1 Kings 7:17-18

nets of checker work—that is, branch-work, resembling the branches of palm trees, and

wreaths of chain-work—that is, plaited in the form of a chain, composing a sort of crown or garland. Seven of these were wound in festoons on one capital, and over and underneath them were fringes, one hundred in a row. Two rows of pomegranates strung on chains (II Chronicles 3:16) ran round the capital (I Kings 7:42; compare II Chronicles 4:12-13; Jeremiah 52:23), which, itself, was of a bowl-like or globular form (I Kings 7:41). These rows were designed to form a binding to the ornamental work—to keep it from falling asunder; and they were so placed as to be above the chain work, and below the place where the branch-work was.

1 Kings 7:15-22

two pillars of brass of eighteen cubits high—They were made of the brass (bronze) which was taken from the king of Zobah (I Chronicles 18:8). In II Chronicles 3:15 they are said to have been thirty-five cubits high. There, however, their joint lengths are given; whereas here the length of the pillars is given separately. Each pillar was seventeen and a half cubits long, which is stated, in round numbers, as eighteen. Their dimensions in English measure are as follows: The pillars without the capitals measured thirty-two and a half feet long, and seven feet diameter; and if hollow, as WHISTON, in his translation of JOSEPHUS, thinks (Jeremiah 52:21), the metal would be about three and a half inches thick; so that the whole casting of one pillar must have been from sixteen to twenty tons. The height of the capitals was eight and three-fourths feet; and, at the same thickness of metal, would not weigh less than seven or eight tons each. The nature of the workmanship in the finishing of these capitals is described (I Kings 7:17-22). The pillars, when set up, would stand forty feet in height [NAPIER, Metal].