Three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver: The gold and silver mentioned here are what David gave out of his own personal treasures. For talents see the comments on 1 Chr 19.6. A “talent” was the approximate equivalent of 34 kilograms or 75 pounds. Good News Translation expresses the amount of gold and silver here as “115 tons of the finest gold and 265 tons of pure silver.” New Century Version has “about two hundred twenty thousand pounds of pure gold from Ophir and about five hundred twenty thousand pounds of pure silver.” God’s Word is similar with “225,000 pounds of gold from Ophir and 525,000 pounds of refined silver.” In kilos this amounts to approximately 100,000 kilos of gold and 230,000 kilos of silver (so Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Nueva Versión Internacional). These are vast amounts of gold and silver. The location of Ophir is unknown, though probably it was somewhere in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula. Ophir was famous for its gold (see 1 Kgs 9.28; 2 Chr 8.18; 9.10; Job 28.16; Psa 45.9; Isa 13.12). For gold of Ophir, Good News Translation and Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente say “finest gold,” and Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente has the following footnote: “This is the meaning of the Hebrew expression gold of Ophir; from this region, which was near the Red Sea, came gold of the highest quality.” Refined silver refers to silver that has been purified by having impurities removed by heating the silver. Good News Translation calls it “pure silver.”

For overlaying the walls of the house: House is literally “houses” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), which may refer to the entrance room, the main room, and the Most Holy Place of the Temple. In 1 Kgs 6 Revised Standard Version calls these rooms the vestibule, the nave, and the inner sanctuary. The plural “houses” apparently refers to the inside walls of the rooms in the Temple. Peregrino makes it clear that the walls of the house were “the interior walls of the temple,” and New American Bible says “the walls of the rooms.” Compare “the walls of the chambers of the house” (Klein). New International Version, Revised English Bible, and New Jerusalem Bible say “the walls of the buildings,” but this may incorrectly suggest buildings in addition to the Temple itself. Since the Septuagint and a few other ancient versions have “the walls of the temple,” this may be the basis for the singular word house in Revised Standard Version and New Revised Standard Version.

This verse seems to say that both silver and gold were used for “covering” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “plating” (Braun) the walls of the Temple, but according to 2 Chr 3.4-9 only gold leaf was used for this purpose.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Chronicles, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2014. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .