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Kings 9:28; 2 Chronicles 8:17, 18). Remembering that this wood had to come from
Tyre, there is not the slightest inaccuracy in 2 Chronicles 2:8, as Zockler and even Keil
seem to imagine.
(^97) Doubt has been thrown on the accuracy of this date, which indeed is altered by the
LXX; but this, as it seems to us, on wholly insufficient grounds.
(^98) There is no real discrepancy between the number of the "officers," as given
respectively in Chronicles and in Kings. The sum total (3,850) is in both cases the
same - the arrangement in Chronicles being apparently according to nationality, and in
the Book of Kings according to office (1 Kings, 3,300,550; 2 Chronicles, 3600 + 2501)
(^99) The name is the same as that of the king himself.
(^100) Our Authorized Version of 2 Chronicles 2:13 is entirely misleading. The sacred text
mentions "Huram" as "Abi" "my father," - not the father of King Hiram, but a title of
distinction given to this able man (comp. the use of the word "Ab" in regard to Joseph,
Genesis 45:8), and equivalent to "master."
(^101) The literature of this subject is very large, and details are often most difficult.
(^102) A height of 120 cubits would be out of all proportion, and, indeed, considering the
width and length, almost impossible.
(^103) Of the textual alterations proposed, the first ( ham , 100, into hwma "cubits") seems
the easiest, although it involves the elimination of the w with which the next word in
the Hebrew begins. On the other hand, "thirty cubits" seems a more suitable height,
especially as the absence of its measurement in 1 Kings seems to convey that the
"porch" had the same height as the main building. But this implies two alterations in
the text, it being difficult to understand how, if the numeral 30 was originally written
by a letter ( l , of which, it is supposed, the blotting out of the upper half made it appear
like k =20), the copyist finding twma written in full could have mistaken it for ham ,
100, which also ought to have been written with a letter ( q ). It is, however, possible
that instead of the full word, twma , the MS. may have borne yma , and the copyist
have been thus misled.
(^104) Thus the Most Holy Place would have had exactly double the proportions of that in
the Tabernacle, while the height of the Holy Place was ten cubits (fifteen feet) higher.
(^105) It is with great reluctance and becoming modesty - though without misgiving - that I
differ from so justly famous an authority as Mr. Ferguson (Smith's Bibl. Dict. vol. 3.,
(^)