Commentaria in III Regum
IT CONTAINED TWO THOUSAND BATHS.—The bath, the ephi and the metreta are equal, and are the tenth part of a cor, Ezechiel 45:11, namely a measure containing three modii; for the cor contained ten times as much, namely 30 modii. The bath was a measure of liquids, as the ephi of dry things, containing as much as a Roman amphora, namely 48 sextarii, that is, 960 ounces of water, as Alcazar proves at length, tract On Measures, proposition 14; although Villalpandus makes the bath far larger. You will say that in 2 Paralipomenon 4:3 the brazen sea is said to have contained three thousand metretas, that is, baths. I answer with Villalpandus, Alcazar and others that the bath was twofold, greater and less; the greater was one and a half times the other, so that two greater equalled three less. Now Villalpandus thinks the greater bath contained 108 sextarii, the less 72; Alcazar, however, tract On Measures, proposition 14, thinks these baths were not the common ones but extraordinary and smaller, and so that this bath was only the tenth part of a bath. Again, it is held that these baths were twofold, namely greater and less, so that the greater was one and a half times the less. The tenth part of a bath is a gomer, or assaron, which contains 96 ounces, that is, eight pounds twelve ounces. Wherefore Alcazar thinks the brazen sea contained 208 Roman amphoras, whereas Villalpandus assigns it 4,900 Roman amphoras. But as this measure of Villalpandus is too great and monstrous, so that of Alcazar is too small, and too slight for it to be called a sea. Wherefore I judge that we must not depart from the ordinary and common measure of the bath, and I say that the common bath is here taken, which was equal to the Roman amphora, containing 48 sextarii and 960 ounces, which make 80 pounds. Wherefore this sea, containing two thousand baths, contained twice a thousand Roman amphoras, that is, ninety-six thousand sextarii, and a hundred and sixty thousand pounds of water. These are the greater baths, two thousand, which equal three thousand lesser baths; for they stand as two to three; wherefore the lesser bath contained only 640 ounces, which make 52 pounds and 4 ounces, as is plain to anyone who computes the proportion of each and compares them. Cajetan and Ribera answer otherwise, namely that the brazen sea held only two thousand baths if it was filled in the common way, moderately; but if to the very utmost brim, it held three thousand baths; and this, they say, machaziq signifies in 2 Paralipomenon 4:5, for machaziq is the same as “strengthening,” that is, to one filling it strongly and fully it held three thousand baths. For the upper circumference, because it was very wide, easily held a thousand baths in its small border of a few fingers. For the book of Paralipomenon is a supplement to the book of Kings, for it supplies the paraleipomena, that is, the things left out and omitted in them. Whence it often reckons a greater number. So Vatablus.
27. AND HE MADE TEN BASES OF BRASS.—For ten lavers, which were supported by these bases. This is plain from verse 38, and 2 Paralipomenon 4:6, where it is said: “He made also ten basins, and set five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them all things that they were to offer for holocaust; but the priests were washed in the sea.” The lavers, then, were great basins, or vessels and pans, in which the priests washed the victims already flayed, and their cut-up flesh, that when washed they might be laid on the altar of holocausts to be offered to God and burnt; but in the brazen sea the priests alone washed their hands and feet. For although the Nathinites had first washed the victims to be sacrificed in the probatic pool before they were brought into the temple, yet they washed the animals whole and living; wherefore in the temple, that is, in the court, the same, now slain and cut up, had again to be washed by the priests of blood and filth, that they might be offered pure to God on the altar. Wherefore the brazen sea was in the midst of the lavers, and had five lavers on the right, five on the left. So Ribera. Each laver, moreover, held forty baths, as is said in verse 38. Josephus in Rufinus’s version has the same; for Gelenius wrongly substitutes congii for baths.
EACH BASE WAS FOUR CUBITS IN LENGTH, AND FOUR CUBITS IN BREADTH, AND THREE CUBITS IN HEIGHT.—The bases of the lavers were therefore square, being four cubits wide and as many long, and were cast and fitted together of four brazen plates joined to one another; and therefore these joints, that they might not appear, were covered with various carvings, as follows:
