Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, April 16th, 2026
the Second Week after Easter
Attention!
Take your personal ministry to the Next Level by helping StudyLight build churches and supporting pastors in Uganda.
Click here to join the effort!

Read the Bible

Douay-Rheims Bible

2 Chronicles 2:5

For the house which I desire to build, is great: for our God is great above all gods.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Hiram;   Liberality;   Temple;   Tyre;   Scofield Reference Index - Sanctify;   The Topic Concordance - God;   Greatness;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - God;   Temple, the First;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Hiram or Huram;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Solomon;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Chronicles, Books of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Chronicles, I;   Ships and Boats;   Solomon;   Tyre;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Hiram ;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Gods;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The temple that I am building will be great, for our God is greater than any of the gods.
Hebrew Names Version
The house which I build is great; for great is our God above all gods.
King James Version
And the house which I build is great: for great is our God above all gods.
English Standard Version
The house that I am to build will be great, for our God is greater than all gods.
New Century Version
"The temple I build will be great, because our God is greater than all gods.
New English Translation
I will build a great temple, for our God is greater than all gods.
Amplified Bible
"The house I am going to build will be great, for our God is greater than all the gods.
New American Standard Bible
"The house which I am about to build will be great, for our God is greater than all the gods.
World English Bible
The house which I build is great; for great is our God above all gods.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And the house which I buylde, is great: for great is our God aboue all gods.
Legacy Standard Bible
Now the house which I am about to build will be great, for greater is our God than all the gods.
Berean Standard Bible
The house that I am building will be great, for our God is greater than all gods.
Contemporary English Version
This will be a great temple, because our God is greater than all other gods.
Complete Jewish Bible
But who is equal to building him a house? Why, heaven itself, even the heaven of heavens, cannot contain him; so who am I to build him a house, except to offer sacrifices before him?
Darby Translation
And the house that I will build is great; for great is our God above all gods.
Easy-to-Read Version
"I will build a great temple because our God is greater than all the other gods.
George Lamsa Translation
And the house which I am about to build is very great, for our God is greater than all kings.
Good News Translation
I intend to build a great temple, because our God is greater than any other god.
Lexham English Bible
And the house that I am building will be great, for our God is greater than all gods.
Literal Translation
And the house which I am building shall be great, for our God is greater than all gods.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And the house that I wyl buylde, shal be greate: for oure God is greater then all goddes.
American Standard Version
And the house which I build is great; for great is our God above all gods.
Bible in Basic English
And the house which I am building is to be great, for our God is greater than all gods.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And the house which I buylde shalbe great: for great is our God aboue all gods.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
But who is able to build Him a house, seeing the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him? who am I then, that I should build Him a house, save only to offer before Him?
King James Version (1611)
And the house which I build, is great: for great is our God aboue all gods.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And the house which I am building is to be great: for the Lord our God is great beyond all gods.
English Revised Version
And the house which I build is great: for great is our God above all gods.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For the hows which Y coueyte to bilde is greet; for `oure Lord God is greet ouer alle goddis.
Update Bible Version
And the house which I build is great; for great is our God above all gods.
Webster's Bible Translation
And the house which I build [is] great: for great [is] our God above all gods.
New King James Version
And the temple which I build will be great, for our God is greater than all gods.
New Living Translation
"This must be a magnificent Temple because our God is greater than all other gods.
New Life Bible
The house I am about to build will be great. For our God is greater than all the gods.
New Revised Standard
The house that I am about to build will be great, for our God is greater than other gods.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And, the house which I am about to build, must be great, - for great is our God, above all gods.
Revised Standard Version
The house which I am to build will be great, for our God is greater than all gods.
Young's Literal Translation
`And the house that I am building [is] great, for greater [is] our God than all gods;
THE MESSAGE
"The house I am building has to be the best, for our God is the best, far better than competing gods. But who is capable of building such a structure? Why, the skies—the entire cosmos!—can't begin to contain him. And me, who am I to think I can build a house adequate for God—burning incense to him is about all I'm good for! I need your help: Send me a master artisan in gold, silver, bronze, iron, textiles of purple, crimson, and violet, and who knows the craft of engraving; he will supervise the trained craftsmen in Judah and Jerusalem that my father provided. Also send cedar, cypress, and algum logs from Lebanon; I know you have lumberjacks experienced in the Lebanon forests. I'll send workers to join your crews to cut plenty of timber—I'm going to need a lot, for this house I'm building is going to be absolutely stunning—a showcase temple! I'll provide all the food necessary for your crew of lumberjacks and loggers: 130,000 bushels of wheat, 120,000 gallons of wine, and 120,000 gallons of olive oil."
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"The house which I am about to build will be great, for greater is our God than all the gods.

