2 Chronicles 2

2 Chronicles covers the reign of Solomon in chapters 1–9. Having asked for wisdom in chapter 1, Solomon now prepares to build the temple; construction itself begins in 2 Chronicles 3. In the Hebrew Bible, verse 1 of this chapter is numbered 1:18, so the verse numbers in this chapter differ by one.

Outline

• Verses 1–2 Solomon determines to build a house for the LORD and a house for his kingdom. He selects seventy thousand men to bear burdens, eighty thousand to hew in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred overseers.
• Verses 3–10 Solomon sends messengers to Huram king of Tyre. He explains that in the temple he will burn incense, set out the showbread, and offer burnt offerings on the sabbaths, the new moons, and the solemn feasts. He then requests a craftsman skilled in metalwork, textiles, and engraving, along with cedar, fir, and algum trees from Lebanon. In return he promises twenty thousand measures each of wheat and barley and twenty thousand baths each of wine and oil.
• Verses 11–16 In his reply Huram blesses the LORD. He sends a craftsman, the son of a woman of the tribe of Dan, and promises to bring the timber in floats by sea to Joppa.
• Verses 17–18 Solomon numbers the strangers in the land of Israel and finds them to be one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred. He assigns them as burden bearers, hewers, and overseers.

Key Verses

• 2 Chronicles 2:5 "For great is our God above all gods": The temple must be great not because of the splendor of the building but because of the greatness of God.
• 2 Chronicles 2:6 "Seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him": The very king who builds the temple acknowledges its limitations.

People and Places

• Solomon, David, Jerusalem, Joppa
• Huram: King of Tyre. He appears as Hiram in 1 Kings 5.
• The craftsman: His mother was a woman of the tribe of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre. He is identified with Hiram the bronze worker in 1 Kings 7.
• Tyre: A Phoenician port city on the Mediterranean coast.
• Lebanon: The source of the cedar timber.

Points for Reflection

• This chapter describes the same events as 1 Kings 5, though with several differences.
• 1 Kings gives the number of overseers as three thousand three hundred.
• The levy of thirty thousand Israelites recorded in 1 Kings does not appear in this chapter.
• 1 Kings describes the craftsman's mother as a widow of the tribe of Naphtali.
• Some explanations seek to harmonize these differences, for example by proposing that the mother was from Dan and married a man of Naphtali. Others attribute them to differing traditions or to variations introduced in scribal transmission.
• The confession in verse 6 anticipates the temple dedication prayer in 1 Kings 8. In the New Testament, Stephen and Paul declare that God does not dwell in temples made with hands (Acts 7, Acts 17), statements that are read alongside this confession.

In the Korean Church

The chapter is sometimes cited in sermons preceding church construction or a church dedication service as a text on Solomon's preparations for building the Jerusalem temple.