425
the vessel, probablj' two rows of colocynths * were dfiured, these being cast with the basin, and not subsequently carved, btade t has shown on gram- matical and other grounds that the numeral ' ten ' must go with 'cubits' and not with 'colocynths,' and that, in sliort, the words constitute a, clumsy gloss, and had far better be left out.
The brazen Sea rested upon 12 brazen oxen, with their heads turned towards the four cardinal jioints, 3 looking in each direction. All of them probably ■tood upon one basement of metal.
It is likely thiit the space between the several groups was greater than that between the several nienioers of the group ; but we have no information on this, or concerning the height of the oxen or tlieir other dimensions.
Jose|ihu8 ; »«ays that in making them Solomon broke the law of Mo6es which loriiade the making of any graven image,} as he did aUo in making the tions that were about his throne, tie migbt furely ha\e added the cherubim, which come under the lame category. Uietim says the 6gure8 of oxen were chosen to form a rest for the txisin, because oxen formed so large a part of the offerings. This may also supplya reason for the horns at the four cornerB, as Kranz Delitzscb suggests. II 8tade, Ben- einger, Nowack.and others hold that the oxen have a connexion with the worship of Jehovah in the form of a bull, which pre- vailed in the North ; the horns of the altar are traced to the same source. Kostera H tries to prove that the ' Sea ' stands for the Di-ift — 'the deep,' one source of water supply, and that the lavers** represent the clouds, the source of the rain supply. Benzinger gives his approval to this theory,! t and so did Bmendit before him. On these matters the Bible is silent.
We are not told how the basin was supplied with water, nor how llie water was got out.
As to the lirst, Keil thinks it was filled by means of a crane which raised the water from the fountain close to the altar and transferred it by means of some vessel to the 'Sea' wlienever it was wanted. Witli regard to the second, tliere must liave been some apertures low enough to be reached ; possibly the water came out of the mouths of the oxen through pipes supplied with taps. For the opinions of leading rabbinical writers, see Lundius, Jiid. Heilig., Hamliurg, 1738, p. 356.
Not a word is said in the older and soberer account of Kings of tlie purpose served by the Brazen Sea. Hut in 2 Ch 4' it is said to be for the priests to wash in : that is, if we take the account of tlie f'S or laver §§ of the tabernacle to guide us, the priests washed their hands and feet with its water before they proceeded to otter sacrifices.
The next point at which we meet the Brazen Sea is in 2 K 16", where it is narrated that Ahaz, for the sake of their value, took away the brazen 3xen, and laid the 'Sea 'on the stone pavement. The Chaldteans at a later time, led by Nebuchad- nezzar, broke the ' Sea ' into pieces and carried away these pieces to Babylon. |l||
.\tter this we read no more about it. Yet Sir 5«/111l seems to show that in the mind of the writer
• Tlie addition ' ten colocynths to every c\ibit ' has no sup- port in the MT, nor In the LXX, though Thenlus and Keil defend this rendering.
t XATWiii. 167 f.
: Ant. vni. vii, n. I Ex 20<.
r Uiehni, UWII'' I. 76». He compares the Greek and Roman alum with rams' heads at the oornere. Cf. TiutrLK, Altar <tf burnt-o'h-rin/t.
•1 n T. 1B79, 446 ft. •• See 1 K 71" 39, and cf. La vita.
It 11 til. Arch. iSSH; ct. also N'owack, Ueb. Arch. U. 44 f., and Kittel, KOnige, p. M.
!t Lrhrbueli der alttfut. Religitmtquchichte, p. ISO (not In 2nd ed., Hmend having now, as he informs the present writer, abandoned Kosters' view as being based on dogmatic rather than critical considerations].
88 -"^ec Ex SO'sf : this laver Is to Ije aharplv distinguished from the llj lavcrs of the temple. See Lavrh, an(l cf. a very elaborate article bv Stnde, entitled ' Die Keaselwagen des satoni. Tempels, 1 K TV 36,' in ZATW, 1901, p. 145B.
nil 2 K 2.'>i:i. 10, Jer 621'- ». In the last passage it Is stated that the ChaUluians took away the oxen as well. This is not said in the Book of Kings.
•Ill ' In his days ' (those of .Simon the high priest) ' the cistern to receive water, being in compass as the sea, was covered with pkilee of brass ' (but see the lleb., and cf. Kautisch, Apokr.].
the second temple had its Brazen Sea too, though apart from the vague hint contained in this verse of the Apoerj'plia we read nothing about a Brazen or Molten Sea in any temple except Solomon's.
LiTERATCRR.— Reland, Antifj. Sacr. i. 6 fl. ; Keil, Temptl SalomvUy 118 II. ; the Bible Dictionaries of Winer^, Riehm'-^, and the works on Biblical Archajology by Lundius, Benzinger, and Nowack ; Stade's ijfsckickte des Volki's Igrael, i. 335 f.; the Commentaries of Tlienius, Kittel, Benzinger on ' Kings ' — the Urst very full and able, the last two short, compact, and up to d«t«- T. \V. Davies.