compass it round about, [1]for ten cubits, compassing the sea round about. The [2]oxen were in two rows, cast when it was cast. 4It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east: and the sea was set upon them above, and all their hinder parts were inward. 5And it was an handbreadth thick; and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it received and held three thousand baths. 6He made also ten lavers, and put five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them; such things as belonged to the burnt offering they washed in them: but the sea was for the priests to wash in. 7And he made the
of the LXX., but can hardly be correct. Read (cp. 1 Kin. vii. 24), under it there were knops, "knops" being embossed ornaments, imitating probably the fruit or the flowers of the gourd.
for ten cubits] Obviously an error, for the "knops" encircle the sea, and its circumference was thirty not ten cubits. The rendering of the mg. "ten in a cubit" gives good sense, but is not a fair translation. Whatever the mistake in the Heb. may be, it appears in 1 Kin. vii. 24 also.
The oxen were in two rows, cast when it was cast] Correct the reading as before and render, The knops were in two rows, cast when it was cast. It is mentioned as a triumph of the founder's art that the laver was cast complete, with its ornaments, from the first.
4. three . . . and three . . . and three . . . and three] Thus the base stood "foursquare," satisfying the Hebrew idea of completeness; cp. Rev. xxi. 12—16.
5. three thousand baths] In 1 Kin. vii. 26, two thousand baths. Whether the textual corruption is to be attributed to 1 Kin. or to Chron. cannot be determined, and further even two thousand baths is an amount exceeding the capacity of a vessel with the measurements given for the sea above. The bath was a measure for liquids equal to about 8-1/4 gallons.
6 (cp. ver. 14 and 1 Kin. vii. 38, 39). The Lavers.
6. the sea was for the priests to wash in] See, however, the note on ver. 2 above regarding its probable significance in early times. For this, the Chronicler's view of its purpose (as also that of the lavers), cp. Ex. xxx. 18—21. The sea in particular would be singularly awkward as a vessel for cleansing purposes, unless all that is meant is that it was used as the receptacle from which water for purification was drawn.
