Add parallel Print Page Options

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] He made ten washing basins; he put five on the south side and five on the north side. In them they rinsed the items used for burnt sacrifices; the priests washed in “The Sea.”

He made ten gold lampstands according to specifications and put them in the temple, five on the right and five on the left. He made ten tables and set them in the temple, five on the right and five on the left. He also made 100 gold bowls. He made the courtyard of the priests and the large enclosure and its doors;[l] he plated their doors with bronze. 10 He put “The Sea” on the south side, in the southeast corner.

11 Huram Abi[m] made the pots, shovels, and bowls. He finished all the work on God’s temple he had been assigned by King Solomon.[n] 12 He made[o] the two pillars, the two bowl-shaped tops of the pillars, the latticework for the bowl-shaped tops of the two pillars, 13 the 400 pomegranate-shaped ornaments for the latticework of the two pillars (each latticework had two rows of these ornaments at the bowl-shaped top of the pillar), 14 the ten[p] movable stands with their ten[q] basins, 15 the big bronze basin called “The Sea” with its twelve bulls underneath, 16 and the pots, shovels, and meat forks.[r] All the items King Solomon assigned Huram Abi to make for the Lord’s temple[s] were made from polished bronze. 17 The king had them cast in earth foundries[t] in the region of the Jordan between Sukkoth and Zarethan. 18 Solomon made so many of these items they did not weigh the bronze.[u]

19 Solomon also made these items for God’s temple: the gold altar, the tables on which the Bread of the Presence[v] was kept, 20 the pure gold lampstands and their lamps which burned as specified at the entrance to the inner sanctuary, 21 the pure gold flower-shaped ornaments, lamps, and tongs, 22 the pure gold trimming shears, basins, pans, and censers, and the gold door sockets for the inner sanctuary (the Most Holy Place) and for the doors of the main hall of the temple. When Solomon had finished constructing the Lord’s temple, he put the holy items that belonged to his father David (the silver, gold, and all the other articles) in the treasuries of God’s temple.

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).
  12. 2 Chronicles 4:9 tn Heb “and the doors for the enclosure.”
  13. 2 Chronicles 4:11 tn Heb “Huram,” but here this refers to Huram Abi (2 Chr 2:13). The complete name has been used in the translation to avoid possible confusion with King Huram of Tyre.
  14. 2 Chronicles 4:11 tn Heb “Huram finished doing all the work which he did for King Solomon [on] the house of God.”
  15. 2 Chronicles 4:12 tn The words “he made” are added for stylistic reasons.
  16. 2 Chronicles 4:14 tc The Hebrew text has עָשָׂה (ʿasah, “he made”), which probably should be emended to עֶשֶׂר (ʿeser, “ten”; see 1 Kgs 7:43).
  17. 2 Chronicles 4:14 tc The Hebrew text has עָשָׂה (ʿasah, “he made”), which probably should be emended to עֲשָׂרָה (ʿasarah, “ten”; see 1 Kgs 7:43).
  18. 2 Chronicles 4:16 tc Some prefer to read here “bowls,” see v. 11 and 1 Kgs 7:45.
  19. 2 Chronicles 4:16 tn Heb “Huram Abi made for King Solomon [for] the house of the Lord.”
  20. 2 Chronicles 4:17 tn Or perhaps, “molds.”
  21. 2 Chronicles 4:18 tn Heb “Solomon made all these items in great abundance so that the weight of the bronze was not sought.”
  22. 2 Chronicles 4:19 tn Heb “the bread of the face/presence.”sn This bread offered to God was viewed as a perpetual offering to God. See Lev 24:5-9.

The Furnishings of Solomon’s Temple

And he made an altar of bronze, twenty cubits was its length, and twenty cubits was its width, and ten cubits was its height. Then he made the sea of molten metal, from brim to brim it was ten cubits, completely round. And it was five cubits in height, and its circumference measured[a] thirty cubits. Under it were figures of oxen all around it, ten cubits high, encircling the sea all around. The oxen were in two rows cast as one piece with it.[b] It was standing upon twelve oxen, three facing north, and three facing west, and three facing south, and three facing east. The sea was set upon them from above, and all their hindquarters faced inward.[c] And its thickness was a handbreadth, and its brim was like the working of the lip of a cup, the blossom of a lily. And it held three thousand baths. And he made ten basins. And he set five on the south and five on the north in which to wash; they washed off the work of the burnt offering in them, but the sea was for the priests to wash therein. And he made ten golden lampstands according to their custom, and he set them in the temple, five on the south and five on the north. And he made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the south and five on the north. And he made a hundred drinking bowls of gold. And he made the courtyard of the priests and the great outer courtyard and the doors for the outer court. And he overlaid their doors with bronze. 10 And he set the sea at the southeast corner of the temple. 11 And Huram[d] made the pots, the shovels, and the drinking bowls. So Hiram[e] finished making the work that he made on the house of God for King Solomon: 12 the two columns, the bowls, and the two capitals on top of the columns, and the two latticeworks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on top of the columns, 13 and the four hundred pomegranates for the two latticeworks, two rows of pomegranates for the latticework, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were before the columns. 14 And he made the water carts, and he made the basins on the water carts, 15 and the one sea and the twelve oxen underneath it.

16 And Huram-abi made for King Solomon the pots, the shovels, the three-pronged meat forks, and all the utensils of polished bronze for the house of Yahweh. 17 The king cast them in the plain of the Jordan, in the clay soil between Succoth and Zeredah. 18 Solomon made all these utensils in great abundance, for the weight of the bronze could not be determined. 19 So Solomon made all the objects that were in the house of God: the altar of gold; the tables upon which was the bread of the presence; 20 the lampstands, and the lamps for burning according to the custom before the inner sanctuary, of solid gold; 21 and the blossoms, the lamps, and the tongs that were of solid gold; 22 and the snuffers, the drinking bowls, the dishes, and the firepans, of solid gold; and the entrance to the house, the inner doors to the most holy place, and the doors to the house of the temple were of gold.

The Ark Installed in the Temple

When all the work that Solomon did for the house of Yahweh was finished, Solomon brought the holy objects of David his father: the silver, the gold, and all the objects he had put into the storehouses of the house of God.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Chronicles 4:2 Literally “and it measured a line all around it”
  2. 2 Chronicles 4:3 Literally “molten with its casting”
  3. 2 Chronicles 4:4 Literally “into the house”
  4. 2 Chronicles 4:11 This is the spelling in Hebrew, though many translations have “Hiram”
  5. 2 Chronicles 4:11 The spelling (“Hiram”) is different here than in the previous occurrences