The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 136

and the circumference e.s thirty cubits. If to the ornamentation of the !aver. The lip the diameter was exactly ten, the circumfer- was curved like a lilyJ : it conta.ined two ence would of course be about 31½ oubits. thousand [In Chron. and by Josephus the But the sacred writers seldom aim at pre- number is given as 8000. This may have cision. resulted, as Keil thinks, from confounding Ver. 24.-And under the brim of it round J and ::J. but it is suspicious that so many of about [The edge of the laver was curved the numbers of the Chronicles are exagge- outwards (ver. 26)] there were !mops [see rations. The common explanation of the note on eh. vi. 18. The text of 2 Chron. discrepaucy, viz., that it ·held 2000 baths iv. 3, u'-,i':J (" the similitude_ of oxen"), is " when filled to its ordinary height, but obviously a clerical error for tl'l/i'E:l (Keil), when filled to the b1im 8000" (Wordsworth), but whether nm, is an interpolation may appears to me hardly ingenuous] baths. well be doubted. Keil thinks it was intro- [" The data for determining the value of doced to explain the mention of oxen] the be.th or ephah a.re both soanty and con- compassing [Heb. sur1·01mding, some word] flicting" (Diet. Bib. iii. p. 1741). Josephus, it, ten in a cubit [It does not follow from the only authol'ity on the subject, says that this that each gourd or knop was " a little it equalled the Attio 1netretes ( about 8½ gale.), 'Jver two inches in diameter" (Keil), for they but it is very doubtful whether he was may not base been in close contact, and, " really familiar with the Greek measures " moreover, the co bit was probably 18 inches], (ib.) At any rate, if this statement is compassillg the sea round about : the correct, his other statement as to the shape knops were cast in two rows, when it was of the !aver must be altogether erroneous, cast. [Lit., two rows; the knops were cast since 2000 baths would equal 17,000 gale., in its casting. The " brass," of which the and a hemispherical !aver could not possibly laver was composed, had been taken by have contained more than 10,000. The David from the cities of Had.a.rezer (1 Chron. attempt has been made, on the assumption xnii. 8; 1 Sam. viii. 8, LXX.)J that the sea was a hemisphere, as Josephus Ver. 25.-It stood [Heb. standing] upon affirms, to calculate from its capacity the twelve oxen [The import of the number value of the bath, whioh in that case woold twelve is well exple.ined by Bii.hr, Symboli.k, be about four gallons. But there is good i. 201 sqq. Like ,even, it is compounded out reason for doubting whether the laver was of three and four. But the primary reference hemisphe1ical-euch a shape would be ill here is to the twelve tribes], three looking adapted to its position on the backs of toward the north, a.nd three looking toward oxen-and some have maintained that it the west, a.nd three looking toward the was cylindrical, others that, like the !aver south, a.nd three looldng toward the east of the tabernacle, it had a foot (Exod. xxx. [So the tribes in the camp formed a sque.re 18) or basin. The prevailing opinion of round the tabernacle, three on each side- scholars, however, appears to be that it was east, south, west, and north (Num. ii.)]: a.nd 30 cubits in circumference only o.t the lip, the sea was set above upon them, and all and that it bellied out considerably below. their hinder parts were inward. [The same While the shape, however, must remain a regard of the cardinal points (see Bahr, matter of uncertainty, we are left in no Symbolik, i. 210 sqq.) has been noticed in doubt as to its purpose. It was "for the the pomegranates on the capitals of the two priests to wash in" (2 Ohron. iv. 6)-not, of columns. See note on ver. 20. Keil says course, for immersing their whole persons, the feet of the oxen no doubt rested on but their handa and feet (Exod. xxx. 19, 21). a metal plate, so that they were fixed and The priests (after Exod. iii. 6; Josh. v. 16, immoveable; but this lacks proof. The &c.) ministered barefoot. It was, accord- oxen would be immoveable in any case, ing to Rabbinical tradition, provided with owing to the weight of the metal and the taps or faucets (Biihr). It has, however, irater. All conjectures as to the height and been held by some that the water issued size of the oxen are necessarily of little forth (as in the Alhambra) from the lions' value. mouths. It is probable tbata basin of some Ver. 26.-And it wasahandbreadth thick sort was attached to it. Whether the laver [i.e., three inches], a.nd the brim thereof was filled by the hand or by some special was wrought llke the brim of a cup [Heb. contrivance, it is quite impossible to say. and his lip like the work of the lip of a cup, We know that provision was made for storing i.e., curved outwards], with flowers oflWes water hard by. The present writer was privi- [lit.," a blosso11t of lily.'' Keil understands leged in 1861 to explore the great reservoir, " ornamented with lily flowers," but the the Bahr el Khebir, still existing underneath lllirict interpretation-the " lily blossom " the Ha.ram area, at a time when very few being in apposition to •' cup "-requires us Europeans had seen it (see Pal. E:i:plor. to refer the words to the shape rather than Fund, No. vii.; Barolay, "City of the Great CJS, VII, 1-151.] THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 188