The Fallible Study Bible

The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible

2 Chronicles3:1–4

Temple Construction Begins

✦ Public-domain source — quoted & attributed⚙ AI synthesis — generated, verify

2 Chronicles 3:1–4 — Temple Construction Begins. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

1

Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. This was the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

šə·lō·mōh way·yā·ḥel liḇ·nō·wṯ ’eṯ- bêṯ- Yah·weh bî·rū·šā·lim bə·har ham·mō·w·rî·yāh ’ă·šer nir·’āh ’ā·ḇî·hū ’ă·šer lə·ḏā·wîḏ bim·qō·wm dā·wîḏ hê·ḵîn bə·ḡō·ren ’ā·rə·nān hay·ḇū·sî

Word by word20 · parsed
שְׁלֹמֹ֗הšə·lō·mōhThen SolomonH8010
√ Shᵉlômôh — Shelomah, David's successorNounpropermasculine singular
וַיָּ֣חֶלway·yā·ḥelbeganH2490
√ châlal — properly, to bore, iConjunctive wawVerbHifilConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
châlal: to begin (Hifil) Strong's H2490 gathers under one entry a root whose other stems mean to bore through, to wound, and to profane; the brief's gloss is truncated at that first sense. Here the parse fixes the stem as Hifil, where the settled meaning is to begin, to make a start. The Chronicler uses it twice in two verses (3:1, 3:2), which is how he marks that this is the hinge of his whole book: the temple work actually starts.
לִבְנ֤וֹתliḇ·nō·wṯto buildH1129
√ bânâh — to build (literally and figuratively)Preposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct
אֶת־’eṯ-H853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
בֵּית־bêṯ-the houseH1004
√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcNounmasculine singular construct
bayith: house A construct chain, bêṯ YHWH, "house of YHWH." The lexicon's range runs from a building to a household to a dynasty, and both senses are live in Chronicles: David was told he would not build the house, because a house would be built for him. In v. 3 the same noun is bound instead to ʼĕlôhîm.
יְהוָה֙Yah·wehof the LORDH3068
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular
בִּיר֣וּשָׁלִַ֔םbî·rū·šā·limin JerusalemH3389
√ Yᵉrûwshâlaim — Jerushalaim or Jerushalem, the capital city of PalestinePreposition-bNounproperfeminine singular
בְּהַר֙bə·haron MountH2022
√ har — a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figuratively)Preposition-bNounmasculine singular construct
הַמּ֣וֹרִיָּ֔הham·mō·w·rî·yāhMoriahH4179
√ Môwrîyâh — Morijah, a hill in PalestineArticleNounproperfeminine singular
Môwrîyâh: Moriah H4179 occurs in only two verses of the Hebrew Bible: here and in the command to Abraham about the land of Moriah. Ellicott says the Temple site is nowhere else in the Old Testament so specified, and reads the name as "appearance of Jah," matching the clause that follows. K&D take the identity with Abraham's mountain as manifest; Pulpit calls it more than doubtful and lists the scholars on both sides. The brief preserves that disagreement rather than settling it.
אֲשֶׁ֥ר’ă·šerwhereH834
√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative
נִרְאָ֖הnir·’āh[the LORD] had appearedH7200
√ râʼâh — to see, literally or figuratively (in numerous applications, direct and implied, transitive, intransitive and causative)VerbNifalPerfectthird person masculine singular
râʼâh: to see, to appear (Nifal) The passive or reflexive stem of the ordinary verb "to see": to be seen, to let oneself be seen. K&D press the point that this stem is used above all of appearances of God, and cannot be bent into "was pointed out." The verb therefore does two things at once: it names why the site was chosen, and it supplies the sense Ellicott finds behind the place name, since he takes Moriah to be assumed to signify "appearance of Jah." That etymology is a commentator's judgment about the name, not a derivation the text states.
אָבִ֑יהוּ’ā·ḇî·hūto his fatherH1
√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular
אֲשֶׁ֤ר’ă·šerH834
√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative
לְדָוִ֣ידlə·ḏā·wîḏDavidH1732
√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JessePreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
בִּמְק֣וֹםbim·qō·wm[This was] the place thatH4725
√ mâqôwm — properly, a standing, iPreposition-bNounmasculine singular construct
דָּוִ֔ידdā·wîḏDavidH1732
√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JesseNounpropermasculine singular
הֵכִין֙hê·ḵînhad preparedH3559
√ kûwn — properly, to be erect (iVerbHifilPerfectthird person masculine singular
kûwn: to establish, make ready (Hifil) The causative of a root meaning to be erect or firm. Benson and Poole both read it as more than purchase: David levelled the ground, cleared what stood on it, and laid up materials there. The Chronicler's point is continuity of authority: Solomon builds, but he builds on a site fixed and made firm by his father under divine direction.
בְּגֹ֖רֶןbə·ḡō·renon the threshing floorH1637
√ gôren — a threshing-floor (as made even)Preposition-bNounfeminine singular construct
gôren: threshing floor A flat, beaten, open place (the lexicon derives it from being made even), where grain is separated from chaff. The temple therefore rises on a working farm floor bought at a price, not on ground that was already sacred. JFB reports the long-standing identification of the rock under the Dome of the Rock with this elevated floor, and says the great bronze altar stood there.
אָרְנָ֥ן’ā·rə·nānof OrnanH771
√ ʼOrnân — Ornan, a JebusiteNounpropermasculine singular
הַיְבוּסִֽי׃hay·ḇū·sîthe JebusiteH2983
√ Yᵉbûwçîy — a Jebusite or inhabitant of JebusArticleNounpropermasculine singular
Yᵉbûwçîy: Jebusite The pre-Israelite inhabitant of Jebus. The detail is not decoration: the holiest ground in Israel is land held by a Canaanite until David paid for it, and the Chronicler will not let the reader forget the seller's nationality.
2

