2 Chronicles 3:15

Also he made before the house two pillars of thirty and five cubits high, and the chapiter that was on the top of each of them was five cubits.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(d) THE TWO BRONZE PILLARS IN THE PORCH

(2Chronicles 3:15-17). Comp. 1Kings 7:15-22.

(15) Before the house.—Before the holy place, in the porch.

Two pillars of thirty and five cubits high.—Two pillars thirty and five cubits in length. 1Kings 7:15 says “eighteen cubits,” so also 2Kings 25:17; Jeremiah 52:21; and no doubt correctly. Of the versions, the LXX. and Vulg. have “thirty-five;” the Syriac and Arabic, “eighteen.”

The chapiter—i.e., the capital. French, chapitre. Literally, the ornament. 1Kings 7:16 has “the crown; “so 2Chronicles 4:12.

Benson Commentary

2 Chronicles 3:15-16. He also made before the house — That is, before the holy house, or temple, as it is explained 2 Chronicles 3:17; two pillars of thirty and five cubits high — Namely, both taken together, being each near eighteen cubits, 1 Kings 7:15. He made chains as in the oracle — Like unto those which he made in the oracle, of which see 1 Kings 6:21. And made a hundred pomegranates — In each row, or two hundred in all, as it is said 1 Kings 7:20. These pillars, according to the signification of their names, Jachin and Boaz, mean establishment and strength. See the margin.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:1-17 The building of the temple. - There is a more particular account of the building of the temple in #1Ki 6". It must be in the place David had prepared, not only which he had purchased, but which he had fixed on by Divine direction. Full instructions enable us to go about our work with certainty and to proceed therein with comfort. Blessed be God, the Scriptures are enough to render the man of God thoroughly furnished for every good work. Let us search the Scriptures daily, beseeching the Lord to enable us to understand, believe, and obey his word, that our work and our way may be made plain, and that all may be begun, continued, and ended in him. Beholding God, in Christ, his true Temple, more glorious than that of Solomon's, may we become a spiritual house, a habitation of God through the Spirit.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Of thirty and five cubits - See 1 Kings 7:15 note. Some suppose that there has been a corruption of the number in the present passage.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2Ch 3:14-17. Veil and Pillars (see 1Ki 6:21).

The united height is here given; and though the exact dimensions would be thirty-six cubits, each column was only seventeen cubits and a half, a half cubit being taken up by the capital or the base. They were probably described as they were lying together in the mould before they were set up [Poole]. They would be from eighteen to twenty-one feet in circumference, and stand forty feet in height. These pillars, or obelisks, as some call them, were highly ornamented, and formed an entrance in keeping with the splendid interior of the temple.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Before the house, i.e. before the holy house, or before the temple as this is explained, 1 Chronicles 3:17, lest it should be understood of the most holy house, of which he had spoken before.

Thirty and five cubits high, to wit, both of them; of which See Poole "1 Kings 7:15".

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

See Chapter Introduction

Geneva Study Bible

Also he made before the house two pillars of {g} thirty and five cubits high, and the chapiter that was on the top of each of them was five cubits.

(g) Every one was eighteen cubits long, but the half cubit could not be seen, for it was hid in the roundness of the chapiter, and therefore he gives to every one only 17 and a half.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

15–17 (= 1 Kings 7:15-22). The Pillars Jachin and Boaz

15. before the house two pillars] Cp. 1 Kings 7:21, he set up the pillars at the porch of the temple, and Jeremiah 52:17 (translate, the pillars … that belonged to the house). These pillars were immediately in front of the porch, but (it seems) detached from it. They were cast in brass (2 Chronicles 4:11-17), were hollow (Jeremiah 52:21), and were crowned with “chapiters” (capitals) in shape like bowls (1 Kings 7:41). The dimensions of the pillars (without the chapiters) are variously given thus:—

2 Chronicles 3:15  (Heb.)

  length

  35 cubits.

2 Chronicles 3:15  (LXX.)

  height (ὕψος)

  35 cubits.

Jeremiah 52:21  (Heb.)

  height (ὕψος)

  18 cubits.

Jeremiah 52:21  (LXX.)

  height (ὕψος)

  35 cubits.

1 Kings 7:15  (Heb. and LXX.)

  height (ὕψος)

  18 cubits.

Jeremiah 52:21  (Heb. and LXX.)

  circumference

  12 cubits.

1 Kings 7:15  (Heb.)

  circumference

  12 cubits.

1 Kings 7:15  (LXX.)

  circumference

  14 cubits.

The purpose for which the pillars were erected is not certainly known. The fact that names were given them (2 Chronicles 3:17) suggests that they were symbols, perhaps of the presence of Jehovah; cp. Isaiah 19:19, where a pillar, maçççbâh, is regarded (equally with an altar) as “a sign and witness unto the Lord.” Such a pillar might sometimes be used as an altar; cp. 1 Chronicles 11:22 (note) and Genesis 28:18; and the “bowls” of the chapiters of Solomon’s two pillars may have been meant to contain something to be burnt in sacrifice. See Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 191, note 1, and Additional Note L, where there is an illustration of a coin shewing two detached pillars standing in front of the temple of Aphrodite at Paphos. The two pillars in the temple of Heracles at Tyre, of which Herodotus (2:44) speaks, were perhaps simply votive offerings.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 15. - Thirty and five cubits. The height of these pillars is attested in three places to have been 18 cubits (1 Kings 7:15; 2 Kings 25:17; Jeremiah 52:21). Some therefore think that the height given in our text describes rather the distance of the one pillar from the other, which would be just 35 cubits, if they stood at the extreme points of the line of the porch front; since the wings on each side (5 cubits for the lowest chamber, and 2.5 cubits for the thickness of the walls) would make up this amount. It is further noticed with this explanation that their height (18 cubits) with the chapiters (5 cubits) added, would bring them to the same height as the porch, and that their ornamentation agrees with that of the porch (1 Kings 7:19). All this may be the case. Yet considering other indications of uncertainty about our text, and the fact that the characters yod kheth (18) are easily superseded by lamed he (35), it is perhaps likelier that we have here simply a clerical error. The parallel place tells us that these pillars and the chapiters were cast of brass; that "a line [1 Kings 7:15; Jeremiah 52:41] of twelve cubits [not seven] did compass either of them about;" that the ornamentation of each chapiter was "a net of checker-work, and a wreath of chain-work;" that upon the five cubits of chapiter there was another "four cubits of lily-work," etc. If this last feature apply to the two pillars, and not (as some think) to the porch only, the pillars would reach a height of 27 cubits, and if it be supposed that they stood on some stone or other superstructure, it may still be that our "thirty-five cubits" has its meaning. Meantime the passage in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 52:41) tells us that the pillars were hollow, and that the thickness of the metal was "four fingers." 2 Chronicles 3:15

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The two brazen pillars before the house, i.e., before the porch, whose form is more accurately described in 1 Kings 7:15-22. The height of it is here given at thirty-five cubits, while, according to 1 Kings 7:15; 2 Kings 25:17; Jeremiah 52:21, it was only eighteen cubits. The number thirty-five has arisen by confounding יח equals 18 with לה equals 35; see on 1 Kings 7:16. הצּפת (ἁπ. λεγ.) from צפה, overlay, cover, is the hood of the pillar, i.e., the capital, called in 1 Kings 7:16. כּתרת, crown, capital, five cubits high, as in 1 Kings 7:16.