2 Chronicles 4:5

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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) And the thickness . . . a cup.—Identical with 1Kings 7:26.

With flowers of lilies.—See margin. “Lily” here is shôshannāh; in Kings, shôshān. LXX., “graven with lily buds.” Syriac and Arabic, “and it was very beautiful.” Vulg., “like the lip of a cup, or of an open lily.”

And it received and held three thousand baths.—Literally, holding (whole) baths: three thousand would it contain. The bath was the largest of Hebrew liquid measures. Perhaps the true reading is, “holding three thousand baths,” the last verb being a gloss borrowed from Kings. So Vulg. Syriac and Arabic omit the clause. The LXX. had the present reading. 1Kings 7:26 reads, two thousand baths would it contain. Most critics assume this to be correct. Some scribe may have read ’alāphîm, “thousands,” instead of ‘alpayim, “two thousand,” and then have added “three” (shĕlōsheth) under the influence of the last verse. But it is more likely that the numeral “three” having been inadvertently omitted from the text of Kings, the indefinite word “thousands” was made definite by turning it into the dual “two thousand” Either mistake would be possible, because in the unpointed text ‘alāphîm and ’alpayim are written alike. The Syriac has the curious addition, “And he made ten poles, and put five on the right and five on the left, and bare with them the altar of burnt offerings.” Similarly the Arabic version.

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Three thousand baths - See 1 Kings 7:23 note. It is quite possible that either here or in Kings the text may have been accidentally corrupted.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. Two rows of oxen were cast, when it was cast—The meaning is, that the circular basin and the brazen 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 1Ki 7:26 it is said that two thousand baths of water could be contained in it, in this passage no less than three thousand 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 different words are employed: the one in 1Ki 7:26 rendered contained; the two here rendered, received and held. There was a difference between receiving and holding. When the basin played as a fountain, and all its parts were filled for that purpose, the latter, together with the sea itself, received three thousand baths; but the sea exclusively held only two thousand baths, when its contents were restricted to those of the circular basin. It received and held three thousand baths [Calmet, Fragments].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

See Introduction to Chapter 4

Geneva Study Bible

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 {d} three thousand baths.

(d) In the first book of the kings, 1Ki 7:26, mention is only made of 2000, but the lesser number was taken there, and here according as the measures proved afterwards, is declared.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. the brim of it like the work of the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies] R.V. the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily.

three thousand baths] In 1 Kings 7:26, two thousand baths. Whether the textual corruption is to be attributed to 1 Kin. or to Chron. cannot be determined. The bath was a measure for liquids equal to about 8¼ gallons.

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

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The brazen sea described as in 1 Kings 7:23-26. See the commentary on that passage, and the sketch in my Archaeol. i. plate iii. fig. 1. The differences in substance, such as the occurrence of בּקרים and הבּקר, 2 Chronicles 4:3, instead of פּקעים and הפּקים, and 3000 baths instead of 2000, are probably the result of orthographical errors in the Chronicle. יכיל in 2 Chronicles 4:5 appears superfluous after the preceding מחזיק, and Berth. considers it a gloss which has come from 1 Kings to our text by mistake. But the expression is only pleonastic: "receiving baths, 3000 it held;" and there is no sufficient reason to strike out the words.