation for him. Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him — Nor does he, like the gods of the nations, dwell in temples made with hands. When, therefore, I speak of building a great house for the great God, let none be so foolish as to imagine that I mean to include or comprehend God within it, for he is infinite. Who am I, then, that I should build him a house — He looked upon himself, though a mighty prince, as utterly unworthy of the honour of being employed in this great work. Save only to burn sacrifice before him — As if he had said, We have not such low notions of our God as to suppose we can build a house that will contain him: we only intend it for the convenience of his priests and worshippers, that they may have a suitable place wherein to assemble and offer sacrifices and prayers, and perform other religious duties to him. Thus Solomon guards Hiram against any misapprehension concerning God, which his speaking of building him a house might otherwise have occasioned. And it is one part of the wisdom wherein we ought to walk toward them that are without, in a similar manner carefully to guard against all misapprehension which anything we may say or do may occasion concerning any truth or duty of religion.

Verse 7. Send me-a man cunning to work] A person of great ingenuity, who is capable of planning and directing, and who may be over the other artists.

Verse 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.

7. Send me… a man cunning to work in gold — A skilled artificer; a master workman. Here we have the specific request for such a workman, which is implied, but not explicitly stated, in Kings.

Ver. 8. Algum-trees. Hebrew, berosh, which is thought to be a species of cedar not fragrant. Jerome, following the Greeks, wrote arceuthina, or the juniper tree.

Verse 10. Behold, I will give thy servants twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, &c. — Solomon would not feed his workmen with bread and water, but with plenty of provisions, and of the best kind. They that employ labourers ought to take care that they be not only well paid, but well provided for, with sufficient of that which is wholesome and proper for them. Let rich masters do for their poor servants and workmen as they would be done by it the tables were turned.

Verse 11. Answered in writing] Though correspondence among persons of distinction was, in these early times, carried on by confidential messengers, yet we find that epistolary correspondence did exist, and that kings could write and read in what were called by the proud and insolent Greeks and Romans barbarous nations. Nearly two thousand years after this we find a king on the British throne who could not sign his own name. About the year of our Lord 700, Withred, king of Kent, thus concludes a charter to secure the liberties of the Church: Ego Wythredus rex Cantiæ haec omnia suprascripta et confirmavi, atque, a me dictata propria manu signum sanctæ crucis pro ignorantia literarum espressi; “All the above dictated by myself, I have confirmed; and because I cannot write, I have with my own hand expressed this by putting the sign of the holy cross +.”-See Wilkins’ Concilta.

Verse 11. Huram answered, Because the Lord loved his people, &c. — Thus he congratulates the happiness of Israel in having such a king as Solomon was. And certainly a wise and good government is a great blessing to a people, and may well be accounted a singular token of God’s favour. He does not say, Because he loved thee he made thee king, (though that also was true,) but because he loved his people. Princes must look upon themselves as preferred for the public good, not for their own personal satisfaction, and should rule so as to evidence they were given to their people in love, not in anger.

V. 12. Made heaven and earth-It seems Huram was not only a friend to the Jewish nation, but a proselyte to their religion, and that he worshipped Jehovah, the God of Israel, (who was now known by that name to the neighbour-nations) as the God that made heaven and earth, and the fountain of power as well as of being.

Verse 12. Blessed be the Lord that made heaven and earth — It seems Huram was not only a friend to the Jewish nation, but a proselyte to their religion, and that he worshipped Jehovah, the God of Israel, (who was now known by that name to the neighbour nations,) as the God that made heaven and earth, and the fountain of power as well as of being.

Verse 13. I have sent a conning man] His name appears to have been Hiram, or Hiram Abi: see the notes on 1 Kings 7:13, 14.

Ver. 13. Of Huram my father’s. Josephus explains this, by calling the king Huram, and the artist Uram. According to 1 Kings 7:13, 14, the name of this celebrated workman was Hiram of Tyre, but descended from the tribe of Naphtali. Mr. Whiston, an Arian, makes much ado about the variation in the orthography of Hebrew names in this book, and evidently with a view to lower the credit of revelation. The fact is, Ezra found them differently spelled in holy books, which must be the case where names are written from oral enunciation. We lay too much blame on transcribers.

13. Of Huram my father’s — The of (l in the Hebrew being here merely the sign of the accusative) should be omitted, and the word rendered my father taken as a part of Huram’s name. Thus: I have sent a cunning man… Huram-Abi. If, however, it be preferred to translate the word, Abi, my father, it is to be taken in the sense of my master; that is, my master-workman. Comp. 2 Chronicles 4:16, and Genesis 45:8. See note on 1 Kings 7:13, 14.

V. 14. Of Dan, &c.-A good omen of uniting Jew and Gentile in the gospel-temple.

Verse 14. The son of a woman — of Dan, and his father a man of Tyre — A good omen of uniting Jew and Gentile in the gospel temple. With the cunning men of my lord David — So he calls David here, and Solomon in the next verse, either out of singular respect to their greatness and worth, or because he was indeed tributary to them: or, at least, his country was nourished by their country, as it was afterward, Acts 12:20.

Verse 16. In floats by sea to Joppa] See Clarke’s note on “1 Kings 5:9”, and on the parallel places, for other matters contained in this chapter. II CHRONICLES

V. 17. The strangers-For David had not only numbered his own people, but afterward the strangers, that Solomon might have a true account of them, and employ them about his buildings. Yet Solomon numbered them again, because death might have made a considerable alteration among them since David’s numbering.

Verse 17. Solomon numbered all the strangers — For David had not only numbered his own people, but afterward the strangers, that Solomon might have a true account of them, and employ them about his buildings. Yet Solomon numbered them again, because death might have made a considerable alteration among them since David’s numbering.

V. 18. Hewers in the mountains-He would not employ the free-born Israelites in this drudgery, but the strangers that were proselytes, who having no lands, applied themselves to trades, and got their living by their industry or ingenuity.

Verse 18. To be hewers in the mountain — He would not employ the free-born Israelites in this drudgery, but the strangers that were proselytes, who, having no lands, applied themselves to trades, and got their living by their industry or ingenuity.