2 Chronicles 4 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~966-960 BC, during the seven years of temple construction
Location
Jerusalem, in the temple courts and the clay-ground foundries of the Jordan valley where the bronze was cast
Audience
Post-exilic Judeans, including the priests and Levites who handled the daily temple ritual
Situation
The chapter inventories the temple furnishings: the bronze altar, the huge cast basin called the sea resting on twelve bronze oxen, ten smaller basins, ten lampstands, ten tables, and the courtyards, all made by the Tyrian craftsman Huram-abi.
Key Background
Ritual washing was a constant requirement for priests handling sacrifices, so the enormous water reservoir was working equipment rather than decoration, holding several thousand gallons. The twelve oxen supporting it face outward in four groups of three, a pattern that stands for the twelve tribes of Israel and the four points of the compass. Casting bronze pieces on this scale required a foundry with the right clay soil and a serious command of metallurgy, which is precisely why Solomon had to import a specialist from Tyre rather than use Israelite labour.
He made a bronze twenty long, twenty wide, and ten tall.
Then he made the — circular, ten cubits from rim to rim, five cubits tall, and thirty cubits around its circumference.
Below the rim, figures of encircled it — ten per cubit all the way around the Sea. The were cast in two rows as part of the same pour.
The Sea stood on — three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The Sea rested on top of them, and all their hindquarters faced inward.
The Sea was a thick, and its rim was shaped like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold three thousand
He also made ten for and placed five on the south side and five on the north side. The items used for burnt offerings were rinsed in these, but the Sea was for the priests to wash in.
He made the ten gold according to their specifications and placed them in the main hall — five on the south side and five on the north side.
He made ten and placed them in the main hall — five on the south side and five on the north side. He also made a hundred gold for
He made the of the the large and the doors for the and he overlaid those doors with bronze.
He placed the Sea on the south side, toward the southeast.
also made the pots, the shovels, and the sprinkling bowls. So finished the work he was doing for King Solomon on God's temple:
the two columns; the two bowl-shaped on top of the columns; the two lattice networks covering the two bowl-shaped on top of the columns;
the four hundred for the two lattice networks — two rows of for each network, covering the two bowl-shaped capitals on the columns;
the stands and the basins on the stands;
the one Sea and the twelve oxen beneath it;
the pots, the shovels, the forks, and all the related equipment — Huram-abi made all of it from for the temple of for King Solomon.
The king had them cast in in the Jordan plain, between Succoth and Zeredah.
Solomon made all these things in such great quantities that the weight of the bronze could not be determined.
Solomon also made all the furnishings for God's temple: the gold altar; the tables on which the of the was placed;
the lampstands and their lamps of pure gold, to burn in front of the according to the proper procedure;
the flower decorations, the lamps, and the tongs—all of pure gold, the finest gold;
the wick trimmers, the sprinkling bowls, the dishes, and the firepans, all of pure gold; and the gold doors of the temple: the inner doors to the for and the doors of the main hall.