2 Chronicles 3:7

He overlaid also the house, the beams, the posts, and the walls thereof, and the doors thereof, with gold; and graved cherubims on the walls.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) He overlaid also the house.—And he covered (2Chronicles 3:5) the chamber—that is, the great chamber or Holy Place. (See 1Kings 6:21-23.)

The beams.—Of the roof.

The posts.—The thresholds (Isaiah 6:4).

And graved cherubims on the walls.—See 1Kings 6:29, which gives a fuller account of the mural decorations.

Cherubims.—Cherubim, or cherubs (Psalm 18:10). Cherubim is the Hebrew plural, for which we have the Chaldee (Aramaic) form “cherubin” in the Te Deum. Shakspeare has:—

“The roof of the chamber

With golden cherubins is fretted.”

Cymbeline, 2:4.

Why Reuss calls this sketch of the porch and nave “confused” is hardly evident.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Precious stones for beauty - Not marbles but gems (compare 1 Chronicles 29:2). The phrase translated "for beauty" means "for its beautification," "to beautify it."

Parvaim is probably the name of a place, but what is quite uncertain.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. he garnished the house with precious stones for beauty—better, he paved the house with precious and beautiful marble [Kitto]. It may be, after all, that these were stones with veins of different colors for decorating the walls. This was an ancient and thoroughly Oriental kind of embellishment. There was an under pavement of marble, which was covered with planks of fir. The whole interior was lined with boards, richly decorated with carved work, clusters of foliage and flowers, among which the pomegranate and lotus (or water-lily) were conspicuous; and overlaid, excepting the floor, with gold, either by gilding or in plates (1Ki 6:1-38).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

See Chapter Introduction

Geneva Study Bible

He overlaid also the house, the beams, the posts, and the walls thereof, and the doors thereof, with gold; and graved cherubim on the walls.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. the posts] R.V. the thresholds.

cherubims] Under what form these mysterious beings were represented in the Temple is not known. It has been said that the winged bull of the Assyrian sculptures was sometimes called kirubu in Assyrian. If this be true, then cherub is perhaps a word borrowed from the Assyrian, and the cherubs in the Temple may have had the form of winged bulls. But nothing is certainly known on this subject.

The graving of the cherubim was not necessarily a breach of the Second Commandment, for they were not put up to “bow down to” or to “serve.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - And graved cherubim. In the parallel this statement is placed in company with that respecting the "palms and flowers." Layard tells us that all the present description of decoration bears strong resemblance to the Assyrian. There can be no difficulty in imagining this, both in other respects, and in connection with the fact that foreigners, headed by the chief designer Hiram, had so large a share in planning the details of temple workmanship. 2 Chronicles 3:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

And he garnished the house with precious stones for ornament (of the inner sides of the walls); cf. 1 Chronicles 29:2, on which Bhr on 1 Kings 6:7 appositely remarks, that the ornamenting of the walls with precious stones is very easily credible, since among the things which Solomon brought in quantity from Ophir they are expressly mentioned (1 Kings 10:11), and it was a common custom in the East so to employ them in buildings and in vessels; cf. Symbolik des mos. Cult. i. S. 280, 294, 297. The gold was from פּרוים. This, the name of a place rich in gold, does not elsewhere occur, and has not as yet been satisfactorily explained. Gesen. with Wilson compares the Sanscrit parvam, the first, foremost, and takes it to be the name of the foremost, i.e., eastern regions; others hold the word to be the name of some city in southern or eastern Arabia, whence Indian gold was brought to Palestine. - In 2 Chronicles 3:7 the garnishing of the house with gold is more exactly and completely described. He garnished the house, the beams (of the roof), the thresholds (of the doors), and its walls and its doors with gold, and carved cherubs on the walls. For details as to the internal garnishing, decoration, and gilding of the house, see 1 Kings 6:18, 1 Kings 6:29, and 1 Kings 6:30, and for the doors, 1 Kings 6:32-35.