Solomon began construction on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·yā·ḥel liḇ·nō·wṯ baš·šê·nî haš·šê·nî ba·ḥō·ḏeš ’ar·ba‘ biš·naṯ lə·mal·ḵū·ṯōw

Word by word8 · parsed
וַ֠יָּחֶלway·yā·ḥel[Solomon] beganH2490
√ châlal — properly, to bore, iConjunctive wawVerbHifilConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
châlal: to begin (Hifil) The same Hifil as 3:1, repeated so that the site clause and the date clause each get their own beginning. Ellicott and Cambridge both suspect the repeated ordinal that follows is a copyist's doubling, which would leave this verse as the plain statement: he began to build in the second month of his fourth year.
לִבְנ֞וֹתliḇ·nō·wṯconstructionH1129
√ bânâh — to build (literally and figuratively)Preposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct
בַּשֵּׁנִ֔יbaš·šê·nîon the second [day]H8145
√ shênîy — properly, double, iPreposition-b, ArticleNumberordinal masculine singular
shênîy: second The word appears twice in two adjacent slots (indices 2 and 3), which is what generates the whole textual problem. Ellicott calls the repetition probably a scribe's error and notes the ancient versions omit it; Cambridge says the words are absent from the Kings parallel and should probably be dropped here as well. The reading is genuinely uncertain, and we leave it uncertain.
הַשֵּׁנִי֙haš·šê·nîof the secondH8145
√ shênîy — properly, double, iArticleNumberordinal masculine singular
בַּחֹ֤דֶשׁba·ḥō·ḏešmonthH2320
√ chôdesh — the new moonPreposition-b, ArticleNounmasculine singular
chôdesh: new moon, month The second month is the month named Zif in the Kings parallel, as Ellicott notes, roughly April to May. Dating the temple's foundation to a lunar month keeps the building inside Israel's festal calendar rather than inside a royal one.
אַרְבַּ֖ע’ar·ba‘in the fourthH702
√ ʼarbaʻ — fourNumberfeminine singular
בִּשְׁנַ֥תbiš·naṯyearH8141
√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Preposition-bNounfeminine singular construct
לְמַלְכוּתֽוֹ׃lə·mal·ḵū·ṯōwof his reignH4438
√ malkûwth — a rulePreposition-lNounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular
malkûwth: kingship, reign The Chronicler dates the temple by Solomon's regnal year, and the Kings parallel dates it by the Exodus. Pulpit argues at length that the Exodus figure cannot be relied on; he does not doubt the regnal figure. The two systems measure different things: one the life of a dynasty, one the age of a redeemed people.
3

The foundation that Solomon laid for the house of God was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide, according to the old standard.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·’êl·leh hū·saḏ šə·lō·mōh liḇ·nō·wṯ ’eṯ- bêṯ hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm šiš·šîm ’am·mō·wṯ hā·’ō·reḵ ‘eś·rîm ’am·mō·wṯ wə·rō·ḥaḇ hā·ri·šō·w·nāh bam·mid·dāh ’am·mō·wṯ

