The porch that was in front, its length, according to the width of the house, was twenty cubits, and the height one hundred twenty; and he overlaid it within with pure gold.
Parallel Translations
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The porch that was in front, its length, according to the width of the house, was twenty cubits, and the height one hundred twenty; and he overlaid it within with pure gold.
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And the porch that was in the front of the house, the length of it was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and the height was an hundred and twenty: and he overlaid it within with pure gold.
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And the porch that was before the house, the length of it, according to the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits, and the height a hundred and twenty; and he overlaid it within with pure gold.
Cross-references (3)
Passages linked to 2 Chronicles 3:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- John 10:23 It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in Solomon’s porch.
- Acts 3:11 As the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.
- Acts 5:12 By the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. They were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain From the foundation to the top: for in the…
From the foundation to the top: for in the book of the kings mention is made from the foundation to the first stage.
It contained as much as did the breadth of the Temple, 1 Kings 6:3.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 2Ch 3:4 And the porch that [was] in the…
2Ch 3:4 And the porch that [was] in the front [of the house], the length [of it was] according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and the height [was] an hundred and twenty: and he overlaid it within with pure gold.
Ver. 4. And the porch.] See on 1Ki 6:3.
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And he overlaid it within with pure gold.] Such was Christ’s inside; {Col 2:9} in his outside was no such desirable beauty; so {Isa 53:2} the Church’s glory is inward, {Psa 45:13} in the hidden man of the heart. {1Pe 3:4}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The height was an hundred and twenty; this being…
The height was an hundred and twenty; this being a kind of turret to the building. The breadth of it here omitted is expressed to be ten cubits, 1Ki 6:3.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The height - This being a kind of turret…
The height - This being a kind of turret to the building.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 4. The height was a hundred and twenty]…
Verse 4. The height was a hundred and twenty] Some think this should be twenty only; but if the same building is spoken of as in 1Kg 6:2, the height was only thirty cubits. Twenty is the reading of the Syriac, the Arabic, and the Septuagint in the Codex Alexandrinus. The MSS. give us no help. There is probably a mistake here, which, from the similarity of the letters, might easily occur. The words, as they now stand in the Hebrew text, are מאה ואשרים meah veesrim, one hundred and twenty. But probably the letters in מאה meah, a hundred, are transposed for אמה ammah, a cubit, if, therefore, the א aleph be placed after the מ mem, then the word will be מאה meah one hundred; if before it the word will be אמה ammah, a cubit; therefore אמה עשרים ammah esrim will be twenty cubits; and thus the Syriac, Arabic, and Septuagint appear to have read. This will bring it within the proportion of the other measures, but a hundred and twenty seems too great a height.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The height was an hundred and twenty cubits -…
The height was an hundred and twenty cubits - This height, which so much exceeds that of the main building 1Ki 6:2, is probably to be corrected by the reading of the Arabic Version and the Alexandrian Septuagint, “twenty cubits.” But see 2Ch 3:9.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain A hundred. The Arabic and some copies of the…
A hundred. The Arabic and some copies of the Septuagint read only twenty. Capellus and Toinard would substitute, ten cubits. A small change in the Hebrew might occasion these variations. (Calmet) --- In 3 Kings vi. 2., we find the height was thirty cubits: but that might be only to the first floor. Many think that the temple was 120 cubits high: but Salien (the year of the world 3024) explains it of the four-square tower, (Menochius) in the front. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain the porch--The breadth of the house, whose length ran…
the porch--The breadth of the house, whose length ran from east to west, is here given as the measure of the length of the piazza. The portico would thus be from thirty to thirty-five feet long, and from fifteen to seventeen and a half feet broad.
the height was an hundred and twenty cubits--This, taking the cubit at eighteen inches, would be one hundred eighty feet; at twenty-one inches, two hundred ten feet; so that the porch would rise in the form of a tower, or two pyramidal towers, whose united height was one hundred twenty cubits, and each of them about ninety or one hundred five feet high [STIEGLITZ]. This porch would thus be like the propylæum or gateway of the palace of Khorsabad [LAYARD], or at the temple of Edfou.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 4 (= 1Ki_6:3). The Porch
4 (= 1Ki_6:3). The Porch
4. And the porch that was in the front of the house] The Hebrew text is faulty, but the sense is probably correctly given in A.V.
