2 Chronicles 9:15-16 - Exposition

Targets … shields . The Authorized Version "target" is unfortunate, though it may with somewhat grim truth represent fact. It was a very large solid shield, originally made of some common material, as basketwork or wood, and covered with leather; these with a plate of gold. The absence of the word "shekel" in each clause, both here and in Kings, leaves it open to us to suppose that the beka , or half- shekel, may be the right word. Now, the maneh (see 1 Kings 10:17 ), or pound, meant 100 bekas, i.e. 50 shekels. Thus the targets, or shields, had six manehs of gold to their plating each, and the lesser bucklers three manehs each. On the estimate that the shekel weighed 9 dwt. 3 gr; since the maneh weighed fifty shekels, the gold to a shield (target) may be put at something over 11 lbs. troy. The house of the forest of Lebanon ; i.e. an armoury (see 1 Kings 7:2-5 ; 2 Samuel 8:7 ; Song of Solomon 4:4 ; Isaiah 22:8 ). Shishak took these when he conquered Jerusalem ( 1 Kings 14:26 ).