2 Kings 16:17
◄  2 Kings 16:17  ►
New International Version (©2011)
King Ahaz cut off the side panels and removed the basins from the movable stands. He removed the Sea from the bronze bulls that supported it and set it on a stone base.

New Living Translation (©2007)
Then the king removed the side panels and basins from the portable water carts. He also removed the great bronze basin called the Sea from the backs of the bronze oxen and placed it on the stone pavement.

English Standard Version (©2001)
And King Ahaz cut off the frames of the stands and removed the basin from them, and he took down the sea from off the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone pedestal.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
Then King Ahaz cut off the borders of the stands, and removed the laver from them; he also took down the sea from the bronze oxen which were under it and put it on a pavement of stone.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brasen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stones.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
Then King Ahaz cut off the frames of the water carts and removed the bronze basin from each of them. He took the reservoir from the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone pavement.

International Standard Version (©2012)
Later, King Ahaz ordered the side panels removed from the bases, along with the washing bowls that had stood on top of the bases. He also removed the large bowl that was called the Sea from on top of the bronze bulls that supported it, and put it on a stone base.

NET Bible (©2006)
King Ahaz took off the frames of the movable stands, and removed the basins from them. He took "The Sea" down from the bronze bulls that supported it and put it on the pavement.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
King Ahaz cut off the side panels of the [bronze] stands [used in the temple] and removed the basin from each of them. He took the bronze pool down from the bronze bulls that were under it and set it on a stone base.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
And king Ahaz cut off the panels of the stands, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the bronze oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stones.

American King James Version
And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it, and put it on the pavement of stones.

American Standard Version
And king Ahaz cut off the panels of the bases, and removed the laver from off them, and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stone.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And king Achaz took away the graven bases, and the laver that was upon them: and he took down the sea from the brazen oxen that held it up, and put it upon a pavement of stone.

Darby Bible Translation
And king Ahaz cut off the panels of the bases, and removed the lavers from off them; and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a stone pavement.

English Revised Version
And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brasen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stone.

Webster's Bible Translation
And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stones.

World English Bible
King Ahaz cut off the panels of the bases, and removed the basin from off them, and took down the sea from off the bronze oxen that were under it, and put it on a pavement of stone.

Young's Literal Translation
And king Ahaz cutteth off the borders of the bases, and turneth aside from off them the laver, and the sea he hath taken down from off the brazen oxen that are under it, and putteth it on a pavement of stones.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

16:17-20 Ahaz put contempt upon the sabbath, and thus opened a wide inlet to all manner of sin. This he did for the king of Assyria. When those who have had a ready passage to the house of the Lord, turn it another way to please their neighbours, they are going down-hill apace to ruin.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 17. - And King Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases. By "the bases" are probably meant the stands of the ten brazen layers, which Hiram the Tyrian artificer made for Solomon, and which Solomon placed outside the temple, five on either side of the entrance (1 Kings 7:39). The "borders of the bases" seem to have consisted of ornamental panels, on which were carved, in relief, figures of lions, oxen, and cherubim (1 Kings 7:29), The object of Ahaz in these mutilations may have been merely destructive, as we find Egyptian kings, after a change of religion, mutilating the tablets, and erasing the inscriptions put up in honor of those gods who had ceased to be in favor with them. Or, possibly, he may, as Keil supposes, have wished to transfer the ornamental carvings to some other edifice, e.g. an idolatrous temple or a palace. And removed the laver from off them - removed, i.e., from each base "the laver" which stood upon it - and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it. (On Solomon's "molten sea," or great laver, and the twelve oxen which supported it, comp. 1 Kings 7:23-26, and Jeremiah 52:20.) The "sea" was probably removed from off the backs of the oxen, in order that they might be made use of, as ornaments, elsewhere. And put it upon a pavement of stones; rather, upon a pedestal of stone (ἐπὶ βάσιν λιθίνην, LXX.).

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And King Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them,.... In the temple there were ten lavers for the priests to wash in, which are here meant, the singular being put for the plural; and these had bases of brass, on which they were set; and about these bases were borders, which had on them figures of various creatures, lions, oxen, and cherubim; and these Ahaz cut off, either to deface them, in contempt of them, or to convert the brass to other uses, as he might also the bases themselves, since he removed the lavers from off of them, see 1 Kings 7:27.

and took down the sea from off the brasen oxen that were under it; the molten sea Solomon made, which he set upon twelve oxen made of brass; this Ahaz took down from thence, either to abate its magnificence, and render it despicable, or for the sake of the brass, of which the oxen were made, see 1 Kings 7:23.

and put it upon a pavement of stones; not upon the floor of the temple, for that was of wood, fir, or cedar, but on rows of stones, placed instead of bases for it to stand upon.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2Ki 16:17-19. He Spoils the Temple.

17. cut off the borders of the bases, &c.—It is thought that he did this to use the elaborate sculpture in adorning his palace.

2 Kings 16:17 Parallel Commentaries

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Damascus Falls
…16Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded. 17And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it, and put it on the pavement of stones. 18And the covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king's entry without, turned he from the house of the LORD for the king of Assyria.

1 Kings 7:23 He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it.
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 7:27 He also made ten movable stands of bronze; each was four cubits long, four wide and three high.
1 Kings 7:28 This is how the stands were made: They had side panels attached to uprights.
2 Kings 16:16 And Uriah the priest did just as King Ahaz had ordered.
2 Kings 16:18 He took away the Sabbath canopy that had been built at the temple and removed the royal entryway outside the temple of the LORD, in deference to the king of Assyria.
2 Chronicles 28:24 Ahaz gathered together the furnishings from the temple of God and cut them in pieces. He shut the doors of the LORD's temple and set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem.