View 2nd Chronicles 2 in the note window.
Solomon appoints men to build the temple and his own house, ver. 1 - 2.
His message to Huram, ver. 3 - 10.
Huram's obliging answer, ver. 11 - 16.
1: His kingdom - A royal palace for himself and his successors.
5: Great - For though the temple strictly so called, was but small,
yet the buildings belonging to it, were large and numerous.
6: Contain - When I speak of building an house for our great God,
let none think I mean to comprehend God within it, for he is infinite.
To sacrifice - To worship him there where he is graciously present.
12: Made heaven and earth - It seems Huram was not only a friend
to the Jewish nation, but a proselyte to their religion, and that
he worshipped Jehovah, the God of Israel, (who was now known by that
name to the neighbour - nations) as the God that made heaven and earth,
and the fountain of power as well as of being.
14: Of Dan, &c. - A good omen of uniting Jew and Gentile in
the gospel - temple.
17: The strangers - For David had not only numbered his own
people, but afterward the strangers, that Solomon might have
a true account of them, and employ them about his buildings.
Yet Solomon numbered them again, because death might have made a
considerable alteration among them since David's numbering.
18: Hewers in the mountains - He would not employ the free - born
Israelites in this drudgery, but the strangers that were proselytes,
who having no lands, applied themselves to trades, and got their living
by their industry or ingenuity.
