The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 44

or of a high~r floor with which the part in of the shovel was to remove the ashes. The question was dignified. The citation Jer. basin& should very probably read flesh-hooks. xxxvi. 10, though probably pointing to this Ver. 12,-The pommel&. The Hebrew same court, mn scarcely be adduced as any support of J. D. Michaelis' suggestion of this word is ri~~. transle.ted in the p1ua.\lel "bowls." The word ocours in the Old Tes- latter, as its ]1'711 (translated "higher") tament twelve times, and is translated six does not really oorry the idea of the compa- times (in Judges and Joshua.) "springs,'' rative degree at all. For once that it is so four times •• bowls," and twice "pommels." translated (and even then probably incor- It was an architectuml ornament to the rectly), there a.re twenty occurrences of it e.s capital, in shape like a ball. The ohapiters. the superlative eueUenti:E. Tile introduction The Hebrew word is nxb, occurring twenty- just here of e.ny statement of these courts at three times or morl', and always translo.ted all, which seems at first inopportune, is pro- bably accounted for by the desire to speak thus; in modern architecture, the head or in this connection of their doors nnd the capital of the pillar. The two wreaths. brass overlaying of them (I Kings vii. 12 ; The word is ,1;,1i;I, occurring fifteen times, 2 Kings xxiii. 12 ; eh. xx. 5; Ezek. xl. 28; and translated seven times " net-work," five Conder's 'Hondbook to the Bible,' p. 370). times "wreath," or "wreathen-work," once It is worthy of note thnt the word employed in a " snare," once "checker-work," and once a our text. as also eh. vi. 13, is not the familiar "lattice." These wreaths were of some lace word i:i:J:l of nll previous similar occasions, pattern plaiting and festoons of fancy chain- work. The fuller expression of them is but M_l'P., a word of the later Hebrew, occur- found in 1 Kings vii.17, though in descrip- ring also several times in Ezekiel, though tion not more distinct, certainly-" nets of not in exact] v the same sense, and the ele- checker-work, and wreaths of chain-work.'' mentary signification of the verb-root of Ver. 13.-l!'our hundred pomegranates. which is" to gird," or "surround." This number of pomegranates substantially Ver. 10.-The right side of the east end, agrees with the parallel (1 Kings vii. 20), over against the sooth (so also 1 Kings vii. There were two hundred of them on each 39 ; comp. Exod. xxx. 18). The sea found wreath that encircled the chapiter. The its position, the1·efore, in the place of the pomegranate was a favourite ornament iu tabernacle larnr of old, between altar of work as well as in more solid architectural brass and porch. It must be remembered forms (Exod. xxviii. 33, 34). The popu- that the entrance was east, but it was larity of the fruit as food (Numb. xiii. 23; counted to a person standing with the back xx. 5; Dent. viii. 8; Josh. xv. 32; xxi. 25), to the tabernacle or temple, as though he its simple beauty to the eye (Cant. iv. 3, 13), were, in fact, going out, not entering in, the and its welcome homeliness, will quite ac- sacred en·_·losure ; therefore on the right side count for this beside any symbolic signifi- will be southward, as written in this verse. cance that may he.ve become attached to it. Ver. 11.-The pots. A.s stated above, the The description of the pomegranate as 11, Hebrew word is n\i'Di"l, It occurs in the Old fruit may be found in any Bible dictionary, Testament twenty-s~v-en times; it is trans- but especially in Tristram's 'Natural His- lated in our Authorized Version "pans" tory of the Bible.' once and "caldrons" four times. By a. Ver. 14.-Bases. The first mention of manifest copyist's error, the parallel (1 these in Chronicles, on which so much is said Kings ~ii. 35) has n\i•~, "Javers," by the in the parallel (1 Kings vii. 27-39).. The UBe of caph for samech. The use of the i't;l Hebrew word is nibz;,, occmTing eighteen was to boil the peace offerings, though some times in Kings, twicll in Chronicles, once in say they were hods in which to carry away Ezra, and three times in Jeremiah. These the ashes ; and it ce:rtainly is remarkable bases were, as may be learnt more fully in tl,at it is no one of the words employed in the parallel, pedestals of brass four cubits I Sam. ii. 14. In addition to these twenty- square by three and a half high, supported seven times, it occurs also four times in by wheels a cubit and a half in diameter. Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Hosea, Nahum, with The pedestals were richly decorated with the meaning of " thorns,'' and once in Amos mouldings, and with the similitudes of lions, it is translated "fish-hooks." The passage oxen, and cherubim, and with other subor- in Ecclesiastes (vii. 6) is additionally re- dinate orne.meutal work, e.nd were designed markable in the fact that the root occurs to bear the Iavers, the use of which is given twice in ihe same sentence in its different in ver. 6. Vere. 6-16 in our chapter significations, e.g. "the crackling of thorns strongly suggest, in their repetitiousness, the under a pot." The shovels. The Hebrew writer's resort to different sources and word is Cl'J)'i"l. This word occurs in the Old authorities for his matter. Teatament~ine times-in Exodus, Numbers, Ver. 16.-J'lesh-hooks, Hebrew, n,l7!~• Kings, Chronicles, aud Jeremiah. The UBe occnrring twice in E:s:odue (xxvii. 3; xxxviii, on. 1v. 1-22.] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 45