2 Chronicles 4:2-6

2 CHRONICLES—NOTE ON 2 Chronicles 4:2 On various details of the temple, see notes on 1 Kings 7:23–47. The sea was a large, circular water tank, outside the southeast corner of the temple (2 Chronicles 4:10). The priests used it for their ceremonial cleansing before they entered the temple (v. 2 Chronicles 4:6). It corresponded to the bronze basin that had stood between the entrance to the tabernacle and the Mosaic altar (Exodus 30:18). 3,000 baths. 1 Kings 7:26 reads “two thousand baths.” The difference may be due to a copyist’s error. The twelve oxen, three facing each of four directions, probably signified the tribes of Israel. They would be a reminder of how the tribes encamped, three on each side, around the four sides of the tabernacle in the wilderness (see Numbers 2:1).