Word by word16 · parsed
וְאֵ֙לֶּה֙wə·’êl·lehH428
√ ʼêl-leh — these or thoseConjunctive wawPronouncommon plural
הוּסַ֣דhū·saḏThe foundationH3245
√ yâçad — to set (literally or figuratively)VerbHofalInfinitive construct
yâçad: to found, to lay a foundation (Hofal) A passive infinitive standing in for a noun, so the clause is nominal: "and this is the founding of Solomon." Pulpit observes that this stem of yâçad is otherwise attested only twice, both times of a foundation being laid: once of the second temple, once of the tried stone laid in Zion. The rare grammar therefore keeps company with the two other great foundings in Israel's story.
שְׁלֹמֹ֔הšə·lō·mōhthat SolomonH8010
√ Shᵉlômôh — Shelomah, David's successorNounpropermasculine singular
לִבְנ֖וֹתliḇ·nō·wṯlaidH1129
√ bânâh — to build (literally and figuratively)Preposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct
אֶת־’eṯ-H853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
בֵּ֣יתbêṯfor the houseH1004
√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcNounmasculine singular construct
הָאֱלֹהִ֑יםhā·’ĕ·lō·hîmof GodH430
√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseArticleNounmasculine plural
ʼĕlôhîym: God Plural in form, singular in reference, and here definite. The Chronicler alternates freely between "house of YHWH" (3:1) and "house of the God" (3:3); the alternation is not carelessness but the double claim the building makes, that the God of all is the covenant God of this people.
שִׁשִּׁ֔יםšiš·šîm[was] sixtyH8346
√ shishshîym — sixtyNumbercommon plural
shishshîym: sixty Sixty cubits by twenty is exactly twice the tabernacle's ground plan, as JFB notes when he calls the temple the tabernacle's ground-form in more durable materials. The building is not a new idea; it is the old pattern doubled and made permanent.
אַמּ֞וֹת’am·mō·wṯcubitsH520
√ ʼammâh — properly, a mother (iNounfeminine plural
הָאֹ֡רֶךְhā·’ō·reḵlongH753
√ ʼôrek — lengthArticleNounmasculine singular
עֶשְׂרִֽים׃‘eś·rîmand twentyH6242
√ ʻesrîym — twentyNumbercommon plural
אַמּ֥וֹת’am·mō·wṯcubitsH520
√ ʼammâh — properly, a mother (iNounfeminine plural
וְרֹ֖חַבwə·rō·ḥaḇwideH7341
√ rôchab — width (literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawNounmasculine singular
הָרִֽאשׁוֹנָה֙hā·ri·šō·w·nāhaccording to the oldH7223
√ riʼshôwn — first, in place, time or rank (as adjective or noun)ArticleAdjectivefeminine singular
riʼshôwn: first, former "First" here is temporal: the earlier, and by implication the Mosaic, standard. Barnes suspects the Chronicler specifies it because the Jews adopted Babylonian measures in the exile and brought them home; the note is thus a quiet marker of when this book was written and for whom.
בַּמִּדָּ֤הbam·mid·dāhstandardH4060
√ middâh — properly, extension, iPreposition-b, ArticleNounfeminine singular
middâh: measure, extension The word for a measured extent. Everything in this unit that can be counted is counted, and the one thing the chapter refuses to fix is the length of the unit itself. Poole and Pulpit both leave the cubit undetermined; Pulpit canvasses sixteen inches and just over nineteen and accepts the larger only under protest.
אַמּ֣וֹת’am·mō·wṯH520
√ ʼammâh — properly, a mother (iNounfeminine plural
4

The portico at the front, extending across the width of the temple, was twenty cubits long and twenty cubits high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·hā·’ū·lām ’ă·šer ‘al- pə·nê hā·’ō·reḵ ‘al- pə·nê rō·ḥaḇ- hab·ba·yiṯ ‘eś·rîm ’am·mō·wṯ mê·’āh wə·‘eś·rîm wə·hag·gō·ḇah way·ṣap·pê·hū mip·pə·nî·māh ṭā·hō·wr zā·hāḇ

