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2 Chronicles 4

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2 Chronicles 4

Master artisan helps build Jerusalem Temple

Temple under construction
1 Kings 7:23-51

1Huram-abi, a master craftsman on loan to Solomon from King Hiram in Tyre, built a huge sacrificial altar overlaid in bronze. It stretched 30 feet long and wide and rose 15 feet high. [1]

2Then he made a massive bronze bowl 15 feet across. It was more than seven feet deep and 45 feet around the rim’s circumference. They called this bowl the Sea. [2] 3He decorated the entire outside rim with two rows of bull images, six bulls per foot, [3] cast into the bronze. 4 He mounted the bowl on the backs of 12 bronze bulls—three facing outwards in each direction, north, south, east, and west.

5The bronze of the bowl was as thick as a man’s hand is wide, about three inches. [4] The brim looked like an open lily, with the rim curving outward. It held 11,000 gallons. [5] 6He made 10 water basins for washing and for rinsing the meat they would burn as offerings for God. Priests, however, washed in the huge basin, the Sea.

Gold lamplight inside the Temple

7He made 10 golden lampstands to hold the olive oil lamps that would light the inside of the Temple. They put five on each side of the main room, the Holy Place. 8He made 10 tables, as well, placing five on opposite sides of the main room. He made 100 small bowls, too. All 100 of them were gold.

At work outside the Temple

9Outside the main Temple building, he constructed a courtyard for the priests, and another courtyard beyond that. He built doors separating the two and overlaid them with bronze. 10He placed the huge Sea basin at the southeast corner of the Temple.

11Huram-abi, the master artisan from Tyre, made utensils for the priests: pots, shovels, and small bowls. He did his work for King Solomon and helped finish the Temple of God.

Artisan’s to-do list

12Huram-abi built these for the Temple:

  • Twin pillars at the entrance
  • Two huge pillars
  • Two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars
  • Two designs, one for each column: the look of chains woven into nets
  • 13Four hundred pomegranates hanging below the capitals, in two rows
  • 14Ten mobile water reservoirs mounted in carts
  • 15The large reservoir called the Sea, mounted on a dozen bronze bulls
  • 16All the bronze utensils for the Temple, including meat forks along with pans and shovels to collect ashes of the sacrificed animals.
    Huram-abi made all of this from polished bronze, at King Solomon’s instruction.
  • 17Huram-abi cast all this bronze work in molds made from the Jordan River Valley clay found between the towns of Succoth and Zarethan. [6]

  • 18Solomon didn’t bother to document the weight of all this bronze. There was too much to weigh.

  • 19In addition to ordering bronze work for the Temple, Solomon ordered all the other furnishings used inside:

  •  Golden altar
  •  Golden table for sacred bread representing God’s presence with Israel
  • 20Golden lampstands with lamps, for light inside the Temple.
  • 21Flower arrangements
  • Gold lamps
  • Gold tongs for holding hot coals
  • 22Small golden bowls
  • Golden lamp snuffers to put out the lamplight
  • Golden firepans as incense burners
  • Doors, overlaid with gold, leading into the main sanctuary and into the Most Holy Place.

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