28. AND THE WORK OF THE BASES WAS ENGRAVED WORK: AND THERE WERE CARVINGS BETWEEN THE JOINTS.
ABOVE: AND UNDER THE LIONS AND OXEN, AS IT WERE STRAPS OF BRASS HANGING DOWN.—This place is intricate and difficult. Passing over the various explanations of various writers, I shall clearly settle the whole matter. Note first that “engraved work” is so called because between plates, whether of wood, gold or brass, that are flat and as it were smoothed stands out and projects over tablets of wood, gold or brass that are flat and as it were smoothed, as on vessels there stand out and are prominent heads of lions, men and oxen, etc. Whence in Hebrew it is misgerot, that is, an enclosure, or, as Vatablus, girdles. The Hebrews call projecting and prominent carvings “enclosures,” because they as it were enclose and bound the flat, smoothed plate, namely the flat intermediate spaces of the plate. Whence our version calls this engraved work, that is, these carvings, “little crowns and plaits,” both because they were surrounded with little crowns and flowers and other things woven and interlaced, and because the carvings themselves or carved figures are called crowns and crownings, that is, ornaments, because they crown and adorn the plate or thing to which they are added. Wherefore for all these there is in Hebrew one word, misgerot, which our version renders now “engraved work,” now “carvings,” now “little crowns,” now “plaits.”
For some were in the manner of a round crown, others interlaced in another figure and form, which were called “plaits.” These four words, then, here signify the same. Yet by “plaits” may be understood the very joints of the plates, as in the Hebrew, so that “plait” is derived from plecto, that is, I fold, fit together, weave, join; for between the joints of the plates were these carvings.
Note secondly that for “joints” the Hebrew is selabbim, which Pagninus translates “garments”; Marinus, “steps”; Vatablus, “projections”; but we must trust our version and the Septuagint, who constantly translate “joints,” and the Chaldee, who translates “junctions.” Whence Exodus 26:17 our version and others everywhere translate “sockets.”
The Hebrew, then, literally reads thus: And this was the work of the base: an enclosure to them, and an enclosure between the joints, and above (that is, beside or between) the enclosures which were between the joints, lions, ox and cherubim. And above (that is, beside or between) the joints thus above: and beneath the lions and oxen couplings, work of descent. “Enclosures,” as I said, he calls the carvings of lions, oxen and cherubim, etc., which covered the joints of the brazen plates, that they might not appear to have been put together, but might seem continuous and drawn from the same brass, or that they might seem not many plates but one whole and solid plate. The sense, then, is as if to say: Solomon carved on the bases of the ten lavers various carvings, to cover with them the joints of the brazen plates, among which carvings the carvings of lions, oxen and Cherubim stood out. And so he made these carvings and figures both between the upper and higher joints, which were above, and between the lower, which were beneath; and he added beneath the lions and oxen couplings, that is, certain straps coupled and joined together, hanging down, that is, tending downward; for this is the “work of descent” which the Hebrew has. He fittingly carved these straps, because oxen and lions are wont to be bound and coupled with straps. So Ribera, book 2 On the Temple, chapter 18.
30. AND FOUR WHEELS TO EVERY BASE,—as if to say: Each base was set upon four wheels, so that they seemed to be rolled and moved hither and thither.
AND AT THE FOUR PARTS WERE LITTLE SHOULDERS UNDER THE LAVER, CAST, LOOKING TOWARD EACH OTHER,—as if to say: There were in the bases of the lavers certain projecting parts, by which the lavers were supported as by shoulders, cast of brass, and turned toward one another.
31. THE MOUTH ALSO OF THE LAVER WITHIN WAS IN THE TOP OF THE HEAD,—as if to say: The mouth of the laver, that is, the upper part itself of the base, on which the laver, or vessel of the laver, was set, was hollow like a mouth, so that the equally hollow laver might be fitted into it, and it was in the top of the head, that is, it was at the top of the base. For so the Author explains himself in verse 35.
AND WHAT APPEARED OUTWARD WAS OF ONE CUBIT, AND ALL WAS ROUND, AND LIKEWISE HAD ONE CUBIT AND A HALF.—And Josephus explains this clearly, saying book 8, chapter 2: “On which side the figures of lions and eagles were so fitted that you would think them grown together, with little palm trees between them. And this roundness had a cubit and a half of height, but half a cubit was covered by the carvings, and only a cubit appeared.”
AND IN THE CORNERS OF THE COLUMNS WERE VARIOUS CARVINGS.—For, as Josephus says, the plates of the bases, being square, had in the corners columns, that is, certain little columns for elegance, into which the sides of the bases were inserted on both sides and as it were let in; and these had their carvings with which they were adorned.
AND THE MIDDLE SPACES BETWEEN THE COLUMNS WERE SQUARE, NOT ROUND.—“Spaces between the columns” he calls the very shafts, or posts, of the bases, which came in between the columns joined in the corners, as it were in the middle; as if to say: The shaft itself of the bases was square, not round. The Hebrew and Chaldee: The enclosure itself, that is, the carvings, were square, not round. “Enclosures,” or carvings, he calls the bases themselves, carved and fashioned.