The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 43

harmonize with that which dictated the (the use of which is given in vor. 19) a.re not superposition of the enormous vase on twelve mentioned, so for as their making is con- probnbly life-sizo oxen. 'fhere la n. general cerned, in the para.llel,except in it• aummary, prefereuce, however, aocor<led to tho opinion ver. 4B (of. I Kings vii.), where furthermore tho.t the present text has probo.bly boen the only one table, called " tho table" (Ei:od. result of somo copyist's corruption, o.nd that xxv. 2:{), is specified, with which a!!l"()es onr the tox t of the parallel should be followed. eh. xxix. 1B. It is hard to explain this Ver. 4.-The words of tho Hebrew text of variation of statement. It is at least rm this verse o.nd the parallel (1 Kings vii. 25) arbitrary o.nd forced explanation to snppose aro facsimiles. that ten tables constituted tue furniture in Ver. 5.-An handbreadth. Not n'1T, "a. question, while only one was need at a time. spnn" (nevertheless tabled by d;.;'nder, Keil and Bertheau think that the analogy of • Ho.ndbock to the Bible,' 2nd edit., p. 79, as the ten candlesticks points to the existence of a handbreadth, and put o.t eight digits, two ten to.hies. 'fhe question, however, is, where palms, or 5·33 iuches), but n~~. "the palm is the call for, or where are the indications of a.ny analogy? An hundred basins of gold. of the open hand," the breadth of the four The Hebrew word employed here, and 1.rans- fingers, which Thenius puts at 3·1752 inches, but Conder's table at 2·66 inches. It lo.ted "basins," is 'P.~V~• as also vers. 11, received and held should be translated, 22, infra; and 1 Kings vii. 40, 45, 50; Exod. it was able to hold. Three tho'llBand baths. xxvii. 3; xxxviii. 3; Numb. iv. 14; but it is The parallel has two thousand baths, e.nd represented as well by the English transla- this latter is the likelier reading. It is, tion "bowls " in 1 Chron. xxviii. 17 ; 2 however, conceive.hie that the statement of Kings xxv. 15; Numb. vii. 13, 19, etc. The Kings me.y purport to give the quantity of "pots,'' however, of our vers. II, 16 has for water used, and that of Chronicles the its Hebrew ni1'~;"J- It were well if, in quantity which the vessel e.t its fullest could names such as these, at any rate, an abso- accommodate. As to the real capacity of lute uniformity of version were observed in the bath, we are hopelessly at sea. Jo- the translation, for the benefit of the Eng- sepbus's estimate of it is a.bout eight go.lions lish reo.der, to say nothing of the saving of e.nd a half, that of the rabbinists a.bout four wasted time for the student and scholar. gallons and e. half (see Smith's' Dictionary These basins, or bowls, were to receive and of the Bible,' iii. 1742), and Conder, in the hold the blood of the slain victims, about to • Handbook to the Bible,' p. 80, a fractional be sprinkled for purification (see Exod. quantity above six gallons. The largest xxiv. 6-8, where the word H•~ is used; bowls on the Assyrian bas-reliefs, the silver xxix. 12, 10, 20, 21; Lev. i. 5, and p(lilsim; bowl of Crresus, and the bronze bowl in Heb. ix. 1B-20; see also Exod. nxviii. 3· Scythia (Herodotus, i. 5 l; iv. 81), did not, Numb. iv. 14.) The Hebrew word p:1)'?: under the lowest estimate of the bath, hold whether appearing iu our version as" basin" e.s much e.s one-half of the contents of this or "bowl,'' occurs thirty-two times, sixteen in vast see. of brass of Solomon. The use of association exactly similar with the present this vessel was, as we read in the next verse, (viz. Ex:od. xxvii. 3; xxxviii. 3; Numb. iv. for the priests to wash in, or, as some would 14; 1 Kings vii. 40, 45, 50; 2 Kings xii. 13; read, to wash at (Exod. xxx. 18-20). xxv. 15; 1 Chron. xxviii. 17; eh. iv. 8, 11, Ver. 6.-This verse, with vers. 14, 15, a.re 22; Neh. vii. 70; Jer. lii. 18, 19; Zech. xiv. 1111 here tho.t represent the lengthv account 20), fourteen e.s silver bmol~ in the time of of bases rather than lavers, occupying in the the tabernacle for the meat offoring of " fine parallel vers. 27-39 of 1 Kings vii., which, flour mingled with oil" (viz. Numb. vii. 13, however, omits to state the use of either sea 19, 25, 31, 37, 43, 49, 55, 61, 67, 73, 79, S!, or lavers. 85), and the remaining two in an entirely Ver. 7.-Ten candlestioks of gold. The general application (Amos vi. 6; Zech. ix. only allusion to these in the parallel is 15). It is evident, therefore, that the j):1]Q found later on in part of the forty-ninth was not the only vessel used for holding the verse of 1 Kings vii. According to their blood of purification, nor was it exclusively form, This expression, though so vague, reserved to this use. might point to the faot th11t the form of the Ver. 9.-The court of the priests (comp. old can<llestick of the tabernacle was ad- 1 Kings vi. 36, where this court is denomi- hered to (Exod. xxv. 31). But considering nated the inner court, a.nd a.ny other court the recurrence of the same words ( ver. 20), o.n outer one, i.e. the great oourt only im- ~here_ co.n be no doubt that the phrase is plicated thereby). The construction of this !dent1cal in its meaning with the use found court of the prieots, withheld here, given 1u such passages as Lev. v. 10; ix. 16, and there, leaves it ambiguous whether tho means " according to the prescribed ordi- "three rnws of hewed stones uud oue row of .ou.nce!' cedar beams" intends a description of fence, Ver. 8.-Ten tables. These tables 111s0 as the Septuagint seems to have taken it,  THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [orr. rv. 1-22.