1 Kings 7:13

THE CONSTRUCTION OF JACHIN AND BOAZ

"And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. He was a son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass; and he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill, to work all works in brass. And he came to king Solomon, and wrought all his work. For he fashioned the two pillars of brass, eighteen cubits high a piece: a line of twelve cubits compassed either of them about. And he made two capitals of molten brass, to set upon the top of the pillars; the height of the one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other capital was five cubits. There were nets of checker-work and wreaths of chain-work, for the capitals which were upon the top of the pillars; seven for the one capital, and seven for the other capital. So he made the pillars; and there were two rows round about upon the one net-work, to cover the capitals that were on top of the pillars; and so did he for the other capital. And the capitals that were on the top of the pillars in the porch were of lily-work, four cubits. And there were capitals above also upon the two pillars, close by the belly which was beside the net-work: and the pomegranates were two hundred, in rows round about upon the other capital. And he set up the pillars at the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin; and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz. And on top of the pillars was lily-work: so was the work of the pillars finished."

Only in this paragraph and in the Chronicles parallel does one find anything in all the Bible about these pillars. Where is any record that Solomon was putting these pillars in the Temple by any other authority than that of his own conceited will? Is it not perfectly clear here that Solomon's Temple was not constructed after any pattern whatever that came from God? If any proof was needed, these pillars afford it.

Nothing in the previous history of Israel could possibly have justified Solomon's placement of these pagan pillars in the Temple. They performed no useful function in its construction. "They did not support the roof of the temple hall, but were set up in front of the hall on either side of the entrance."[4] "They were put there simply because such pillars were commonly found in front of other (pagan) temples in the East."[5]

There is no agreement whatever as to what they might have symbolized. Their names, Jachin and Boaz, are said to mean, "he shall establish, and in it is strength,"[6] respectively, but the word has no antecedent and is as applicable to Baal as it is to God. Jehovah's name was not on either pillar. God did not name them; Hiram of Tyre did so. And, for all we know, Hiram was a pagan.

The land of Canaan, when Israel entered it, like all pagan lands, was filled with shrines, temples, and high places where pagan worship was conducted. "A common type of Sidonian coinage presents the front of a temple with a tall independent pillar on either side. The temple of Heracles at Tyre had two pillars, one of gold, one of emerald according to Herodotus; and Lucian reported phalli (pillars made like the male sex organ) at the entrance of the goddess' temple."[7] Dentan also found these pillars, "Ultimately connected with the pillars which were set up in Canaanite high places (Deuteronomy 12:3)."[8]

The Word of God through Moses specifically commanded Israel to destroy the pagan pillars of the depraved, licentious worship of the Canaanites:

"Ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods" (Deuteronomy 12:3).

Oh yes, the Bible says that Solomon's Temple had pillars, but the Bible nowhere says that God either commanded their erection or approved of them. As far as we have been able to determine, the very next mention of them is in connection with their destruction by the king of Babylon.

"And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre" (1 Kings 7:13). This was a different Hiram from the king of Tyre; he was a skilled metal-worker. His father was of Tyre, but his mother was a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, described also as being "of the daughters of Dan" (2 Chronicles 2:14), meaning that she was of the tribe of Dan by birth, but was a resident of the territory of Naphtali.

There are several discrepancies regarding the height of these pillars and other details in the two accounts, here and in Chronicles, but these are of no significance. One account gives only the height of the pillar itself, while the other includes the capital, the base, and other decorations. This writer favors the longer dimension, because of where the pillars were located, which was not inside the temple, but in FRONT of it. "They flanked the entrance and were fifty-two feet high, the crown alone measuring seven and one half feet."[9] It is of interest that the bronze from which those pillars were made was that which David had taken from the cities of Hadarezer (1 Chronicles 18:8).

Several of the commentators we have consulted seek to find some appropriate historical or religious symbolism in these pillars, but this writer has seen nothing acceptable in any of these.