Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Chronicles 3:4
And the porch that [was] in the front [of the house], the length [of it was] according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and the height [was] a hundred and twenty: and he overlaid it within with pure gold.
4 (= 1Ki 6:3). The Porch
4. And the porch that was in the front of the house] The Hebrew text is faulty, but the sense is probably correctly given in A.V.
the length of it was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits ] R.V. the length of it, according to the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits.
the height was an hundred and twenty ] So LXX. If the measurement is correctly given, this building was rather a tower than a porch. In 1 Kings nothing is said about height.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The height was an hundred and twenty cubits – This height, which so much exceeds that of the main building 1Ki 6:2, is probably to be corrected by the reading of the Arabic Version and the Alexandrian Septuagint, twenty cubits. But see 2Ch 3:9.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 4. The height was a hundred and twenty] Some think this should be twenty only; but if the same building is spoken of as in 1Kg 6:2, the height was only thirty cubits. Twenty is the reading of the Syriac, the Arabic, and the Septuagint in the Codex Alexandrinus. The MSS. give us no help. There is probably a mistake here, which, from the similarity of the letters, might easily occur. The words, as they now stand in the Hebrew text, are meah veesrim, one hundred and twenty. But probably the letters in meah, a hundred, are transposed for ammah, a cubit, if, therefore, the aleph be placed after the mem, then the word will be meah one hundred; if before it the word will be ammah, a cubit; therefore ammah esrim will be twenty cubits; and thus the Syriac, Arabic, and Septuagint appear to have read. This will bring it within the proportion of the other measures, but a hundred and twenty seems too great a height.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The height was an hundred and twenty; this being a kind of turret to the building. The breadth of it here omitted is expressed to be ten cubits, 1Ki 6:3.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. the porchThe breadth ofthe house, whose length ran from east to west, is here given as themeasure of the length of the piazza. The portico would thus be fromthirty to thirty-five feet long, and from fifteen to seventeen and ahalf feet broad.
the height was an hundred andtwenty cubitsThis, taking the cubit at eighteen inches, wouldbe one hundred eighty feet; at twenty-one inches, two hundred tenfeet; so that the porch would rise in the form of a tower, or twopyramidal towers, whose united height was one hundred twenty cubits,and each of them about ninety or one hundred five feet high[STIEGLITZ]. This porchwould thus be like the propylum or gateway of the palace ofKhorsabad [LAYARD], or atthe temple of Edfou.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
[See comments on 2Ch 3:1].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The porch and the interior of the holy place. – 2Ch 3:4. The porch which was before (i.e., in front of) the length (of the house), was twenty cubits before the breadth of the house, i.e., was as broad as the house. So understood, the words give an intelligible sense. with the article refers back to in 2Ch 3:3 (the length of the house), and in the two defining clauses means “in front;” but in the first clause it is “lying in front of the house,” i.e., built in front; in the second it is “measured across the front of the breadth of the house.”
(Note: There is consequently no need to alter the text according to 1Ki 6:3, from which passage Berth. would interpolate the words between and , and thereby get the signification: “ and the porch which is before the house, ten cubits is its breadth before the same, and the length which is before the breadth twenty cubits. ” But this conjecture is neither necessary nor probable. It is not necessary, for (1) the present text gives an intelligible sense; (2) the assertion that the length and breadth of the porch must be stated cannot be justified, if for no other reason, for this, that even of the main buildings all three dimensions are not given, only two being stated, and that it was not the purpose of the author of the Chronicle to give an architecturally complete statement, his main anxiety being to supply a general idea of the splendour of the temple. It is not probable; because the chronicler, if he had followed 1Ki 6:3, would not have written , but , and instead of would have written , to correspond with .)
There is certainly either a corruption of the text, or a wrong number in the statement of the height of the porch, 120 cubits; for a front 120 cubits high to a house only thirty cubits high could not be called ; it would have been a , a tower. It cannot with certainty be determined whether we should read twenty or thirty cubits; see in 1Ki 6:3. He overlaid it (the porch) with pure gold; cf. 1Ki 6:21.
