16. he made chains in the oracle] The words, in the oracle, though found in LXX., are a gloss introduced from 1 Kings vi. 21 (chains ... before the oracle), or, more probably, a corruption of a word meaning “like a necklace.” The Chronicler is here speaking of the outside of the Temple, having already described the “oracle,” i.e. the Holy of Holies, in verses 8–14. The Hebrew word dĕbīr was translated “oracle” because it was supposed to be derived from a word meaning “to speak.” It means, however, simply “the hindermost part” of the house (compare iv. 20, v. 7, 9).
¹⁷And he set up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand, and the other on the left; and called the name of that on the right hand Jachin[¹], and the name of that on the left Boaz[²].
[¹] That is, He shall establish.
[²] That is, perhaps, In it is strength.
17. Jachin ... Boaz] Margin translates the two words; Jachin “He shall establish,” Boaz perhaps “In it is strength.” LXX. gives Κατόρθωσις “setting up”) and Ἰσχύς (“strength”). The meaning of Boaz is uncertain. It may be only a pious correction of an original Baal. (For the avoidance of the word Baal, see the notes on xvii. 3, 1 Chronicles viii. 33; and for further comments on “Jachin” and “Boaz” see Encyclopedia Biblia II. 2. 304, and Barnes in Journal of Theological Studies, v. 447 ff.)
Chapter IV.
1.
The Altar of Brass.
¹Moreover he made an altar of brass, twenty cubits the length thereof, and twenty cubits the breadth thereof, and ten cubits the height thereof.
1. an altar of brass, twenty cubits] The brasen altar is referred to in 1 Kings viii. 64; 2 Kings xvi. 14 ff., but it is (strangely) not mentioned among the furnishings of the Temple described in the present text of 1 Kings vii. It is impossible therefore to say whether the Chronicler derives the measurements he here gives from a text of Kings which did contain a description of the brasen altar, or from the altar of the Temple of his own period. The latter is more probable. Some scholars consider it possible that at first Solomon’s Temple contained no artificial altar, the sacrifices being offered on the great natural rock which is now covered by the famous building popularly known as the Mosque of Omar (properly “The Dome of the Rock”).