Word by word18 · parsed
וְהָאוּלָ֡םwə·hā·’ū·lāmThe porticoH197
√ ʼûwlâm — a vestibule (as bound to the building)Conjunctive waw, ArticleNounmasculine singular
ʼûwlâm: vestibule, porch The lexicon's parenthesis, "as bound to the building," is the whole argument in miniature. Because the word names a part attached to the house, the received height of a hundred and twenty cubits over a house of thirty is not merely surprising, it is a contradiction in terms; K&D say such a front would have been called a tower. Pulpit reaches the same verdict and proposes twenty cubits, in harmony with the Septuagint, Syriac and Arabic.
אֲשֶׁר֩’ă·šerH834
√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative
עַל־‘al-atH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
פְּנֵ֨יpə·nêthe frontH6440
√ pânîym — the face (as the part that turns)Nouncommon plural construct
pânîym: the face, the front Literally the face, the part that turns toward you. The Chronicler describes the whole building from its face inward, and the verse ends with the adverb from the opposite direction, from within. Front and interior are the two axes of the description; the gold is on the inward one.
הָאֹ֜רֶךְhā·’ō·reḵ. . .H753
√ ʼôrek — lengthArticleNounmasculine singular
עַל־‘al-extending acrossH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
פְּנֵ֤יpə·nê. . .H6440
√ pânîym — the face (as the part that turns)Nouncommon plural construct
רֹֽחַב־rō·ḥaḇ-the widthH7341
√ rôchab — width (literally or figuratively)Nounmasculine singular construct
הַבַּ֙יִת֙hab·ba·yiṯof the templeH1004
√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcArticleNounmasculine singular
עֶשְׂרִ֔ים‘eś·rîm[was] twentyH6242
√ ʻesrîym — twentyNumbercommon plural
אַמּ֣וֹת’am·mō·wṯcubits [long]H520
√ ʼammâh — properly, a mother (iNounfeminine plural
מֵאָ֣הmê·’āh[and]H3967
√ mêʼâh — a hundredNumberfeminine singular
mêʼâh: a hundred The single most contested word in this unit. Pulpit notes that the Hebrew words for "hundred" and for "cubit" are easily confused in writing, and that reading the consonants as "twenty cubits" yields good Hebrew syntax and agrees with the Alexandrian Septuagint, the Syriac and the Arabic. K&D will not decide between twenty and thirty. We record the Masoretic hundred and twenty and the reasons it is doubted, and claim neither as settled.
וְעֶשְׂרִ֑יםwə·‘eś·rîmtwenty [cubits]H6242
√ ʻesrîym — twentyConjunctive wawNumbercommon plural
וְהַגֹּ֖בַהּwə·hag·gō·ḇahhighH1363
√ gôbahh — elation, grandeur, arroganceConjunctive waw, ArticleNounmasculine singular
gôbahh: height, elation H1363 is not a neutral surveyor's term: the lexicon's range runs height, grandeur, arrogance. The same noun that measures a building measures human loftiness, which is part of why a tower-high porch in front of a low house reads as a textual accident rather than as a design.
וַיְצַפֵּ֥הוּway·ṣap·pê·hūHe overlaidH6823
√ tsâphâh — to sheet over (especially with metal)Conjunctive wawVerbPielConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singularthird person masculine singular
tsâphâh: to overlay, to sheet over Piel consecutive imperfect with a suffix: "and he overlaid it." The lexicon's "to sheet over (especially with metal)" matches Pulpit's survey of the four Hebrew verbs of overlaying, where he notes that the root idea of this one in the simple stem is "to be bright," and that the overlaying was gold leaf or thin plate over the planks rather than solid metal.
מִפְּנִ֖ימָהmip·pə·nî·māhthe insideH6441
√ pᵉnîymâh — faceward, iPreposition-mAdverb
pᵉnîymâh: inward, within A rare adverb, attested in only twelve verses. It marks where the glory of this house actually sits. JFB states the principle for the whole chapter: the grandeur of the temple did not consist in its colossal structure so much as in its internal splendor.
טָהֽוֹר׃ṭā·hō·wrwith pureH2889
√ ṭâhôwr — pure (in a physical, chemical, ceremonial or moral sense)Adjectivemasculine singular
ṭâhôwr: pure, clean The word is ceremonial before it is metallurgical: the lexicon's range covers physical, chemical, ceremonial and moral purity. Applied to gold it means unalloyed, and the same adjective governs what may approach the God whose house this is. The purity of the metal and the purity required of worshippers are named by one word.
זָהָ֥בzā·hāḇgoldH2091
√ zâhâb — gold, figuratively, something gold-colored (iNounmasculine singular

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The site: a threshing floor bought from a Jebusite — 3:1

