The Altar and Basins

He made a bronze altar(A) 30 feet[a] long, 30 feet wide, and 15 feet[b] high.

Then he made the cast metal basin,[c](B) 15 feet from brim to brim, perfectly round. It was 7½ feet[d] high and 45 feet[e] in circumference. The likeness of oxen[f] was below it, completely encircling it, ten every half yard,[g] completely surrounding the basin. The oxen were cast in two rows when the basin was cast. It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The basin was on top of them and all their hindquarters were toward the center. The basin was three inches[h] thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup or a lily blossom. It could hold eleven thousand gallons.[i]

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Footnotes

  1. 4:1 Lit 20 cubits
  2. 4:1 Lit 10 cubits, also in v. 2
  3. 4:2 Lit sea
  4. 4:2 Lit five cubits
  5. 4:2 Lit 30 cubits
  6. 4:3 = gourds in 1Kg 7:24
  7. 4:3 Lit 10 per cubit
  8. 4:5 Lit a handbreadth
  9. 4:5 Text emended; MT reads 3,000 baths in 1Kg 7:26

He made a bronze altar, 30 feet[a] long, 30 feet[b] wide, and 15 feet[c] high. He also made the big bronze basin called “The Sea.”[d] It measured 15 feet[e] from rim to rim, was circular in shape, and stood 7½[f] high. Its circumference was 45 feet.[g] Images of bulls were under it all the way around, ten every 18 inches[h] all the way around. The bulls were in two rows and had been cast with “The Sea.”[i] “The Sea” stood on top of twelve bulls. Three faced northward, three westward, three southward, and three eastward. “The Sea” was placed on top of them, and they all faced outward.[j] It was four fingers thick, and its rim was like that of a cup shaped like a lily blossom. It could hold 18,000 gallons.[k]

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Chronicles 4:1 tn Heb “20 cubits.” Assuming a cubit of 18 inches (45 cm), the length would have been 30 feet (9 m).
  2. 2 Chronicles 4:1 tn Heb “20 cubits.”
  3. 2 Chronicles 4:1 tn Heb “10 cubits.” Assuming a cubit of 18 inches (45 cm), the height would have been 15 feet (4.5 m).
  4. 2 Chronicles 4:2 tn Heb “He made the sea, cast.”sn The large bronze basin known as “The Sea” was mounted on twelve bronze bulls and contained water for the priests to bathe themselves (see v. 6; cf. Exod 30:17-21).
  5. 2 Chronicles 4:2 tn Heb “10 cubits.” Assuming a cubit of 18 inches (45 cm), the diameter would have been 15 feet (4.5 m).
  6. 2 Chronicles 4:2 tn Heb “5 cubits.” Assuming a cubit of 18 inches (45 cm), the height would have been 7.5 feet (2.25 m).
  7. 2 Chronicles 4:2 tn Heb “and a measuring line went around it 30 cubits all around.”
  8. 2 Chronicles 4:3 tn Heb “ten every cubit.”
  9. 2 Chronicles 4:3 tn Heb “rows being cast with its casting.”
  10. 2 Chronicles 4:4 tn Heb “all their hindquarters were toward the inside.”
  11. 2 Chronicles 4:5 tn Heb “3,000 baths” (note that the capacity is given in 1 Kings 7:26 as “2,000 baths”). A bath was a liquid measure roughly equivalent to six gallons (about 22 liters), so 3,000 baths was a quantity of about 18,000 gallons (66,000 liters).