2 Chronicles 4:20 MEANING

(20) With (and) their lamps, that they should burn after the manner (according to the legal rule--2 Chronicles 4:7). This is added by the chronicler, who omits "five on the right and five on the left" (Kings). The rest is as in Kings.

Verse 20. - Candlesticks... lamps, that they should burn after the manner before the oracle. Ten candlesticks, as we learn here and in ver. 7, supersede in Solomon's temple the one candlestick, with its central shaft lamp, and the three branch lamps on either side of Moses and the tabernacle (Exodus 25:31-37; Exodus 37:17-24; Leviticus 24:4; Josephus, 'Ant.,' 3:06. § 6, 7; Maimonides [1135-1205], "De temple, vasis sanctuarii," etc.). This single candlestick was restored in Zerubbabel's temple. The present ten candlesticks, or strictly candelabra, of Solomon are said at one time to have been placed in a row like a rail before the veil, and connected with a chain under which the high priest went on the Day of Atonement into the inner sanctuary. The removal of these candelabra is recorded Jeremiah 52:19. The expression, "after the manner," points to the various and somewhat minute regulation for the lighting, trimming, and keeping alight of the lamps, all or some, of the candelabra (Exodus 27:19-21; Leviticus 24:1-3). The use of the word for "lamp" (נֵר) in some passages (1 Samuel 3:3; 2 Samuel 21:17; Proverbs 13:9; Proverbs 20:27; Psalm 18:29)suggests not the part as used for the whole in speaking of the candelabrum, but more probably that the perpetual burning was not of all seven lamps, but of one, the central shaft.

4:1-22 The furniture of the temple. - Here is a further account of the furniture of God's house. Both without doors and within, there was that which typified the grace of the gospel, and shadowed out good things to come, of which the substance is Christ. There was the brazen altar. The making of this was not mentioned in the book of Kings. On this all the sacrifices were offered, and it sanctified the gift. The people who worshipped in the courts might see the sacrifices burned. They might thus be led to consider the great Sacrifice, to be offered in the fulness of time, to take away sin, and put an end to death, which the blood of bulls and goats could not possibly do. And, with the smoke of the sacrifices, their hearts might ascend to heaven, in holy desires towards God and his favour. In all our devotions we must keep the eye of faith fixed upon Christ. The furniture of the temple, compared with that of the tabernacle, showed that God's church would be enlarged, and his worshippers multiplied. Blessed be God, there is enough in Christ for all.See Introduction to Chapter 4