2 Chronicles 4:3

_AND UNDER IT WAS THE SIMILITUDE OF OXEN, WHICH DID COMPASS IT ROUND ABOUT: TEN IN A CUBIT, COMPASSING THE SEA ROUND ABOUT. TWO ROWS OF OXEN WERE CAST, WHEN IT WAS CAST._ Two rows of oxen were cast, when it was cast - the meaning of which is, that the circular basin and the brasen oxen which supported it were all of one piece, being cast in one and the same mould. There is a difference in the accounts given of the capacity of this basin, for while in 1 Kings 7:26 it is said that 2,000 baths of water could be contained in it, in this passage no less than 3,000 are stated. It has been suggested that there is here a statement, not merely of the quantity of water which the basin held, but that also which was necessary to work it, to keep it flowing as a fountain; that which was required to fill both it and its accompaniments. In support of this view, it may be remarked that dif

Verse 2 Chronicles 4:3. _UNDER IT WAS THE SIMILITUDE OF OXEN_] In 1 Kings 7:24, instead of _oxen_, בקרים bekarim, we have _knops_, פקעים pekaim; and this last is supposed by able critics to be the reading which ought to be received here. What we call _knops_ may signify _grapes, mushrooms, apples_, or some such ornaments placed round about under the turned over lip or brim of this caldron. It is possible that בקרים _bekarim, oxen_, may be a corruption of פקעים _pekaim, grapes_, as the פ _pe_ might be mistaken for a ב _beth,_ to which in ancient MSS. it has often a great resemblance, the dot under the top being often faint and indistinct; and the ע _ain_, on the same account might be mistaken for a ר _resh_. Thus _grapes_ might be turned into...

For “oxen” we find in 1 Kings 7:24, “knops” or “gourds.” An early copyist, not comprehending the comparatively rare word here used for “gourd,” and expecting to hear of oxen, as soon as the molten sea was mentioned, changed the reading....

EXPOSITION This chapter is occupied with some account of the _contents _of the house, following naturally upon the account of the structure, dimensions, and main features of the building given in the previous chapter. The parallel, so far as it goes, is found in 1 Kings 7:1. and 8. 2 CHRONICLES 4:1 AN ALTAR OF BRASS. This in worthier material superseded the temporary altar of the tabernacle (Exodus 27:1, Exodus 27:2), made of shittim wood, and its dimensions five cubits long and broad and three cubits high. Large as was the present altar of brass as compared with the altar

2 Chronicles 3:1....

CHAPTER 4 THE VESSELS THAT WERE FOR THE HOUSE _ 1. The altar of brass (2 Chronicles 4:1)_ 2. The molten sea (2 Chronicles 4:2) 3. The ten loaves (2 Chronicles 4:6) 4. The ten candlesticks (2 Chronicles 4:7) 5. The ten tables (2 Chronicles 4:8) 6. The court (2 Chronicles 4:9) 7. The work of Huram ...

2 CHRONICLES 4:1 FF. It is probable that the Chronicler, in describing the Temple furniture was influenced by what he saw in Zerubbabel's Temple. 2 Chronicles 4:9. the court of the priests...: the courts are described by the Chronicler as he saw them in his day; they were different in the first Temple (see 1 Kings 6:36; 1 Kings 7:12)....

IN. CUBIT: or, to the height of. cubit (i.e. one-fifth of the brazen sea)....

_under it was the similitude of oxen_ This reading has the support of the LXX., but can hardly be correct. Read (cp. 1 Kings 7:24), UNDER IT THERE WERE KNOPS, "knops" being embossed ornaments of some kind. _ten in a cubit_ R.V. FOR TEN CUBITS. According to the A.V. there would be ten "knops" in every eighteen inches of the circumference, but the Hebrew is more correctly represented by the R.V. Probably there is some corruption of the text here (and in 1 Kings 7:24). _Two rows of oxen were cast, when it was cast_ Correct the reading as before and render, THE KNOPS WERE IN TWO ROWS, CAST WHEN IT WAS CAST. It is mentioned as a triumph of the founder's art that the laver was cast _complete_, with its ornaments from the first....

SIMILITUDE OF OXEN— _The similitude of grapes._ Houbigant. See the parallel passage, 1 Kings 7:24....