2 Chronicles 4

Temple Furnishings: All the Drip

1 He made a bronze altar, thirty feet long, thirty feet wide, and fifteen feet high.

2 Then he made the Sea, a huge round basin, out of cast metal. It was fifteen feet across from rim to rim, seven and a half feet deep, and a forty-five foot string could wrap around it.

3 Below the rim, there were carved oxen all around it, ten oxen per cubit, encircling the Sea. The oxen were cast in two rows, made at the same time the Sea was cast.

4 It sat on top of twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The Sea rested on them, and all their rear ends faced inward.

5 The Sea itself was about three inches thick, and its rim was shaped like a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold about eleven thousand gallons.

6 He also made ten basins for washing, putting five on the right side and five on the left. These were for washing the burnt offerings. But the Sea was for the priests to wash in.

7 He made ten gold lampstands, according to their design, and put them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left.

8 He made ten tables and put them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. He also made a hundred gold sprinkling bowls.

9 He made the priests’ courtyard, the great courtyard, and the doors for the courtyards, and covered their doors with bronze.

10 He put the Sea on the southeast side of the temple.

Hiram’s Bronze Work

11 Huram also made the pots, shovels, and sprinkling bowls. So Huram finished all the work he did for King Solomon for God’s temple:

12 The two pillars, the two bowls of the capitals that were on top of the two pillars, and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals on top of the pillars;

13 And the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars.

14 He also made the stands and the basins on the stands;

15 The one Sea and the twelve oxen under it;

16 The pots, shovels, and meat forks. All these items Huram-Abi made for King Solomon for the Lord’s temple were of polished bronze.

17 The king cast them in clay molds in the Jordan Valley, between Succoth and Zeredah.

18 Solomon made all these items in such massive quantity that the weight of the bronze could not even be figured out.

Gold Furnishings

19 Solomon also made all the items that were for God’s temple: the gold altar, and the tables for the showbread;

20 The lampstands and their lamps of pure gold, to burn according to custom in front of the inner sanctuary;

21 And the flowers, lamps, and tongs, made of pure gold;

22 And the wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, pans, and firepans of pure gold. And the entrance to the temple, its inner doors to the Most Holy Place, and the temple’s doors to the main hall were gold.