row. and Cress. I. li. 82—
‘Why, she is a pearl, Whose price hath launch’d above a thousand ships.’
The Greek is either (1) the compound form iraraye, which occurs in MT only thrice, Mt 9118 in the sense of returning into a city, and Lk 6% 4 in the sense of ‘put out’ (RV) to sea (in 58 AV has ‘thrust out,’ after Tindale) ; or (2) the simple ἀνα γον, which is found only in the writings of St. Luke (though the active ἀνάγω ‘bring up’ occurs in Mt 41, Ro 107, He 15%), as well as in Lk and Ac), but there it is of frequent occurrence. AV varies in its tr. between ‘launch forth’ (Lk 8%), ‘launch’ (Ac 211 272-4), ‘loose’ (Ac 1313 1611 272!), ‘sail’ (Ac 1821 208. 13), ‘set forth’ (Ac 212), and ‘depart’ (Ac 272 2810-11), RV has usually ‘set sail’ (Ac 1818 1612 1821 203.18 211.2 272) 9811}, but also ‘launch forth’ (Lk 822), ‘embark’ (Ac 27%), ‘put to sea’ (Ac 274 12), and simply ‘sail’ (Ac 9510), The idea expressed in the prep. ἀνά is not ‘up’ to the ship, but up to the high sea from the lower harbour or coast-line ; cf. καταβαΐνω ‘go down’ to the coast from the higher land. J. HASTINGS.
LAYER (n> or ¥>; LXX ovrip).—This is the name given to the ten brazen basins made by Hiram for Solomon’s Temple, 1 K 7%: (=2Ch 45: 14),* They were raised on high stands, and furnished with wheels. Anything beyond this is difficult to ascertain with certainty. Keil and
*In 1K 749 ΠΥ ΣΠ should be emended to AYVOD (cf. ΓΝ] 9 Ch 42). 16 and LXX λίβετας).
others make out the bases or stands (π2)3) to have been square boxes with ornamented panels. Nowack (Hebd. Arch. ii. pp. 44-46), following Stade (ZATW iii. 1591f.), corrects the text, which at present is unintelligible in parts, and, further, utilizes for comparison the vessels now known to have been used in Semitic antiquity from the evi- dence of the Assyrian monuments. He thus arrives at a more probable reconstruction, though he is perhaps over-bold in venturing on a con- jectural sketch of a laver as he understands it. In the following description of the details Nowack is followed in the main.
The dase or stand was made up of a lower and an upper division. The lower division was a square framework, of which the sides were partly open. If they had been massive plates of metal, each 3 x 4 cubits, the whole would have been too heavy to move. Moreover, the Assyrian examples show a much lighter kind of stand than those used in supporting the Greek amphora. The sides were like an unglazed window-frame, with horizontal borders or panels (Τὴ 952) and vertical ledges or crosspieces (o'2>Y). At the corners were under- setters or shoulders, i.e. square pillars whose lower extremities were extended to form feet, in which were fixed the axles, on which the wheels turned. The wheels, each 14 cubits high, were thus com- pletely under the body of the base. Thus the ower part of the base being itself 3 cubits high, its top edge was 44 cubits high. On the top of this lower part was a pedestal (1 Καὶ 739) consisting of a round vompass or ring (v.*) something like the capital of a column (v.*!). The outside measure- ment of this ring was 14 cubits across, and the inside measurement 1 cubit, while it was raised half a cubit above the base proper (v.*°). As the diameter of the latter was 4 cubits, the supports (stays or hands) of the ring must have sloped in- wards very considerably. These supports seem to have sprung from a square framework (yv.*") resting on the top of the base. Asa dome with a central circular window is often built over four square walls and supported by four ribs from the corners sloping inwards, so this opea metal frame had a rate base and a round opening or ring, into which the basin or daver fitted. The borders and stays were ornamented with lions, oxen, cherubim, and with embossed wreaths.
It is remarkable that these ten lavers do not Hod laa! in the sketch of the new temple put forth by Ezekiel, or in the temple of evita: nor is
and
anything like them found in P’s representation of
the tabernacle. The last we hear of them is that Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases and took the laver off them (1 K 167). From this the suggestion has been supported that the connecting parts of the framework were, as in some similar construc- tions of which Semitie archeology has evidence, hoilow, or that they were wood inside plated over with brass. As for the discarding of the molten sea and ten movable lavers, which seems to indicate some prejudice against them, it has been con- jectured that they had some mythical associations which had now become distasteful. The great molten sea is connected with the deep (o\nn) and the lavers with the clouds. It is oieeryel that Ezekiel, who describes no wheeled lavers orna- mented with lions, oxen, and cherubim, yet has a vision (ch. 1) of living creatures, uniting the char- acteristics of lion, ox, man, and eagle, and of wheels closely associated with them, the whole imagery suggesting the personification of the clouds borne on by the storm blast. The explana- tion of the Chronicler (2 Ch 45), that the ΤΩΣ were used for washing the sacrifices, has nothing to support it in Kings, and it is hard to see how such lofty basins could have been put to practical use.