2 Chronicles 2:9

Even to prepare me timber in abundance: for the house which I am about to build shall be wonderful great.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) Even to prepare me timber in abundance.—Rather, And they shall prepare, or, let them prepare. (A use of the infinitive, to which the chronicler is partial: see 1Chronicles 5:1; 1Chronicles 9:25; 1Chronicles 13:4; 1Chronicles 15:2; 1Chronicles 22:5.) So Syriac, “Let them be bringing to me.”

Shall be wonderful great.—See margin; and LXX., μέγας καὶ ἔνδοξος, “great and glorious;” Syriac, “an astonishment” (temhā).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:1-18 Solomon's message to Huram respecting the temple, His treaty with Huram. - Solomon informs Huram of the particular services to be performed in the temple. The mysteries of the true religion, unlike those of the Gentile superstitions, sought not concealment. Solomon endeavoured to possess Huram with great and high thoughts of the God of Israel. We should not be afraid or ashamed to embrace every opportunity to speak of God, and to impress others with a deep sense of the importance of his favour and service. Now that the people of Israel kept close to the law and worship of God, the neighbouring nations were willing to be taught by them in the true religion, as the Israelites had been willing in the days of their apostacy, to be infected with the idolatries and superstitions of their neighbours. A wise and pious king is an evidence of the Lord's special love for his people. How great then was God's love to his believing people, in giving his only-begotten Son to be their Prince and their Saviour.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See 1 Kings 5:6, note; 1 Kings 7:13, note.

Purple ... - "Purple, crimson, and blue," would be needed for the hangings of the temple, which, in this respect, as in others, was conformed to the pattern of the tabernacle (see Exodus 25:4; Exodus 26:1, etc.). Hiram's power of "working in purple, crimson," etc., was probably a knowledge of the best modes of dyeing cloth these colors. The Phoenicians, off whose coast the murex was commonly taken, were famous as purple dyers from a very remote period.

Crimson - כרמיל karmı̂̂yl, the word here and elsewhere translated "crimson," is unique to Chronicles and probably of Persian origin. The famous red dye of Persia and India, the dye known to the Greeks as κόκκος kokkos, and to the Romans as coccum, is obtained from an insect. Whether the "scarlet" שׁני shânı̂y of Exodus (Exodus 25:4, etc.) is the same or a different red, cannot be certainly determined.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. Send me … cedar trees, &c.—The cedar and cypress were valued as being both rare and durable; the algum or almug trees (likewise a foreign wood), though not found on Lebanon, are mentioned as being procured through Huram (see on [409]1Ki 10:11).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole "1 Chronicles 2:5".

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Even to prepare me timber in abundance,.... Since he would want a large quantity for raftering, cieling, wainscoting, and flooring the temple:

for the house which I am about to build shall be wonderful great; as to its structure and ornaments.

Geneva Study Bible

Even to prepare me timber in abundance: for the house which I am about to build shall be wonderful great.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

2 Chronicles 2:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The infinitive וּלהכין cannot be regarded as the continuation of לכרות, nor is it a continuation of the imperat. לי שׁלח (2 Chronicles 2:7), with the signification, "and let there be prepared for me" (Berth.). It is subordinated to the preceding clauses: send me cedars, which thy people who are skilful in the matter hew, and in that my servants will assist, in order, viz., to prepare me building timber in plenty (the ו is explic). On 2 Chronicles 2:8 cf. 2 Chronicles 2:4. The infin. abs. הפלא is used adverbially: "wonderfully" (Ew. 280, c). In return, Solomon promises to supply the Tyrian workmen with grain, wine, and oil for their maintenance - a circumstance which is omitted in 1 Kings 5:10; see on 2 Chronicles 2:14. להטבים is more closely defined by העצים לכרתי, and ל is the introductory ל: "and behold, as to the hewers, the fellers of trees." חטב, to hew (wood), and to dress it (Deuteronomy 29:10; Joshua 9:21, Joshua 9:23), would seem to have been supplanted by חצב, which in 2 Chronicles 2:2, 2 Chronicles 2:18 is used for it, and it is therefore explained by העצים כּרת. "I will give wheat מכּות to thy servants" (the hewers of wood). The word מכּות gives no suitable sense; for "wheat of the strokes," for threshed wheat, would be a very extraordinary expression, even apart from the facts that wheat, which is always reckoned by measure, is as a matter of course supposed to be threshed, and that no such addition is made use of with the barley. מכּות is probably only an orthographical error for מכּלת, food, as may be seen from 1 Kings 5:11.