Solomon built The LORD’S house in seven years, but he took thirteen years to build his own house. It is interesting that the chapter begins with a ‘but’. Maybe this shows where his priorities lay, or alternatively, his own house would be more glorious than The LORD’S house, and we see in the following verses how magnificent his own house was; therefore, it seems it was the latter.
We are told in v2-12 that he made his house and referred to it as the House of the forest of Lebanon built from cedars of Lebanon, richly panelled. Its dimensions were 100 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high. Forty-five pillars of cedar in four rows with beams. The windows had bevelled frames, in three tiers, each window opposite to another in three rows. All the doorways had rectangular frames. He made the Hall of Pillars, fifty cubits long and thirty cubits wide. In front was a portico of pillars and a canopy in front of that.
He made a judgment hall of cedar, panelled from floor to ceiling in cedar. He made another court inside his house similarly clad as well as a house for Pharaoh’s daughter whom he had married. All of these were of costly stone trimmed to size. The foundation was of costly stones, large stones, some ten cubits and some eight cubits. And above were costly stones, hewn to size, and cedar wood. The great court was enclosed with three rows of hewn stones and a row of cedar beams.
An interesting phrase is added at the end, that the inner court of the house of the LORD and the vestibule of the temple was of the same material. This gives the impression that his own house came first and possibly the house of the LORD was made with leftovers or his own house even more magnificent than the LORD’S house.
How we must be careful about our priorities. The prophet Haggai (1:3-10) bemoans the fact that our houses are more cared for than the LORD’S house. We can look around at magnificent church buildings and be impressed but often other buildings put them to shame. In our own locality we have the Trafford Centre, quite an imposing structure, but sadly, referred to as ‘the cathedral’ because of its architecture, but really showing where people’s affections lie – worshiping the god of buying and selling. We must get our priorities right.
Solomon hired one of the finest craftsmen, an expert in bronze work, full of wisdom and understanding in his field. His name was Huram from Tyre (not to be confused with Hiram, the king, although some translations say his name was also Hiram). He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali and his father was from Tyre.
2 Chronicles 2:13,14 tells us about him – “And now I (king Hiram) have sent a skilful man, endowed with understanding, Huram my master craftsman(the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre), skilled to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, stone and wood, purple and blue, fine linen and crimson, and to make any engraving and to accomplish any plan which may be given to him, with your skilful men and with the skilful men of my lord David your father.”
This man was certainly a craftsman in numerous skills. The tribes of Dan and Naphtali were often named together. They were the two sons of Rachel’s handmaid Bilhah (Genesis 30) during the time when Leah could have children, but Rachel couldn’t, and they both gave their handmaids to Jacob as surrogate mothers in what seemed to be ‘anything you can do I can do better’, showing what a dysfunctional family existed, and what Joseph, perhaps the best of them all in that he turned out to be the most godly, was born into. But that’s another story!
Verses 15-51 relate the work done by Huram for the temple. He made two pillars of bronze, each 18 cubits high and topped with bronze capitals five cubits high which also had latticework and seven wreaths of chain work. He made two rows of pomegranates above the network all around to cover the capitals. Two rows of pomegranates on top of the network were to cover the capitals, the capitals were in the shape of lilies, two hundred pomegranates on each capital. He named the two pillars at the vestibule, Jachin on the right and Boaz on the left.
It is said that the two pillars reminded the people of the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire which led the people through the wilderness after their escape from Egypt on their journey to the Promised Land.
He made a circular sea of cast bronze, ten cubits from one brim to the other and thirty cubits in circumference. It was five cubits high and below its brim were ornamental buds all the way round, ten to a cubit. It stood on twelve oxen, three pointing to each of the four points of the compass. It was used for ceremonial washing and possibly to provide water for the basins for washing the utensils. The volume of the sea was calculated about 11,500 gallons.
He also made ten bronze carts, each four cubits long, four cubits wide and three cubits high, the panels of which were decorated with lions, oxen and cherubim. Every cart had four bronze wheels on axles and a laver on top containing water. Each wheel was one and a half cubits high, all of cast bronze, five on the right side of the house and five on the left. The sea was set on the right side towards on the southeast. Each laver was perfectly round, four cubits. He also made the pots, shovels and the bowls all of burnished bronze.
Huram finished all the work of the house of the LORD. The bronze was cast in the plain of Jordan in clay molds, between Succoth and Zaretan. There were so many, Solomon did not weigh them. He had all the furnishings for the house of the LORD made of pure gold and when they were finished, he brought in the the things which his father David had dedicated: the silver and the gold and the furnishings. He put them in the treasuries of the house of the LORD.
It was truly a magnificent place for a magnificent God.