The Chronicler will not name the place once when he can name it four ways: in Jerusalem, in the mount of הַמּ֣וֹרִיָּ֔ה, where he appeared to David, in the place David had established, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Ellicott observes that nowhere else in the Old Testament is the Temple site so specified, and reads the name Moriah as "appearance of Jah," so that the relative clause that follows is an unfolding of the name itself. K&D go further and call the identity with the mountain of Abraham's near sacrifice manifest; Benson reports that the ancient Jews believed the temple stood on the very spot, cites the Targum, and draws the typology out. Pulpit dissents at length: the identification is more than doubtful, the Samuel and Chronicles accounts of David's altar never mention Abraham, and the later prophets and the New Testament never take the opening. JFB, more narrowly, warns that the text does not prove the name was first given to the hill because of David's vision. ⚙ Our reading of this cluster is that the brief contains a genuine disagreement about the site's prehistory and no disagreement at all about its recent history: every voice grants that the ground is Ornan's floor, bought and levelled and fixed by David. The grammar is where the pressure lies. נִרְאָ֖ה is Nifal, and K&D make the decisive point that this stem means to be seen or to appear, the Hofal being the stem that would mean "was pointed out." So the verse does not say David was shown a location; it says God was seen there. Ellicott, Barnes and Cambridge then add that the clause about David's preparing sits awkwardly, Ellicott and Barnes judging the Hebrew accidentally transposed and Cambridge printing the Revised Version's more literal alternative instead.

ii. The date and the founding: two numbers under suspicion — 3:2-3:3

Verse 2 dates the beginning, and the date will not sit still. The Hebrew has the ordinal "second" twice with no noun between the first one and the month, and BSB supplies "day" in the English. Ellicott calls the repetition probably a scribe's error and says a Hebrew writer would have expressed "on the second day" differently; Cambridge notes the words are absent from the Kings parallel and should probably be omitted here too; Pulpit points out that "day" is italic in the older English and unsupported by the Arabic, Syriac, Septuagint and Vulgate. Pulpit then turns on the parallel's own chronology and argues that no faith can be reposed in its four hundred and eighty years. Verse 3 is grammatically odd in a different way: הוּסַ֣ד is a Hofal infinitive doing the work of a noun, which is why the older English read "the things wherein Solomon was instructed" and the moderns read "the foundation." Ellicott, Barnes, Cambridge, Pulpit and K&D converge on the founding sense, and Pulpit adds the grammatical rarity: this stem of yâçad occurs elsewhere only twice. ⚙ The two verses together show the Chronicler doing archival work and show us the archive's wear. He dates by regnal year and lunar month, he specifies the older cubit because his readers no longer use it (so Barnes, who suspects Babylonian measures were brought back from the exile), and he omits the height that Kings records, as Ellicott notes. Poole's remark deserves to stand as the honest end of the measuring: how big those cubits were cannot now be exactly known, and he does not think much hangs on it.

iii. The porch and the gold: a corrupt number and an inward glory — 3:3-3:4

Then the front of the house, and the hardest textual crux in the unit. The Hebrew gives the height as a hundred and twenty, with no "cubits" after the number, over a house thirty cubits high. JFB accepts the figure and builds from it a front rising as a tower, or twin pyramidal towers of about ninety to a hundred and five feet each, comparing the gateway at Khorsabad. Geneva keeps the number by redefining it, measuring from the foundation to the top where Kings measured only to the first stage. Ellicott, Barnes, Cambridge, Pulpit and K&D take the other road: Ellicott lists the Alexandrine Septuagint and the Arabic reading twenty and the Syriac omitting the clause; Pulpit notes how easily the Hebrew words for "hundred" and "cubit" confuse and proposes twenty cubits, which yields good syntax; K&D say there is certainly either a corruption or a wrong number, since such a front would be called a tower, not an אוּלם, and decline to choose between twenty and thirty. ⚙ We record the Masoretic reading and the case against it, and refuse to pretend the English "twenty cubits high" is what the Hebrew says. The verse ends elsewhere, and better: וַיְצַפֵּ֥הוּ מִפְּנִ֖ימָה זָהָ֥ב טָהֽוֹר, he overlaid it from within with pure gold. Pulpit's survey of the four Hebrew verbs of overlaying finds that this one means a thin bright sheeting, gold leaf or plate over planks. JFB states the principle the Chronicler is following: the grandeur of the temple did not consist in its colossal structure so much as in its internal splendor. The disputed height is on the outside; the gold, named by a rare adverb of inwardness, is where no crowd would ever stand, since as JFB also notes the people always remained in the outer courts.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested by Scripture and not to be mistaken for it. Four verses, and three of the numbers in them are disputed by the very commentators who transmit them. That is not an embarrassment to the passage; it is the shape of the passage. What the text states without a wobble is location and ownership: a mount named for an appearing, a floor that belonged to a Jebusite until David paid, a place David made firm, a beginning dated inside Israel's lunar calendar in a particular year of a particular king. What the text loses in transmission is dimension: the height of the porch, the length of the cubit, the possibly doubled "second." The house whose measurements we cannot recover is the house whose site we can still name, and that ordering seems to us deliberate rather than accidental. Solomon's own prayer in the next chapters will say the heavens cannot contain God, so a building's cubits were never the point; the point was that God let himself be seen at one bought and levelled spot, and told a man's son to build there. The gold goes inward, where no worshipper in the courts would ever see it, which is the same logic: this house is measured by the God who inhabits it, not by the crowd who admires it. Read that way, a damaged number in verse 4 costs us nothing we were promised, and Poole's shrug about the cubit is not laziness but faith with its priorities in order. Test this: the claim is that the Chronicler's care is covenantal rather than architectural, and the way to test it is to ask what he repeats. He repeats David, and the place, and the beginning. He does not repeat the porch.

