2 Chronicles 4:20 - Exposition

Candlesticks … lamps, that they should burn after the manner before the oracle. Ten candlesticks, as we learn here and in 2 Chronicles 4:7 , 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. 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 ; Le Exodus 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 ; Psalms 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.