2 Chronicles 4 is the fourth

chapter Chapter or Chapters may refer to: Books * Chapter (books), a main division of a piece of writing or document * Chapter book, a story book intended for intermediate readers, generally age 7–10 * Chapters (bookstore), Canadian big box bookstore ...

of the Second Book of Chronicles the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

of the

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Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

or of the second part of the

Books of Chronicles The Book of Chronicles ( , "words of the days") is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Chronicles) in the Christian Old Testament. Chronicles is the final book of the Hebrew Bible, concluding the third section of the Jewish Ta ...

in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Solomon Solomon (), also called Jedidiah, was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Hebrew Bible. The successor of his father David, he is described as having been the penultimate ...

( 2 Chronicles 1 to 9). The focus of this chapter is the construction of the temple's interior decoration.

Text

This chapter was originally written in the

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language unti ...

and is divided into 22 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

are of the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; ) is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (''Tanakh'') in Rabbinic Judaism. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its precise letter-text, with its vocaliz ...

, which includes the

Aleppo Codex The Aleppo Codex () is a medieval bound manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. The codex was written in the city of Tiberias in the tenth century CE (circa 920) under the rule of the Abbasid Caliphate, and was endorsed for its accuracy by Maimonides. ...

(10th century) and Codex Leningradensis (1008. There is also a translation into

Koine Greek Koine Greek (, ), also variously known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the koiné language, common supra-regional form of Greek language, Greek spoken and ...

known as the

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), is a manuscript of the Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Old Testament and the majority of the New Testament. It is designated by siglum B or 03 in the Gregory-Aland numb ...

(B;

\mathfrak

^B; 4th century), and

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII) is a manuscript of the Greek Bible,The Greek Bible in this context refers to the Bible used by Greek-speaking Christians who lived in Egypt and elsewhere during the early ...

(A;

\mathfrak

^A; 5th century).

Old Testament references

*: 2 Chronicles 4 Berean Study Bible
Biblehub *: *: *:

The bronze altar and molten sea (4:1–5)

This section records the construction of the bronze altar (verse 1; cf. 1 Kings 8:64; 2 Kings 16:14–15; 2 Chronicles 1:5; Ezekiel 43:13–17) and the molten sea (verses 2–5; cf. 1 Kings 7:23–26). The altar was a formidable object, probably made of wood and covered with bronze, with the measures probably referring to the base.

Verse 1

:''Then he made a bronze altar that was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and ten cubits high.'' * "

Cubit The cubit is an ancient unit of length based on the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. It was primarily associated with the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Israelites. The term ''cubit'' is found in the Bible regarding Noah ...

": a measurement unit of about ;Note on 2 Chronicles 4:1 in

ESV The English Standard Version (ESV) is a translation of the Bible in contemporary English. Published in 2001 by Crossway, the ESV was "created by a team of more than 100 leading evangelical scholars and pastors." The ESV relies on recently pu ...

thus 20 cubits would have been about (for the length and width of the altar) and 10 cubits would have been about (for the height).

Verse 2

Brazen Sea of soloman From Jewish Encyclopedia

:''Also he made a molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and five cubits the height thereof; and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.'' *Cross reference: 1 Kings 7:23 * "5 cubits": a length measurement of about . * "30 cubits": about . The approximation of the

mathematical constant A mathematical constant is a number whose value is fixed by an unambiguous definition, often referred to by a special symbol (e.g., an Letter (alphabet), alphabet letter), or by mathematicians' names to facilitate using it across multiple mathem ...

"" ("pi"), defined as the

ratio In mathematics, a ratio () shows how many times one number contains another. For example, if there are eight oranges and six lemons in a bowl of fruit, then the ratio of oranges to lemons is eight to six (that is, 8:6, which is equivalent to the ...

of a

circle A circle is a shape consisting of all point (geometry), points in a plane (mathematics), plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the Centre (geometry), centre. The distance between any point of the circle and the centre is cal ...

circumference In geometry, the circumference () is the perimeter of a circle or ellipse. The circumference is the arc length of the circle, as if it were opened up and straightened out to a line segment. More generally, the perimeter is the curve length arou ...

to its

diameter In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the centre of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest Chord (geometry), chord of the circle. Both definitions a ...

, can apparently be calculated from this verse as 30 cubits divided by 10 cubits to yield "3". However, Matityahu Hacohen Munk observed that the spelling for "line" in Hebrew, normally written as , in is written (''ketiv'') as . Using

gematria In numerology, gematria (; or , plural or ) is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word, or phrase by reading it as a number, or sometimes by using an alphanumeric cipher. The letters of the alphabets involved have standar ...

, ''qaweh'' yields "111" whereas ''qaw'' yields "106", so when used in calculation

\frac * \frac

it results in = "3.1415094", very close to the modern definition of "3.1415926". Missler, Chuck
The Value of Pi: Hidden Codes in the Bible
April 1, 1998. This finding was also reported by Shlomo Edward G. Belaga, in the page by Boaz Tsaban "Rabbinical Math" and in the book by

Grant Jeffrey Grant Reid Jeffrey (October 5, 1948 – May 11, 2012) was a Canadian Bible teacher of Bible prophecy/eschatology and biblical archaeology and a proponent of dispensational evangelical Christianity. Jeffrey served as the chairman of Frontier Rese ...

