Passage

2 Chronicles 3.1

Book: 2 Chronicles · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

1. Then Solomon began to build the house of Jehovah at Jerusalem on mount Moriah, where Jehovah appeared unto David his father, which he made ready in the place that David had appointed, in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

And he began to build in the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign. 3. Now these are the foundations which Solomon laid for the building of the house of God. The length by cubits after the first measure was threescore cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits. (2 Chronicles 3:1-3, ASV)

WEB

1. Then Solomon began to build Yahweh’s house at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where Yahweh appeared to David his father, which he prepared in the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

He began to build in the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign. 3. Now these are the foundations which Solomon laid for the building of God’s house. The length by cubits after the first measure was sixty cubits, and the width twenty cubits. (2 Chronicles 3:1-3, WEB)

KJV

1. Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. ^{where: or, which was seen of David his father}

And he began to build in the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign. 3. Now these are the things wherein Solomon was instructed for the building of the house of God. The length by cubits after the first measure was threescore cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits. ^{instructed: Heb. founded} (2 Chronicles 3:1-3, KJV)

YLT

1. And Solomon beginneth to build the house of Jehovah, in Jerusalem, in the mount of Moriah, where He appeared to David his father, in the place that David had prepared, in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite,

and he beginneth to build in the second [day], in the second month, in the fourth year of his reign. 3. And [in] these hath Solomon been instructed to build the house of God: The length [in] cubits by the former measure [is] sixty cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits. (2 Chronicles 3:1-3, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: The Chronicler, as narrator. The book is anonymous.
Audience: The restored community in post-exilic Judah, living as a Persian province around a rebuilt temple, being shown how the monarchy and the sanctuary they inherited came to this point.
Location: Jerusalem and post-exilic Judah. The narrated events run from Solomon's accession to the fall of the city and the decree of Cyrus.
Time period: Narrating roughly 970 to 539 BC; composed later, most commonly placed in the fifth or fourth century BC. The book is anonymous. Jewish tradition associates it with Ezra, which is tradition rather than a claim the text makes.

Theological reading

The verse locates the temple twice, and the second location is found only here. Solomon builds on Mount Moriah, the name used in Genesis 22 of the place where Abraham was told to offer Isaac, and on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, where the plague stopped in 1 Chronicles 21. The Chronicler is binding three moments to one piece of ground: a father's obedience, a king's repentance after the census, and the sanctuary itself. Neither Kings nor Samuel makes the Moriah identification. It is a theological claim about continuity of place, and it is the reason later Jewish and Christian readers connect the mountain of the binding to the mountain of sacrifice.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

TBD
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Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Davids Census 70000 Dead Objection Defeater

Concepts:

Passages:

Genesis 22

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.