Contextual Overview

1 And Solomon determined to build a house to the name of the Lord, and a palace for himself. 2 And he numbered out seventy thousand men to bear burdens, and eighty thousand to hew stones in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred to oversee them. 3 He sent also to Hiram king of Tyre, saying: As thou didst with David my father, and didst send him cedars, to build him a house, in which he dwelt: 4 So do with me that I may build a house to the name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to burn incense before him, and to perfume with aromatical spices, and for the continual setting forth of bread, and for the holocausts, morning and evening, and on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and the solemnities of the Lord our God for ever, which are commanded for Israel. 5 For the house which I desire to build, is great: for our God is great above all gods. 6 Who then can be able to build him a worthy house? if heaven, and the heavens of heavens cannot contain him: who am I that I should be able to build him a house? but to this end only, that incense may be burnt before him. 7 Send me therefore a skilful man, that knoweth how to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, and in iron, in purple, in scarlet and in blue, and that hath skill in engraving, with the artificers, which I have with me in Judea and Jerusalem, whom David my father provided. 8 Send me also cedars, and fir trees, and pine trees from Libanus: for I know that thy servants are skilful in cutting timber in Libanus, and my servants shall be with thy servants, 9 To provide me timber in abundance. For the house which I desire to build, is to be exceeding great, and glorious. 10 And I will give thy servants the workmen that are to cut down the trees, for their food twenty thousand cores of wheat, and as many cores of barley, and twenty thousand measures of wine, and twenty thousand measures of oil.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

great: 2 Chronicles 2:9, 1 Kings 9:8, 1 Chronicles 29:1, Ezekiel 7:20

great is our God: Exodus 15:11, 1 Chronicles 16:25, Psalms 86:8, Psalms 86:9, Psalms 135:5, Psalms 145:3, Jeremiah 10:6, 1 Timothy 6:15

Reciprocal: Exodus 18:11 - the Lord 2 Samuel 7:22 - Wherefore 1 Kings 5:5 - behold 1 Chronicles 22:5 - exceeding Psalms 68:29 - Because Psalms 76:1 - his Psalms 136:2 - the God Jeremiah 17:12 - General Daniel 4:30 - that Acts 7:48 - dwelleth

Cross-References

Genesis 2:9
And the Lord God brought forth of the ground all manner of trees, fair to behold, and pleasant to eat of: the tree of life also in the midst of paradise: and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:11
The name of the one is Phison: that is it which compasseth all the land of Hevilath, where gold groweth.
Genesis 2:12
And the gold of that land is very good: there is found bdellium, and the onyx stone.
Genesis 3:23
And the Lord God sent him out of the paradise of pleasure, to till the earth from which he was taken.
Genesis 4:2
And again she brought forth his brother Abel. And Abel was a shepherd, and Cain a husbandman.
Genesis 4:12
When thou shalt till it, it shall not yield to thee its fruit: a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be upon the earth.
Job 5:10
Who giveth rain upon the face of the earth, and watereth all things with waters:
Psalms 104:14
(103-14) Bringing forth grass for cattle, and herb for the service of men. That thou mayst bring bread out of the earth:
Psalms 135:7
(134-7) He bringeth up clouds from the end of the earth: he hath made lightnings for the rain. He bringeth forth winds out of his stores:
Jeremiah 14:22
Are there any among the graven things of the Gentiles that can send rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou the Lord our God, whom we have looked for? for thou hast made all these things.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the house which I build is great,.... Not so very large, though that, with all apartments and courts belonging to it, he intended to build, was so; but because magnificent in its structure and decorations:

for great is our God above all gods; and therefore ought to have a temple to exceed all others, as the temple at Jerusalem did.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See 1 Kings 6:2 note. In Jewish eyes, at the time that the temple was built, it may have been “great,” that is to say, it may have exceeded the dimensions of any single separate building existing in Palestine up to the time of its erection.

Great is our God ... - This may seem inappropriate as addressed to a pagan king. But it appears 2 Chronicles 2:11-12 that Hiram acknowledged Yahweh as the supreme deity, probably identifying Him with his own Melkarth.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile