(17) Before the temple.—Vulg., in vestibulo templi. So 1Kings 7:21 has, “at the porch of the temple.” 1Kings 7:22 adds, “and upon the top of the pillars was lily-work.”

Jachin . . . Boaz.—See 1Kings 7:21. “The description of the two brazen pillars,” says Reuss, “much more detailed in 1Kings 7:15 ff., has become almost unintelligible, under the pen of the abbreviate.” This is a strong exaggeration. He also pronounces the word bad-debîr in 2Chronicles 3:16 “absolutely unintelligible,” and to be accounted “foreign to the text.” How little we agree with this hasty decision will be evident from our Note on that verse.

3:1-17 The building of the temple. - There is a more particular account of the building of the temple in #1Ki 6". It must be in the place David had prepared, not only which he had purchased, but which he had fixed on by Divine direction. Full instructions enable us to go about our work with certainty and to proceed therein with comfort. Blessed be God, the Scriptures are enough to render the man of God thoroughly furnished for every good work. Let us search the Scriptures daily, beseeching the Lord to enable us to understand, believe, and obey his word, that our work and our way may be made plain, and that all may be begun, continued, and ended in him. Beholding God, in Christ, his true Temple, more glorious than that of Solomon's, may we become a spiritual house, a habitation of God through the Spirit.As in the oracle - This passage is probably corrupt. Our translators supposing that a single letter had fallen out at the beginning of the word translated "in the oracle," supplied "as." But we have no reason to suppose there were any "chains" or "festoons" in the "oracle" or most holy place. 2Ch 3:14-17. Veil and Pillars (see 1Ki 6:21).

The united height is here given; and though the exact dimensions would be thirty-six cubits, each column was only seventeen cubits and a half, a half cubit being taken up by the capital or the base. They were probably described as they were lying together in the mould before they were set up [Poole]. They would be from eighteen to twenty-one feet in circumference, and stand forty feet in height. These pillars, or obelisks, as some call them, were highly ornamented, and formed an entrance in keeping with the splendid interior of the temple.

No text from Poole on this verse.

See Chapter Introduction And he reared up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand, and the other on the left; and called the name of that on the right hand Jachin, and the name of that on the left Boaz.