for ten cubits] Obviously an error, for the “knops” encircle the sea, and its circumference was thirty not ten cubits. The rendering of the margin “ten in a cubit” gives good sense, but is not a fair translation. Whatever the mistake in the Hebrew may be, it appears in 1 Kings 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.
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.
4. three ... and three ... and three ... and three] Thus the base stood “foursquare,” satisfying the Hebrew idea of completeness; compare Revelation xxi. 12–16.
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.
5. three thousand baths] In 1 Kings vii. 26, two thousand baths. Whether the textual corruption is to be attributed to 1 Kings or to Chronicles 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 8¼ gallons.
6 (compare verse 14 and 1 Kings vii. 38, 39).
The Lavers.
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.
6. the sea was for the priests to wash in] See, however, the note on verse 2 above regarding its probable significance in early times. For this, the Chronicler’s view of its purpose (as also that of the lavers), compare Exodus 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.
7 (= 1 Kings vii. 49).
The Golden Candlesticks.