2 Chronicles 4:5
◄  2 Chronicles 4:5  ►
New International Version (©2011)
It was a handbreadth in thickness, and its rim was like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held three thousand baths.

New Living Translation (©2007)
The walls of the Sea were about three inches thick, and its rim flared out like a cup and resembled a water lily blossom. It could hold about 16,500 gallons of water.

English Standard Version (©2001)
Its thickness was a handbreadth. And its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily. It held 3,000 baths.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom; it could hold 3,000 baths.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And the thickness of it was an handbreadth, and the brim of it like the work of the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies; and it received and held three thousand baths.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
The reservoir was three inches thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup or a lily blossom. It could hold 11,000 gallons.

International Standard Version (©2012)
It was a handbreadth thick, with its brim fashioned like the brim of a cup. Similar in shape to a lily blossom, it could hold 3,000 baths.

NET Bible (©2006)
It was four fingers thick and its rim was like that of a cup shaped like a lily blossom. It could hold 18,000 gallons.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
The pool was three inches thick. Its rim was like the rim of a cup, shaped like a lily's bud. It held 18,000 gallons.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
And the thickness of it was a handbreadth, and the brim of it like the work of the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily; and it received and held three thousand baths.

American King James Version
And the thickness of it was an handbreadth, and the brim of it like the work of the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies; and it received and held three thousand baths.

American Standard Version
And it was a handbreadth thick; and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it received and held three thousand baths.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Now the thickness of it was a handbreadth, and the brim of it was like the brim of a cup, or of a crisped lily: and it held three thousand measures.

Darby Bible Translation
And its thickness was a hand-breadth, and its brim like the work of the brim of a cup, with lily-blossoms; in capacity it held three thousand baths.

English Revised Version
And it was an handbreadth thick; and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it received and held three thousand baths.

Webster's Bible Translation
And the thickness of it was a hand-breadth, and the brim of it like the work of the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies; and it received and held three thousand baths.

World English Bible
It was a handbreadth thick; and its brim was worked like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it received and held three thousand baths.

Young's Literal Translation
And its thickness is a handbreadth, and its lip as the work of the lip of a cup flowered with lilies; taking hold -- baths three thousand it containeth.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:1-22 The furniture of the temple. - Here is a further account of the furniture of God's house. Both without doors and within, there was that which typified the grace of the gospel, and shadowed out good things to come, of which the substance is Christ. There was the brazen altar. The making of this was not mentioned in the book of Kings. On this all the sacrifices were offered, and it sanctified the gift. The people who worshipped in the courts might see the sacrifices burned. They might thus be led to consider the great Sacrifice, to be offered in the fulness of time, to take away sin, and put an end to death, which the blood of bulls and goats could not possibly do. And, with the smoke of the sacrifices, their hearts might ascend to heaven, in holy desires towards God and his favour. In all our devotions we must keep the eye of faith fixed upon Christ. The furniture of the temple, compared with that of the tabernacle, showed that God's church would be enlarged, and his worshippers multiplied. Blessed be God, there is enough in Christ for all.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - An handbreadth. Not זֶרֶת, "a span" (nevertheless tabled by Conder, 'Handbook to the Bible,' 2nd edit., p. 79, as a handbreadth, and put at eight digits, two palms, or 5.33 inches), but טֶפַח, "the palm of the open hand," the breadth of the four fingers, which Thenius puts at 3.1752 inches, but Conder's table at 2.66 inches. It received and held should be translated, it was able to hold. Three thousand baths. The parallel has two thousand baths, and this latter is the likelier reading. It is, however, conceivable that the statement of Kings may purport to give the quantity of water used, and that of Chronicles the quantity which the vessel at its fullest could accommodate. As to the real capacity of the bath, we are hopelessly at sea. Josephus's estimate of it is about eight gallons and a half, that of the rabbinists about four gallons and a half (see Smith's 'Dictionary of the Bible,' 3:1742), and Conder, in the 'Handbook to the Bible,' p. 80, a fractional quantity above six gallons. The largest bowls on the Assyrian bas-reliefs, the silver bowl of Croesus, and the bronze bowl in Scythia (Herodotus, 1:51; 4:81), did not, under the lowest estimate of the bath, hold as much as one-half of the contents of this vast sea of brass of Solomon. The use of this vessel was, as we read in the next verse, for the priests to wash in, or, as some would read, to wash at (Exodus 30:18-20).

2 Chronicles 4:5 Parallel Commentaries
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The Bronze Altar and Molten Sea
…3And 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. 4It stood on twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east: and the sea was set above on them, and all their hinder parts were inward. 5And the thickness of it was an handbreadth, and the brim of it like the work of the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies; and it received and held three thousand baths.

Exodus 25:25 Also make around it a rim a handbreadth wide and put a gold molding on the rim.
1 Kings 7:25 The Sea stood on twelve bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south and three facing east. The Sea rested on top of them, and their hindquarters were toward the center.
1 Kings 7:26 It was a handbreadth in thickness, and its rim was like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held two thousand baths.
2 Chronicles 4:4 The Sea stood on twelve bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south and three facing east. The Sea rested on top of them, and their hindquarters were toward the center.