Bible Commentaries

Also he made a molten ^a sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and five cubits the height thereof; and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.

(a) A great vessel of brass, so called because of the great quantity of water which it contained, (1 Kings 7:24).

And under ^b it [was] the similitude of oxen, which did compass it round about: ^c ten in a cubit, compassing the sea round about. Two rows of oxen [were] cast, when it was cast.

(b) Meaning, under the brim of the sea, (1 Kings 7:24).

(c) In the length of every cubit were ten heads or knops which in all are 300.

And the thickness of it [was] an handbreadth, and the brim of it like the work of the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies; [and] it received and held ^d three thousand baths.

(d) In the first book of the kings, (1 Kings 7:26), mention is only made of 2000, but the lesser number was taken there, and here according as the measures proved afterwards, is declared.

And he made ten candlesticks of gold according to ^e their form, and set [them] in the temple, five on the right hand, and five on the left.

(e) Even as they should be made.

Furthermore he made the court of the priests, and the great ^f court, and doors for the court, and overlaid the doors of them with brass.

(f) Called also the porch of Solomon, (Acts 3:11). It is also taken for the temple where Christ preached, (Matthew 21:23).

The pots also, and the shovels, and the fleshhooks, and all their instruments, did Huram ^g his father make to king Solomon for the house of the LORD of bright brass.

(g) Whom Solomon reverenced for the gifts that God had given him, as a father; he had the same name as Huram the king of Tyrus, his mother was a Jewess, and his father a Tyrian. Some read, for his father, the author of this work.

And Solomon made all the vessels that [were for] the house of God, the golden altar also, and the tables whereon the ^h shewbread [was set];

(h) In Hebrew, the bread of the faces because they were set before the ark, where the Lord showed his presence.

And the snuffers, and the basons, and the spoons, and the censers, [of] pure gold: and the entry of the house, the inner doors thereof for the most holy [place], and the doors of the house of the temple, [were ⁱ of] gold.

(i) That is, covered with plates of gold.