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the length of it was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits] R.V. the length of it, according to the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits.
the height was an hundred and twenty] So LXX. If the measurement is correctly given, this building was rather a tower than a porch. In 1 Kings nothing is said about height.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (4) And the porch . . . twenty cubits.—Heb.,…
(4) And the porch . . . twenty cubits.—Heb., and the porch that was before the length (i.e., that lay in front of the oblong main building), before the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits (i.e., the porch was as. long as the house was broad). This curious statement answers to what we read in 1Ki_6:3 : “And the porch before the hall of the house, twenty cubits was its length, before the breadth of the house.” But the Hebrew is too singular to pass without challenge, and comparison of the versions suggests that we ought to read here: “And the porch which was before it (Syriac), or before the house (LXX.), its length before the breadth of the house was twenty cubits.” This would involve but slight alteration of the Hebrew text. (Comp. 2Ch_3:8.)
And the height was an hundred and twenty. This would make the porch four times the height of the main building, which was thirty cubits. The Alexandrine MS. of the LXX., and the Arabic version, read “twenty cubits;” the Syriac omits the whole clause,, which has no parallel in Kings, and is further suspicious as wanting the word “cubits,” usually expressed after the number (see 2Ch_3:3). The Hebrew may be a corruption of the clause, “and its breadth ten cubits.” (Comp. 1Ki_6:3.)
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And he overlaid it within with pure gold.—See 1Ki_6:21.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The porch a hundred and twenty. The "porch" (…
The porch a hundred and twenty. The "porch" ( Greek, oJ pronaov). It is out of the question that the porch should be of this height in itself. And almost as much out of the question that, if it could be so, this should be the only place to mention it by word or. description. There can be no doubt that the text is here slightly corrupt, and perhaps it is a further indication of this that, while the parallel contains nothing of the height, this place fails (but comp. our ver. 8) to give the breadth ("ten cubits"), which the parallel does give. The words for" hundred" and for "cubit" easily confuse with one another. And our present Hebrew text, ha; me, read twOm, will make good Hebrew syntax, and be in harmony with the Septuagint (Alexandrian), and with the Syriac and Arabic Versions. This gives the height of the porch as 20 cubits, which will be in harmony with the general height of the building, which was 30 cubits. Thus far, then, the plan of the temple is plain. The house is 60 cubits long, i.e. 20 for the holy of holies (rybiD or q; vd,qo); 40 for the holy place (lk; yhe); and for breadth 20 cubits. The porch was in length the same as the breadth of the house, viz. 20 cubits, but in breadth it was 10 cubits (1Ki_6:3) only, while its height was 20 cubits, against a height of 30 cubits for the "house". (1Ki_6:2) Overlaid it within with pure gold; i.e. covered the planks with gold leaf, or sometimes with plates of gold (Ovid., "L Epp. ex. Pont," 1:37, 38, 41, 42; Herod., 1:98; Polyb., 10:27. The appreciation, as well as bare knowledge, of goldbelonged to a very early date. (Gen_2:12) The days when it was used in ring or lump (though not in coin) for sign of wealth and for purposes of exchange, and also for ornament, (Gen_13:2 Gen_24:22 Gen_42:21) indicate how early were the beginnings of metallurgy as regards it, though much more developed afterwards (Jud_1:17:4; Isa_40:19 Isa_46:9) and show it in the time of David andSolomon no rare art, even though foreign workmen, for obvious reasons, were the most skilful workers with it. There are four verbs used to express the idea of overlaying, viz.
(a) hpj in hiph. This occurs only in this chapter, vers. 5, 7, 8, 9; but in Psa_68:13 may be compared.
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(b) hl in hiph. This occurs in the present sense, though not necessarily staying very closely by it; in 2Ch_9:15, 2Ch_9:16, and its parallel; (1Ki_10:16, 1Ki_10:17) and perhaps in 2Sa_1:24. The meaning of the word, however, is evidently so generic that it scarcely postulates the rendering "overlay.
(c) hpx in piel. This occurs in our present verse, as also in a multitude of other places in Chronicles, Kings, Samuel, and Exodus. The radical idea of the verb (kal) is "to be bright.
(d) in hiph. This occurs only once. (1Ki_6:32) No one of these verbs in itself bespeaks certainly of which or what kind the overlaying might be, unless it be the last, the analogy of which certainly points to the sense of a thin spreading.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 an area of a building made of columns and…
portico
an area of a building made of columns and a roof that leads to and connects with the building's entrance door. This portico was probably attached to the front part of the wall that surrounded the temple.
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twenty cubits
A cubit is 46 centimeters. AT: "9.2 meters" (See: Biblical Distance)
Solomon overlaid ... He fashioned ... which he carved
The readers should understand that Solomon probably commanded other people to do the actual work. AT: "Solomon's workers overlaid ... They fashioned ... which they carved" (See: Metonymy)
the main hall
This is a reference to a large room, not a hallway.
translationWords
pure
gold
palm
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.