(a) THE PRINCIPAL VESSELS OF THE TEMPLE (2Chronicles 4:1-10).

THE BRAZEN ALTAR (2Chronicles 4:1).

(l) An altar of brass.--The brazen altar, or altar of burnt offering, made by Solomon, is not noticed in the parallel chapters of Kings (1 Kings 6, 7) which describe the construction of the temple and its vessels of service, but it is incidentally mentioned in another passage of the older work (1Kings 9:25), and its existence seems to be implied in 1Kings 8:22; 1Kings 8:64. This altar stood in the inner court of the temple. It rose from a terraced platform. (Comp. Ezekiel 43:13-17.) The Hebrew of this verse is such as to suggest that it must have existed in the original document. The style is the same. (Comp. the construction of the numerals with the noun, and note the word qom?h, "height," now used for the first time by the chronicler.) It would appear, therefore, that the verse has been accidentally omitted from the text of Kings.

THE BRAZEN SEA (2Chronicles 4:2-5).

(Comp. 1Kings 7:23-26.)

(2) Also he made a molten sea.--And he made the sea (i.e., the great basin) molten--i.e., of cast metal.

Of ten cubits . . . thereof.--Ten in the cubit from its lip to its lip, circular all round; and five in the cubit was its height. Word for word as in 1Kings 7:23, save that Kings has one different preposition ('ad, "unto," instead of 'el, "to"). "Lip." Comp. "lip of the sea," Genesis 22:17; "lip of the Jordan," 2Kings 2:13; a metaphor which is also used in Greek.

And a line of thirty cubits . . .--Line, i.e., measuring-line, as in Ezekiel 47:3. The Hebrew is q?w. In Kings we read a rare form, q?weh. The rest of the clause is the same in both texts.

Did compass.--Would compass, or go round it.

Verse 1. - An altar of brass. This in worthier material superseded the temporary altar of the tabernacle (Exodus 27:1, 2), made of shittim wood, and its dimensions five cubits long and broad and three cubits high. Large as was the present altar of brass as compared with the altar that preceded, it fell far short of the requirements of the grand day of dedication (1 Kings 8:64). No statement of the making of this altar occurs in the parallel. The place of it would be between vers. 22 and 23 of 1 Kings 7. But that Solomon made it is stated in 1 Kings 9:25, and other references to its presence are found in 1 Kings 8:22, 54, 64, etc. The position given to the altar is referred to alike in 1 Kings 8:22 and 2 Chronicles 6:12, 13, as in the court of the temple. It may be well to note that the altar, sacrifice, comes first, and is first spoken of.

4:1-22 The furniture of the temple. - Here is a further account of the furniture of God's house. Both without doors and within, there was that which typified the grace of the gospel, and shadowed out good things to come, of which the substance is Christ. There was the brazen altar. The making of this was not mentioned in the book of Kings. On this all the sacrifices were offered, and it sanctified the gift. The people who worshipped in the courts might see the sacrifices burned. They might thus be led to consider the great Sacrifice, to be offered in the fulness of time, to take away sin, and put an end to death, which the blood of bulls and goats could not possibly do. And, with the smoke of the sacrifices, their hearts might ascend to heaven, in holy desires towards God and his favour. In all our devotions we must keep the eye of faith fixed upon Christ. The furniture of the temple, compared with that of the tabernacle, showed that God's church would be enlarged, and his worshippers multiplied. Blessed be God, there is enough in Christ for all.See Introduction to Chapter 4