2 Chronicles 4:3

2 Chronicles 4:3

Furnishings of the Temple

1 Moreover he made ^aa bronze altar: twenty cubits was its length, twenty cubits its width, and ten cubits its height.

2 ^aThen he made the¹ Sea of cast bronze, ten cubits from one brim to the other; it was completely round. Its height was five cubits, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference.

3 ^aAnd under it was the likeness of oxen encircling it all around, ten to a cubit, all the way around the Sea. The oxen were cast in two rows, when it was cast.

4 It stood on twelve ^aoxen: three looking toward the north, three looking toward the west, three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east; the Sea was set upon them, and all their back parts pointed inward.

5 It was a handbreadth thick; and its brim was shaped like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It contained¹ three thousand baths.

Commentaries:

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

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Two rows of oxen were cast, when it was cast—The meaning is, that the circular basin and the brazen oxen which supported it were all of one piece, being cast in one and the same mould. There is a difference in the accounts given of the capacity of this basin, for while in I Kings 7:26 it is said that two thousand baths of water could be contained in it, in this passage no less than three thousand are stated. It has been suggested that there is here a statement not merely of the quantity of water which the basin held, but that also which was necessary to work it, to keep it flowing as a fountain; that which was required to fill both it and its accompaniments. In support of this view, it may be remarked that different words are employed: the one in I Kings 7:26 rendered contained; the two here rendered, received and held. There was a difference between receiving and holding. When the basin played as a fountain, and all its parts were filled for that purpose, the latter, together with the sea itself, received three thousand baths; but the sea exclusively held only two thousand baths, when its contents were restricted to those of the circular basin. It received and held three thousand baths [CALMET, Fragments].

**Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing 2 Chronicles 4:3:**

1 Kings 7:23-26
2 Chronicles 4:2

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