IV. Tm: TABLES OF BlIEWTIREAD. (Vers. 8, 19.) 1. Their number. Ten; in tho tRl,ernaclo, one. 2. Their position. Five on either side of the holy place, The one tnblo in the tabernacle stood upon the side of the tabernacle northward, without the veil (Bxod. xl. 22). 3. Their material. Of gold (1 Chron. xxviii. 16). 4. Their purpose. To rccci..-e and set forth the shewbread, or the loaves of unleavened bread, twelve on each fable, which were commanded to be set before the face of Jehovah continunlly (Exod. xxv. 30). 5. Their significance. To symbolize religious truths which it con- cerned Israel to know. The " face loaves" were so called, not because with them or the eating of them the sight of God's face was associated, but because they stood continu- ally in God's presence as emblematic (1) of the spiritual food Israel should present to God in the good works they should perform through Divine assistance, and (2) or the spiritual nourishment pardoned worshippers should receive from God (Exod. xxi,. 11). V. THE BRAZEN ALTAR, (Ver. 1.) 1. Its position. In the interior of the fore court (1 Kings ,iii. 22, 64). 2. Its dimensions. Twenty cubits long, twenty broad, and ten high. 3. Its m•iterial. Brass. 4. Its use. To offer thereupon the burnt offerings presented by the worshippers who came to the temple. VI. TrrE MOLTEN SEA. (Vers. 2-5.) 1. Its appearance. A huge metallic basin, sup- ported on the backs of twelve metallic oxen-" three looking toward the north, three looking toward the west, three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the cast," all having their hinder parts inward. The basin had the form or a cup, decorated on the brim with flowers of lilies, underneath the brim with two rows of" knops," ten in a cubit, therefore with three hundred in all, compassing the basin around (ver. 4; cf, 1 Kings vii. 28). 2. Its size. Ten cubits in diameter and thirty in circumference, :five cubits high and a handbreadth in thickness, with a capacity of three thousand, or, according to a more accurate measurement (1 Kings vii. 26), two thousand baths, i.e. upwards of twelve thousand gallons. With this may be compared the basin borne by twelve lions in the Alhambra at Granada, and the two giant sandstone vases which were found by Miiller at Amathus in Cyprus, each of which was oval-shaped, thirty feet in circumference, had four handles, and rested on eight bulls, four in each half. round of the oval (see in Herzog and in Riehm, art. "Meer ehernes "). 3. Its situatioo. Between the brazen altar ancl the porch, on the right side of the west end, over against the south of the court (ver. 10). 4. Its use. For the priests to wash in when they came to engage in the sacrificial worship of the sanctuary (ver. 6; cf. Exod. xxx. 19- 21). 5. Its significance. (1) The form and decorations of the vessel showed it was designed for priestly service. "Its form, that of an open lily cup, corresponded to its purpose. If all budding and blossoming signified holiness and priesthood (Numb. xvi. 7; comp. with xvii. 20, 23; Ps. xcii. 14), the flower named the white, i.e. the lily, must have been pre-eminently the priestly one" (Bahr). (2) The twelve oxen on which it rested accorded with the same idea. Oxen were the principal sacrificial animals, especially for the priests (Exod. xxix. 10, etc.; Lev. iv. S, etc.; xvi. 11; Numb. viii 8). Twelve were selected, hardly for the sake of symmetry (Thenius), or to represent the twelve months of the year (Vatke), but, like the twelve loaves of shew- brend, and the twelve lions on Solomon's throne (1 Kings x. 20), to symbolize the twelve tribes of Israel, which also when in camp were placed, like the oxen, three to each quarter of the heavens (Numb. ii. 2-31). (3) The washing of the priests was emblematic of that inward spiritual purity without which none can approach a holy God, or render to t.im acceptable service (Isa. i. 16 ; Heb. x. 22). 6. Its history. In after years it was taken down from off the brazen oxen by Ahaz and set upon a pave- ment of stones (2 Kings xvi. 17); it was ultimately broken in pieces by the Chaldeans, and its brass conveyed to Babylon (2 Kings xxv. 13). The brazen oxen the Chaldean general transported as booty to the East (Jer. lii. 20). VII. THE LAYERS. (Ver. 6.) 1. Their material. Brass. 2. Their number. Ten. 3. Their position, Five on the right and five on the left of the brazen altar. 4. Their appea,ranr,e. Basins resting upon bases or pedestals with wheels (ver, 14),, of which 11 minute description is given in the First Book of Kings (vii. 27-37). 6. l'heir dimen- aions. Every laver or basin four cubits In diameter. 6. Their contents. Forty baths, or two hundred and forty gallons. 7. Their use. To wash the victims in when these were brought to the priests to be offered upon the altar,-W, cm. v. 1-14.J THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 53
Vor. 17,-An ancient manufactory, I. To WHOM IT BELONGED. To Solomon the king. II. W11EnE IT WAS SITUATED, In the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredathah, both of which wore in the plain of Jordan. III. BY WIIOM IT WAB MANA0ED. By Hiram the artist. IV. THE FABRICB IT PRODU0ED, The articles above described, all the vessels for the house of God.-W.
EXPOSITION. nation. This view can hardly be pressed. OHAPTER V. The very word "wherefore" in ver. 3 goe11 far to discredit it. And any difference that The first verse of this chapter would have may be apparent in the language is far more stood more fitly as the last verse of the probably and easily attributable to the old previous chapter. The narrative, that began cause of the narrowe.r, though intenser, in- with the preparations for building the temple terest of the writer of Chronicles. (eh. i. 18-ii. 18), and proceeded to the ac- Ver. 3.-In the feast which , , , in the seventh month; i.e. the Feast of Tabernacles. oount of the building itself, and the making This commenced on the fifteenth of the of the various needed vessels (eh. iii. 1-v. seventh month, named Ethanim (see 1 1), now goes on to recall and recount the Kings viii. 2). With this the festivals of dedication (eh, v. 2-vii. 10), enriching the the sacred year closed. parallel (1 Kings vii. 51; viii. 1-12) by Ver. 4.-The Levites, So see Numb. iv. our vers. 11 (partly), 12, and 13-an enrich- 15, 19, 20, which, with our vers. 5, 7, throw this statement into sufficient harmony with ing addition not by any means of insignificant that of the parallel (1 Kings viii. 3), which interest. Its colouring is rioh, indeed, and purports to say that the priests only, unaided its sound the sound of true musio. by the Kohathite Levites, performed the service. 1