, "The Handwriting of God", Frontier Research Publications, Toronto Ontario, 1997.Munk, Matityahu Hacohen. ''Three Geometric Problems in the Bible and Talmud''. ''Sinai'' 51 (1962), 218-227 (in Hebrew); Munk, Matityahu Hacohen. ''The Halachic Way in Solving Special Geometric Problems''. ''Hadarom'' 27 (1968), 115-133 (in Hebrew). Cited i: Tsaban, Boaz; Garber, David
''On the Rabbinical Approximation of Pi''
''Historia Mathematica'' 25 (1998), pp. 75-84. Charles Ryrie gives another explanation based on verse 5 (cf. 1 Kings 7:26) that the molten sea has a brim of a handbreadth (about ) wide, so when the inside diameter, subtracting 10 cubits (about ; from outer "brim to brim") with 2 times (two handbreadth) to yield , is divided by , it results in or 30 cubits which is the circumference given in this verse.

Verse 5

:''And the thickness of it was an handbreadth, and the brim of it like the work of the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies; and it received and held three thousand baths.'' * "Handbreadth": a measurement of length of about . * "Bath"": a measurement of volume of about 6 gallons or 22 liters, so "3000 baths" would have been about 18,000 gallons, or 66,000 liters.

The temple's interior (4:6–22)

Verse 10–22 closely parallel 1 Kings 7:39–50 except for the omission of materials in 1 Kings 7:27–37. 1 Kings 7:38 corresponds to 2 Chronicles 4:6, while 1 Kings 7:38–39a is reworked at 2 Chronicles 4:6a, but verses 6b–9 have no parallel in Kings, and 1 Kings 7:39b—51 corresponds to 2 Chronicles 4:10-5:1. The (lengthy) passage in Kings concerning the stands for the basins is only found in verse 14. The function of the basin (verse 6) is related to Exodus 30:17-21, where a copper basin is used for ceremonial washing. The list of golden materials in verses 7–9 corresponds to that in 1 Kings 7:48–50 (cf. verses 19–22), presented in the order of the Chronicler's (original) list in 1 Chronicles 28:15–18. Whereas the tabernacle was equipped with only one lampstand (Exodus 25:31–40; 31:8; Leviticus 24:1–4; Numbers 8:2–4), an interesting similarity to 13:11, there were ten in the Temple (verse 7; cf. multiple lampstands in 1 Chronicles 28:15; 2 Chronicles 4:20; 1 Kings 7:49). Both the tabernacle (Exodus 25:23-30; 26:35; Leviticus 24:5–9; 2 Chronicles 13:11) and Solomon's temple according to 1 Kings 7:48 only mention one shewbread table, but there were ten in verse 8, and by contrast to the one, the ten tables in the Chronicles (1 Chronicles 28:16) are not explicitly characterized as covered in gold. Whereas 1 Kings 6:36 only briefly mentions the inner courtyard, the Chronicler clearly distinguishes between the priests' court (1 Kings 6:36; 7:12) and the precinct for laymen.

Verse 17

:'' In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredathah.'' *"Zeredathah" from Hebrew: : is written as "Zaretan" () in Note on 2 Chronicles 4:17 in

NKJV The New King James Version (NKJV) is a translation of the Bible in contemporary English, working as a revision of the King James Version. Published by Thomas Nelson, the complete NKJV was released in 1982. With regard to its textual basis, the ...

, MEV and ESV (cf. ; possibly the same as Zererath in Judges 7:22).Exell, Joseph S.; Spence-Jones, Henry Donald Maurice (Editors)
On "2 Chronicles 4".
In: ''The

Pulpit Commentary The ''Pulpit Commentary'' is a homiletic commentary on the Bible first published between 1880 and 1919

''. 23 volumes. First publication: 1890. Accessed 24 April 2019. "Zĕrēdāthāh" means "towards Zĕrĕdāh" (1 Kings 11:26), so both names denote the same place. Ellicott, C. J. (Ed.) (1905)
''Ellicott's Bible Commentary for English Readers''. 2 Chronicles 4.
London : Cassell and Company, Limited,

905-1906 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Hindu–Arabic digit Circa 300 BC, as part of the Brahmi numerals, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bot ...

Online version: (OCoLC) 929526708. Accessed 28 April 2019. Succoth and Zeredah were located east of the Jordan River.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * * *

External links

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

translations: *
Divrei Hayamim II - II Chronicles - Chapter 4 (Judaica Press)
in Hebrew and English translation ith Rashi's commentary">Rashi.html" ;"title="ith Rashi">ith Rashi's commentaryat Chabad.org *

translations: *
''Online Bible'' at GospelHall.org
(ESV, KJV, Darby, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English) *
2 Chronicles Chapter 4. Bible Gateway
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