(17) Before the temple.--Vulg., in vestibulo templi. So 1Kings 7:21 has, "at the porch of the temple." 1Kings 7:22 adds, "and upon the top of the pillars was lily-work."

Jachin . . . Boaz.--See 1Kings 7:21. "The description of the two brazen pillars," says Reuss, "much more detailed in 1Kings 7:15 ff., has become almost unintelligible, under the pen of the abbreviate." This is a strong exaggeration. He also pronounces the word bad-debir in 2Chronicles 3:16 "absolutely unintelligible," and to be accounted "foreign to the text." How little we agree with this hasty decision will be evident from our Note on that verse.

Verse 17. - Jachin... Boaz. The margin of our Authorized Version gives with sufficient correctness the meaning of these names of the pillars, which purport to set forth the safety and sure strength that belong to those who wait on, and who calmly and constantly abide by, the Divine leading. The latter, however, is one word, a substantive, not a compound of preposition, pronoun, and substantive; and the former, though by derivation the future of the hiph. conjugation of the verb הוּן, is established as a substantive in its own right.

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.See Chapter Introduction