2 Chronicles 3:6

And he garnished the house with precious stones for beauty: and the gold was gold of Parvaim.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(6) Garnished.—Overlaid (2Chronicles 3:4) the chamber.

Precious stones.—See 1Chronicles 29:2; and 1Kings 10:11, which relates that Hiram’s fleet brought “precious stones” from Ophir for Solomon. But no mention of this kind of decoration is made in 1 Kings 6. The Vulgate explains the phrase as meaning a floor of costly marble.

Gold of Parvaim.—Perhaps Farwâ, an auriferous region in S. Arabia. Others connect the word with the Sanskrit pûrva, “eastern,” and seek Parvaim, like Ophir, in India. The name does not recur in the Old Testament.

Benson Commentary

2 Chronicles 3:6-7. He garnished the house with precious stones for beauty — A great many precious stones were dedicated to God 1 Chronicles 29:2; 1 Chronicles 29:8, and these were set here and there where they would show to the best advantage. And the gold was gold of Parvaim — That is, of Taprobana, or Ceylon, as Bochart hath satisfactorily proved. See note on 1 Kings 9:28. With this gold, which was deemed the best, Solomon overlaid even the beams, the posts, the walls, and the doors, graving also cherubim on the walls — The finest houses now pretend to no better garnishing than good paint on the doors, posts, and walls: but the ornaments of the temple were more substantially rich. For it was to be a type of the New Jerusalem, which has therefore no temple in it, because it is all temple, and the walls, gates, and foundations of it are said to be precious stones and pearls.

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

Precious stones for beauty - Not marbles but gems (compare 1 Chronicles 29:2). The phrase translated "for beauty" means "for its beautification," "to beautify it."

Parvaim is probably the name of a place, but what is quite uncertain.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. he garnished the house with precious stones for beauty—better, he paved the house with precious and beautiful marble [Kitto]. It may be, after all, that these were stones with veins of different colors for decorating the walls. This was an ancient and thoroughly Oriental kind of embellishment. There was an under pavement of marble, which was covered with planks of fir. The whole interior was lined with boards, richly decorated with carved work, clusters of foliage and flowers, among which the pomegranate and lotus (or water-lily) were conspicuous; and overlaid, excepting the floor, with gold, either by gilding or in plates (1Ki 6:1-38).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole "1 Kings 9:26", &c.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

See Chapter Introduction

Geneva Study Bible

And he garnished the house with precious stones for beauty: and the gold was gold of {e} Parvaim.

(e) Some think it is Peru.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. precious stones] Not mentioned in the parallel account, but according to 1 Kings 5:17 costly stones (the same expression in Hebrew) were used for the foundations of the house. Probably here also costly rather than precious stones are meant.

Parvaim] Apparently the name of a place, but nothing certain is known about it.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - He garnished. The verb employed is (e) of ver. 4, supra (Revelation 21:19). Precious stones. The exact manner in which these were applied or fixed is not stated. What the precious stones were, however, need not be doubtful (1 Chronicles 29:2; the obvious references for which passage, Isaiah 54:11, 12 and Revelation 21:18-21, cannot be forgotten. See also Ezekiel 27:16; Song of Solomon 5:14; Lamentations 4:7). For beauty; i.e. to add beauty to the house. Parvaim. What this word designates, or, if a place, where the place was, is not known. Gesenius ('Lexicon,' sub vet.) would derive it from a Sanskrit word, purva, meaning "oriental." Hitzig suggests another Sanskrit word, paru, meaning "hill," and indicating the "twin hills" of Arabia (Prof., 6:7. § 11) as the derivation. And Knobel suggests that it is a form of Sepharvaim, the Syriac and Jonathan Targum version of Sephar (Genesis 10:30). The word does not occur in any other Bible passage (see Dr. Smith's 'Bible Dictionary,' vol. it. p. 711). 2 Chronicles 3:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

And he garnished the house with precious stones for ornament (of the inner sides of the walls); cf. 1 Chronicles 29:2, on which Bhr on 1 Kings 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 (1 Kings 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 פּרוים. 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 2 Chronicles 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 1 Kings 6:18, 1 Kings 6:29, and 1 Kings 6:30, and for the doors, 1 Kings 6:32-35.