2 Chronicles 3:9

And the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. And he overlaid the upper chambers with gold.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) And the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold.—Literally, And a weight for nails for shekels—fifty in gold. The LXX. and Vulg. take this to mean that the weight of each nail was fifty shekels; and this is probably right, for fifty shekels as a total would be a trifling sum to record along with six hundred talents. The nails were used to fasten the golden plates to the wooden wainscoting of the edifice.

Whatever may be thought of the apparently incredible quantities of gold and silver stated to have been amassed by David for the Temple (1Chronicles 22:14; 1Chronicles 29:4; 1Chronicles 29:7), it is clear that no inconsiderable amount of the former metal would be required for the plating of the chambers as described in this chapter. And it is well known, from their own monuments, that the Babylonian sovereigns of a later age were in the habit of thus adorning the houses of their gods. Nebuchadnezzar, for instance, who restored the great temple of Borsippa, says: “E-zida, the strong house, in the midst thereof I caused to make, with silver, gold, alabaster, bronze . . . cedar I caused to adorn (or, completed) its sibir. The cedar of the roof (?) of the shrines of Nebo with gold I caused to clothe.” In another inscription we read: “The shrine of Nebo, which is amid E-Sagili, its threshold, its bolt, and its babnaku, with gold I caused to clothe.” And again: “The cedar roof of the oracle I caused to clothe with bright silver.” The Assyrian Esarhaddon, a century earlier, boasts that he built ten castles in Assyria and Accad, and “made them shine like day with silver and gold.”

And he overlaid.—And the upper chambers he covered with gold. The chambers over the Holy of holies are mentioned in 1Chronicles 28:11. The two statements of this verse are peculiar to the chronicle. The Syriac and Arabic omit the verse.

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

The upper chambers - Compare 1 Chronicles 28:11. Their position is uncertain. Some place them above the holy of holies, which was ten cubits, or fifteen feet lower than the main building (compare 1 Kings 6:2, 1 Kings 6:20); others, accepting the height of the porch 120 cubits 2 Chronicles 3:4, regard the "upper chambers" or "chamber" ὑπερῷον huperōon, Septuagint), as having been a lofty building erected over the entrance to the temple; others suggest that the chambers intended are simply the uppermost of the three sets of chambers which on three sides surrounded the temple (see 1 Kings 6:5-10). This would seem to be the simplest and best explanation, though we cannot see any reason for the rich ornamentation of these apartments, or for David's special directions concerning them.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2Ch 3:8-13. Dimensions, &C., OF THE Most Holy House.

8. the most holy house—It was a perfect cube (compare 1Ki 6:20).

overlaid it with … gold, amounting to six hundred talents—at £4 per ounce, equal to £3,600,000.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Of the nails, i.e. of each of the nails or heads of those nails whereby the plates were fastened to the boards.

The upper chambers; of which See Poole "1 Chronicles 28:11".

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

See Chapter Introduction

Geneva Study Bible

And the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. And he overlaid the upper chambers with gold.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - The weight of the nails, fifty shekels of gold. According to the above scale, therefore, this weight would be a twelve-thousandth part for the nails of all the weight of the overlaying plates of gold. The upper chambers. This is the first mention of these "chambers" in the present description, but they have been alluded to by the Chronicle writer before, in 1 Chronicles 28:11. What or where they were is as yet not certainly ascertained. Presumably they were the highest tier of those chambers which surrounded three sides of the main building. But some think they were a superstructure to the holy of holies; others, high chambers in the supposed very lofty superstructure of the porch. Both of these suppositions seem to us of the unlikeliest. It would, however, be much more satisfactory, considering that all the subject before and after treats of the most holy place, to be able to connect this expression in some way with it, nor is there any reason evident for overlaying richly with gold the aforesaid chambers (2 Chronicles 9:4 compared with 2 Chronicles 22:11) of the third tier. 2 Chronicles 3:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The most holy place, with the figures of the cherubim and the veil; cf. 1 Kings 6:19-28. - The length of the most holy place in front of the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, consequently measured in the same way as the porch (2 Chronicles 3:4); the breadth, i.e., the depth of it, also twenty cubits. The height, which was the same (1 Kings 6:20), is not stated; but instead of that we have the weight of the gold which was used for the gilding, which is omitted in 1 Kings 6, viz., 600 talents for the overlaying of the walls, and 50 shekels for the nails to fasten the sheet gold on the wainscotting. He covered the upper chambers of the most holy place also with gold; see 1 Chronicles 28:11. This is not noticed in 1 Kings 6.