2Ch 3:5-7 The interior of the holy place. – 2Ch 3:5. The “great house,” i.e., the large apartment of the house, the holy place, he wainscotted with cypresses, and overlaid it with good gold, and carved thereon palms and garlands. from , to cover, cover over, alternates with the synonymous in the signification to coat or overlay with wood and gold. .dlo as in Eze 41:18, for , 1Ki 6:29, 1Ki 6:35, are artificial palms as wall ornaments. are in Exo 28:14 small scroll-formed chains of gold wire, here spiral chain-like decorations on the walls, garlands of flowers carved on the wainscot, as we learn from 1Ki 6:18.
2Ch 3:6-7 And he garnished the house with precious stones for ornament (of the inner sides of the walls); cf. 1Ch 29:2, on which Bhr on 1Ki 6:7 appositely remarks, that the ornamenting of the walls with precious stones is very easily credible, since among the things which Solomon brought in quantity from Ophir they are expressly mentioned (1Ki 10:11), and it was a common custom in the East so to employ them in buildings and in vessels; cf. Symbolik des mos. Cult. i. S. 280, 294, 297. The gold was from . This, the name of a place rich in gold, does not elsewhere occur, and has not as yet been satisfactorily explained. Gesen. with Wilson compares the Sanscrit parvam , the first, foremost, and takes it to be the name of the foremost, i.e., eastern regions; others hold the word to be the name of some city in southern or eastern Arabia, whence Indian gold was brought to Palestine. – In 2Ch 3:7 the garnishing of the house with gold is more exactly and completely described. He garnished the house, the beams (of the roof), the thresholds (of the doors), and its walls and its doors with gold, and carved cherubs on the walls. For details as to the internal garnishing, decoration, and gilding of the house, see 1Ki 6:18, 1Ki 6:29, and 1Ki 6:30, and for the doors, 1Ki 6:32-35.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(4) And the porch . . . twenty cubits.Heb., and the porch that was before the length (i.e., that lay in front of the oblong main building), before the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits (i.e., the porch was as. long as the house was broad). This curious statement answers to what we read in 1Ki. 6:3 : And the porch before the hall of the house, twenty cubits was its length, before the breadth of the house. But the Hebrew is too singular to pass without challenge, and comparison of the versions suggests that we ought to read here: And the porch which was before it (Syriac), or before the house (LXX.), its length before the breadth of the house was twenty cubits. This would involve but slight alteration of the Hebrew text. (Comp. 2Ch. 3:8.)
And the height was an hundred and twenty. This would make the porch four times the height of the main building, which was thirty cubits. The Alexandrine MS. of the LXX., and the Arabic version, read twenty cubits; the Syriac omits the whole clause,, which has no parallel in Kings, and is further suspicious as wanting the word cubits, usually expressed after the number (see 2Ch. 3:3). The Hebrew may be a corruption of the clause, and its breadth ten cubits. (Comp. 1Ki. 6:3.)
And he overlaid it within with pure gold.See 1Ki. 6:21.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2Ch 3:4. And the height was an hundred and twenty And the height was twenty cubits. Houbigant. See 1Ki 6:2.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2Ch 3:4 And the porch that [was] in the front [of the house], the length [of it was] according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and the height [was] an hundred and twenty: and he overlaid it within with pure gold.
Ver. 4. And the porch. ] See on 1Ki 6:3 .
And he overlaid it within with pure gold.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
according to = in the front of.
an hundred and twenty. Read “twenty” by a transposition of letters.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the porch: Joh 10:23, Act 3:11, Act 5:12
an hundred and twenty: As the height of the temple was only thirty cubits, 120 seems too great a height for the porch; but the Syriac, Arabic, and the LXX in the codex Alexandrinus, have only twenty, probably reading, instead of maiah weesrim, “one hundred and twenty,” ammoth esrim, “twenty cubits;” which brings it within the proportion of the other measures.
Reciprocal: Exo 25:11 – General 1Ki 6:3 – General 1Ch 6:10 – Solomon 1Ch 28:11 – the porch 2Ch 29:17 – the porch Ezr 6:3 – the height Psa 78:69 – And he Eze 40:48 – the porch Mat 4:5 – on Luk 4:9 – on
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
3:4 And the porch that [was] in the front [of the house], the length [of it was] according to the {c} breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and the height [was] an {d} hundred and twenty: and he overlaid it within with pure gold.
(c) It contained as much as the breadth of the temple did, 1Ki 6:3.
(d) From the foundation to the top: for in the book of the kings mention is made from the foundation to the first stage.