(16) And he made chains, as in the oracle.--Heb., And he made chainwork in the oracle, or chancel, which is clearly corrupt. But if we read kad-debir for bad-debir, an infinitesimal change in Hebrew writing, we get the sense which our version suggests: And he made chainwork as in the chancel. It is true that the sacred writer has not told us that the walls of the Holy of Holies were so ornamented, but in 2Chronicles 3:5 he states it of the great hall or holy place, and 1Kings 6:29 declares that the whole house was adorned with mural carvings. It was quite natural to write, "and he made chainwork as in the oracle," assuming that such decorations really existed in the inner chamber. There seems therefore to be no need to alter debir into rabid, ("collar") as most commentators have done, although the change is very slight in Hebrew writing. The LXX. had the present Hebrew text, but, apparently, not understanding it transliterated the Hebrew words: "He made serseroth in the dabir." So Vulg., "as it were chainlets in the oracle." The Syriac and Arabic have "and he made chains of fifty cubits."

An hundred pomegranates.--So Jeremiah 52:23. (See 1Kings 7:20; 1Kings 7:42, from which it appears that there were altogether four hundred pomegranates, viz., an upper and lower row of one hundred each upon the chainwork of each pillar. So 2Chronicles 4:13.)

Verse 16. - Chains, as in the oracle. Though the writer of Chronicles has not in this description mentioned any chains as appertaining to the oracle, yet they are mentioned in the parallel. The selection of what is said has in our present text so much the appearance of haste, that this may account for the abrupt appearance of the allusion here. Otherwise the words, "in the oracle," tempt us to fear some corruptness of text, scarcely safely removed by Bertheau's suggestion to substitute רְבִיד ("ring") for דְבִיר ("oracle"). An hundred pomegranates (comp. 2 Chronicles 4:13; 1 Kings 7:15, 18, 20). These passages indicate that the total number of pomegranates was two hundred for each pillar.

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.See Chapter Introduction