The measurements are damaged and the site is not; the Chronicler kept the address, not the blueprint.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

Moriah: a name the Hebrew Bible uses twice verbal / quotation: confirmed

The proper name הַמּ֣וֹרִיָּ֔ה (Môwrîyâh, H4179) occurs in only two verses of the whole Hebrew Bible: this one and the command to Abraham to go to the land of Moriah. The Verifier confirms the shared lexeme and its extreme rarity. Ellicott notes the comparison himself and says the Temple site is nowhere else in the Old Testament so specified; K&D call the mountain here manifestly the mountain of Genesis 22. The lexical link is not in dispute; what the link means is the subject of the flagged thread below.

Genesis 22:2

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H4179 Môwrîyâh, attested in only 2 verses of the Hebrew Bible. A rare proper name shared between exactly two passages, which is a verbal link in the strict sense; it is not a quotation formula, and it settles the wording only, not the geography.

The floor David bought: back to Ornan the Jebusite verbal / quotation: confirmed

Verse 1 ends by naming the vendor, and in doing so points back to the whole episode of David's census, the plague, the angel at the threshing floor and the altar built there. The Verifier finds three shared lexemes with that narrative: the name ʼOrnân (H771, only 10 verses), gôren, threshing floor (H1637), and Yᵉbûwçîy, Jebusite (H2983). Ellicott cites 1 Chronicles 21:28 and 22:1 at this very clause; Cambridge sends the reader to 1 Chronicles 21:15 and following; Barnes explains the site as pointed out to David by the appearance of the angel and the command to build an altar; Benson and Poole both add that David not only purchased the ground but cleared and levelled it. The temple's foundation is therefore laid on a place first marked by judgment stopped.

1 Chronicles 21:18 · 1 Chronicles 21:25 · 1 Chronicles 21:28

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H771 ʼOrnân (in 10 vv), H1637 gôren (in 37 vv), H2983 Yᵉbûwçîy (in 39 vv) across all three refs; H4725 mâqôwm and H2091 zâhâb are additionally shared with 1 Chronicles 21:25. The rare personal name carries the verbal tier; this is the Chronicler continuing his own narrative, not quoting another book.

The Kings parallel: same house, different ledger structural / thematic: confirmed

Every commentator in this brief reads these verses against 1 Kings 6, and the differences are as instructive as the agreements. Ellicott notes that the remark about the ancient measure has no parallel in Kings and that the Chronicler omits the thirty cubit height Kings supplies; Cambridge sets 3:3 beside 1 Kings 6:2 and 3:4 beside 1 Kings 6:3, and observes that Kings says nothing about the porch's height; Benson and Poole both simply refer the reader to their own notes on 1 Kings 6. The Verifier's own computed links run to the same chapter: shared Shᵉlômôh and bânâh with 1 Kings 6:2, shared measurement vocabulary with 1 Kings 6:3, and shared tsâphâh (to overlay, H6823, in 40 vv) with the gold work of 1 Kings 6:21 and 6:30, where 6:30 also shares the rare adverb pᵉnîymâh (H6441, in only 12 vv). ⚙ We tier this structural rather than verbal on purpose: the shared vocabulary is real and the rare adverb is striking, but two accounts of one building will share its vocabulary whether or not one copies the other, and the direction of dependence is not something a lexeme count can establish.

