8:12 Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he lives in thick darkness.
8:16 Then he brought me to the inner court of the Lord’s house. Right there 6 at the entrance to the Lord’s temple, between the porch and the altar, 7 were about twenty-five 8 men with their backs to the Lord’s temple, 9 facing east – they were worshiping the sun 10 toward the east!
1 tn Heb “twenty cubits.”
2 tn Heb “ten cubits.”
3 tn Heb “sixty cubits.” A cubit was a unit of measure roughly equivalent to 18 inches or 45 cm. Measurements in vv. 2-10 have been converted to feet in the translation for clarity.
4 tn Heb “twenty cubits.”
5 tn Heb “thirty cubits.”
6 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something.
7 sn The priests prayed to God between the porch and the altar on fast days (Joel 2:17). This is the location where Zechariah was murdered (Matt 23:35).
8 tc The LXX reads “twenty” instead of twenty-five, perhaps because of the association of the number twenty with the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash.
9 sn The temple faced east.
10 tn Or “the sun god.”
11 sn Spelling of this name (Βαραχίου, Baraciou) varies among the English versions: “Barachiah” (RSV, NRSV); “Berechiah” (NASB); “Berachiah” (NIV).