gained by that, for we must then supply the erased word after פּרשׂים again. And, moreover, the succeeding clause is introduced by והם, just because in the first clause the wings, and not the cherubim, were the subject. We hold the text to be correct, and translate: “the wings of these cherubim were, for they stretched them out, twenty cubits.” והם refers to הכּרוּבים. They stood upon their feet, consequently upright, and were, according to 1Ki 6:26, ten cubits high. “And their faces towards the house,” i.e., turned towards the holy place, not having their faces turned towards each other, as was the case with the cherubim upon the Capporeth (Exo 25:20).
Verse 14
The veil between the holy place and the most holy, not mentioned in 1Ki 6:21, was made of the same materials and colours as the veil on the tabernacle, and was inwoven with similar cherub figures; cf. Exo 26:31. וּבוּץ כּרמיל as in 2Ch 2:13. עלה על, to bring upon; an indefinite expression for: to weave into the material.
Verse 15
2Ch 3:15The two brazen pillars before the house, i.e., before the porch, whose form is more accurately described in 1Ki 7:15-22. The height of it is here given at thirty-five cubits, while, according to 1Ki 7:15; 2Ki 25:17; Jer 52:21, it was only eighteen cubits. The number thirty-five has arisen by confounding יח = 18 with לה = 35; see on 1Ki 7:16. הצּפת (ἁπ. λεγ.) from צפה, overlay, cover, is the hood of the pillar, i.e., the capital, called in 1Ki 7:16. כּתרת, crown, capital, five cubits high, as in 1Ki 7:16.
Verse 16
2Ch 3:16 “And he made little chains on the collar (Halsreife), and put it on the top of the pillars, and made 100 pomegranates, and put them on the chains.” In the first clause of this verse, בּדּביר, “in (on) the most holy place,” has no meaning, for the most holy place is not here being discussed, but the pillars before the porch, or rather an ornament on the capital of these pillars. We must not therefore think of chains in the most holy place, which extended thence out to the pillars, as the Syriac and Arabic seem to have done, paraphrasing as they do: chains of fifty cubits (i.e., the length of the holy place and the porch). According to 1Ki 7:17-20 and 1Ki 7:41., compared with 2Ch 4:12-13, each capital consisted of two parts. The lower part was a circumvolution (Wulst) covered with chain-like net-work, one cubit high, with a setting of carved pomegranates one row above and one row below. The upper part, or that which formed the crown of the capital, was four cubits high, and carved in the form of an open lily-calyx.