1 Kings 6:2 · 1 Kings 6:3 · 1 Kings 6:21 · 1 Kings 6:30

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H8010 Shᵉlômôh and H1129 bânâh (1 Kings 6:2); H753 ʼôrek, H520 ʼammâh, H6242 ʻesrîym (1 Kings 6:3); H6823 tsâphâh in 40 vv plus H2091 zâhâb and the rare H6441 pᵉnîymâh in 12 vv (1 Kings 6:21, 6:30). Deliberately downgraded from verbal: shared building vocabulary between two accounts of the same building does not by itself prove quotation or fix the direction of dependence.

Cubits and a house measured in vision structural / thematic: confirmed

The measuring vocabulary of this unit, ʼôrek (length, H753), rôchab (breadth, H7341), ʼammâh (cubit, H520), ʻesrîym (twenty, H6242), is the vocabulary of Ezekiel's temple vision, where a man with a measuring reed walks the length and breadth of a house that has no builder in view. The Verifier confirms the shared lexemes with Ezekiel 40:49 and 41:3. The commentators reach for the same book for a different reason: Ellicott, Cambridge, Pulpit and K&D all appeal to Ezekiel 40:5 and 43:13 to establish that the ancient cubit was a handbreadth longer than the later one. ⚙ So Ezekiel serves this unit twice, as the measure of the measure and as a vision of the house rebuilt beyond the ruin of the one Solomon begins here.

Ezekiel 40:49 · Ezekiel 41:3

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H753 ʼôrek (in 90 vv), H520 ʼammâh (in 132 vv), H6242 ʻesrîym (in 281 vv) with Ezekiel 40:49; H520 ʼammâh and H7341 rôchab (in 89 vv) with Ezekiel 41:3. All are common measuring terms, so the link is a shared motif of a measured sanctuary and not a quotation. The commentators' separate appeal to Ezekiel 40:5 and 43:13 concerns the length of the cubit and is not part of this computed basis.

Is Solomon's Moriah Abraham's mountain? flagged: verify source

The lexical link to Genesis 22 is secure; the geographical identification is contested inside this brief and we flag it as such. For the identity: K&D call it manifest and derive the name from that event; Benson reports it as the belief of the ancient Jews and cites the Targum; Geneva's own marginal note says this is the mountain where Abraham was thought to have sacrificed his son. Against it: Pulpit calls the identification more than doubtful, argues that neither 2 Samuel 24 nor 1 Chronicles 21 nor Nehemiah nor the prophets nor the New Testament ever takes the obvious opportunity to mention it, notes that Abraham's mount was conspicuous and secluded where Solomon's is neither, and lists nineteenth century authorities on both sides. JFB adds a narrower caution against the claim that the name was first given because of David's vision. ⚙ We record the dispute, keep the shared name, and claim nothing about topography.

Genesis 22:2 · Genesis 22:14 · 1 Chronicles 21:18

basis: The shared lexeme H4179 Môwrîyâh (in 2 vv) is Verifier-confirmed, but the identification of the two sites is disputed within this brief itself: K&D, Benson and Geneva affirm it, Pulpit denies it and JFB qualifies it. Provenance of the tradition is a Jewish Targum reported secondhand by Benson, which we have not consulted. Flagged for that reason, not because the lexical link is weak.

David sought, Solomon built: the pattern Stephen recites structural / thematic: confirmed

The narrative shape of verse 1, the father who prepares the place and the son who builds the house, is retold in Stephen's speech before the council, where David's desire to find a dwelling for God is followed by Solomon building him a house, and Stephen then turns the pattern against any claim that God is contained by it. ⚙ This is our own structural observation, offered as such. No shared lexeme can be computed here: the two texts are in different languages, and a Greek to Hebrew link cannot rest on shared Strong's numbers. What the reader can check is the sequence itself, which Acts recites in the same order Chronicles gives it, and the use Stephen makes of it, which is the same use Solomon will make in his prayer of dedication.

