2 Chronicles 3:8
And he made the most holy house, the length whereof was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits: and he overlaid it with fine gold, amounting to six hundred talents. And he made the most holy house, the length whereof was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits: and he overlaid it with fine gold, amounting to six hundred talents.
2 Chronicles 3:8 belongs to the account of Solomon's building of the temple, within the history of the undivided kingdom under Solomon. The temple account is given six chapters in the account of his reign, emphasizing the temple and its services within the book's religious history. The verse describes the most holy house as a square chamber, twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide, overlaid with fine gold. That measurement and costly gold decoration illustrate that the temple was a larger, grander, permanent enlargement of the tabernacle built on the same plan.
Though built on a larger and grander scale, it retained the same kinds of sacred vessels, functions, and ministry as the tabernacle, with the vessels increased in size and number. Its distinguishing feature, shared with the tabernacle, was that it had two holy places, including a distinct most holy place. The temple with its distinct most holy place was built according to a divinely given pattern.
The whole earthly building, not only the most holy place, was a pattern of the heavenly sanctuary. Its two-part arrangement is evidence that the heavenly sanctuary also has two holy places. Its cubic form is the pattern for the dwellings of the New Jerusalem, each of which is a complete cube signifying stability.