(c) CATALOGUE OF OBJECTS IN GOLD--CONCLUSION

(2Ch 4:19 -2Ch_5:1). 1Kings 7:48-50.

The narrative still coincides in the main with that of Kings, allowing for one or two remarkable alterations.

(19) For the house.--In the houses (without proposition, comp. 2Chronicles 4:11).

The golden altar also.--Literally, both the golden altar and the tables, and upon them the Presence bread. So LXX. and Vulg. The parallel passage, 1Kings 7:48, says, and the table on which (was) the Presence bread (in) gold. (See Note on 2Chronicles 4:8, supr., and 1Chronicles 28:16.) On the one hand, the chronicler in these three passages consistently speaks of tables, although the book of Kings mentions one table only; and, on the other hand, elsewhere he actually speaks himself of "the Pure Table," and "the Table of the Pile," as if there were only one such table (2Chronicles 13:11; 2Chronicles 29:18).

The difficulty cannot be solved with certainty; but it seems likely that, finding mention of a number of tables in one of his sources, the chronicler has grouped them all together with the Table of Shewbread. thus gaining brevity at the cost of accuracy. In Ezekiel 40:39 eight tables of hewn stone are mentioned, whereon they slew the sacrificial victims.

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