The Furnishings for the Temple
(1 Kings 7.23-51)
4 (A) Solomon had a bronze altar made that was nine meters square and four and a half meters high. 2 He also gave orders to make a large metal bowl called the Sea. It was 4.5 meters across, just over two meters deep, and 13.5 meters around. 3 Its outer edge was decorated with two rows of carvings of bulls, ten bulls to about every 45 centimeters, all made from the same piece of metal as the bowl. 4 The bowl itself sat on top of twelve bronze bulls, with three bulls facing outward in each of four directions. 5 The sides of the bowl were 75 millimeters thick, and its rim was in the shape of a cup that curved outward like flower petals. The bowl held about 60,000 liters.
6 (B) He also made ten small bowls and put five on each side of the large bowl. The small bowls were used to wash the animals that were burned on the altar as sacrifices, and the priests used the water in the large bowl to wash their hands.
7 (C) Ten gold lampstands were also made according to the plans. Solomon placed these lampstands inside the temple, five on each side of the main room. 8 (D) He also made ten tables and placed them in the main room, five on each side. And he made 100 small gold sprinkling bowls.
9 Solomon gave orders to build two courtyards: a smaller one that only priests could use and a larger one. The doors to these courtyards were covered with bronze. 10 The large bowl called the Sea was placed near the southeast corner of the temple.
11 Huram made shovels, sprinkling bowls, and pans for hot ashes. Here is a list of the other furnishings he made for God's temple: 12 two columns, two bowl-shaped caps for the tops of these columns, two chain designs on the caps, 13 400 pomegranates[a] in two rows for the chain designs, 14 the stands and the small bowls, 15 the large bowl and the twelve bulls that held it up, 16 pans for hot ashes, as well as shovels and meat forks.
Huram made all these things out of polished bronze 17 by pouring melted bronze into the clay molds he had set up near the Jordan River, between Succoth and Zeredah.
18 There were so many bronze furnishings that no one ever knew how much bronze it took to make them.
19 Solomon also gave orders to make the following temple furnishings out of gold: the altar, the tables that held the sacred loaves of bread,[b] 20 the lampstands and the lamps that burned in front of the most holy place, 21 flower designs, lamps and tongs, 22 lamp snuffers, small sprinkling bowls, ladles, fire pans, and the doors to the most holy place and the main room of the temple.
Footnotes
- 4.13 pomegranates: See the note at 3.16.
- 4.19 sacred loaves of bread: This bread was offered to the Lord and was a symbol of the Lord's presence in the temple. It was put out on special tables, and was replaced with fresh bread every week (see Leviticus 24.5-9).
Cross references
- 4.1 : Ex 27.1,2.
- 4.6 : Ex 30.17-21.
- 4.7 : Ex 25.31-40.
- 4.8 : Ex 25.23-30.