1 Chronicles 22:5 · Acts 7:46-47

basis: Cross-Testament, so no shared-lexeme computation is possible and no verbal tier is available. The recorded basis is the shared narrative sequence (David prepares and appoints the place, Solomon builds the house) which Acts 7:46-47 recites in that order. Editorial observation, not Verifier output.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The mount of the appearing, and the son who was not spared ancient/widely-held

✦ Benson states the typology in so many words: the offering of Isaac was typical of Christ's sacrifice of himself, and therefore fitly was the temple built there, being itself a type of him. Geneva's marginal note records the same identification of the mountain, and K&D read the name Moriah as given because of that event. ⚙ Our own reading adds only what the grammar of verse 1 contributes: the verb is Nifal, and K&D insist that this stem is used above all of God letting himself be seen. Moriah is not the place where a site was pointed out; it is the place where God appeared, twice over, to a father about a son. Abraham named the place for a seeing; David saw the angel there and said this is the house of the LORD; and the Chronicler names the hill for the appearing and starts building. The typological reading is ancient and widely held, and it rests on the shared name rather than on any quotation; the geographical identification it assumes is disputed in this same brief, which is why our Moriah thread is flagged even while this reading stands.

Genesis 22:2 · Genesis 22:14 · 2 Chronicles 3:1

The true Temple, and the house we become ancient/widely-held

✦ Matthew Henry ends his comment on this whole chapter by looking past the building: beholding God in Christ, his true Temple, more glorious than that of Solomon's, we may become a spiritual house, a habitation of God through the Spirit. ⚙ The unit's own details press the same way. The house is measured in a cubit no one can now recover, its porch height is damaged past certainty, and its gold is laid inward, where the worshippers in the courts, as JFB notes, never stood. A building whose dimensions the manuscripts cannot keep and whose glory is by design unseen is a strange thing to make permanent, and the New Testament's answer is that it was never meant to be: the temple that is torn down and raised in three days is a body, and the house God finally inhabits is built of people. This is the apostolic and widely held reading, and Henry is the voice in this brief who states it.

John 2:19-21 · 1 Peter 2:5 · Ephesians 2:21-22

Bought ground: the floor where the plague stopped novel

⚙ This third reading is our own and we mark it novel. The brief's sourced facts are these: the temple stands on a threshing floor, gôren, a place for separating grain from chaff; the floor belonged to a Jebusite and was bought, not seized, as Benson and Poole both stress in noting that David purchased it with his money; and Barnes explains the site as identified to David by the appearance of the angel and the command to build an altar there, which the Chronicler's own earlier narrative places at the end of a plague. A bought Canaanite floor where judgment halted at an altar is the ground on which the house of atonement is then founded. ⚙ We do not find that sequence drawn out by any commentator in this brief, and we do not claim it as the passage's stated meaning; we offer it as a reading to be tested, and we note that its strength depends entirely on 1 Chronicles 21, not on anything verses 1 to 4 say outright.

1 Chronicles 21:26 · Romans 3:25

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

⚙ Honesty notes for this unit. Text. Three separate places here are textually or grammatically unsettled, and the English of verse 4 prints an emended reading. (1) In 3:1 the clause about David's preparing is, on Ellicott's and Barnes's judgment, accidentally transposed in the Hebrew; Cambridge prefers the Revised Version's more literal rendering; K&D canvass Bertheau's proposed transposition, reject it, and offer their own construal. (2) In 3:2 the ordinal "second" stands twice and BSB supplies the noun "day"; Ellicott calls the repetition probably a scribe's error and Cambridge says the words should probably be omitted. (3) In 3:4 the Masoretic height is a hundred and twenty with no "cubits" attached; BSB prints "twenty cubits high," following the Alexandrine Septuagint, Syriac and Arabic witnesses that Ellicott, Barnes, Pulpit and Cambridge cite, while JFB keeps the larger figure and builds towers from it and Geneva keeps it by measuring from the foundation. K&D will not choose between twenty and thirty. We have reported all three positions and settled none. Measures. No cubit length in this unit is known. Cambridge gives about 17½ inches for the earlier and about 21½ for the later cubit; Pulpit reports Conder at sixteen inches and Thenius at rather over nineteen, and accepts the latter under protest; Poole says outright that it cannot now be exactly known. Any modern foot or metre figure for this temple is a reconstruction. Sources. All quoted matter is verbatim public domain commentary resolved from the brief's raw text by code; we typed none of it. The K&D entry on 3:1 and 3:2 is capped in the brief with roughly six hundred further characters unread, and we did not fetch the remainder; our K&D excerpts come from within the visible span. Matthew Henry's comment is one undivided block on 3:1 to 3:17, so his line is not specific to verse 4. Benson's report of the Targum on Isaac is secondhand and we have not consulted the Targum. Our own additions. The Acts 7 thread and the third Christ reading are editorial observations, not Verifier output and not drawn from any commentator here; both are labeled. Thread bases quoting shared Strong's lexemes and frequencies are Verifier-computed and quoted as given.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)