Bible Strands
1 Kings 7:26
It was a handbreadth thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold two thousand baths.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator describes Solomon’s bronze Sea during the temple construction account, detailing its physical specifications immediately after listing the twelve oxen that supported it.
The words — The text specifies the wall as a טֶ֔פַח (Te.fach), meaning a handbreadth, and describes the rim as resembling a פֶּ֣רַח (Pe.rach) שׁוֹשָ֑ן (sho.Shan), literally a lily blossom.
The thread — The lily blossom motif for carved ornamentation recurs in 1 Kings 6:18 and 1 Kings 6:32, while the vessel’s capacity is cross-referenced in 2 Chronicles 4:5 with a variant measurement.
Why it lands — The passage records exact dimensions and functional volume to document the deliberate craftsmanship and orderly provision established for the temple’s sacred furnishings.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And it was an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths.
Cross-references
- 2 Chronicles 4:5 It was a handbreadth thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold three thousand baths.
- 1 Kings 6:18 The cedar paneling inside the temple was carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; not a stone could be seen.
- 1 Kings 6:32 The double doors were made of olive wood, and he carved into them cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers and overlaid the cherubim and palm trees with hammered gold.
- 1 Kings 6:35 He carved into them cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and he overlaid them with gold hammered evenly over the carvings.
- 1 Kings 7:19 And the capitals atop the pillars in the portico were shaped like lilies, four cubits high.
- 1 Kings 7:38 He also made ten bronze basins, each holding forty baths and measuring four cubits across, one basin for each of the ten stands.
- Jeremiah 52:21 Each pillar was eighteen cubits tall and twelve cubits in circumference; each was hollow, four fingers thick.
- Ezekiel 45:14 The prescribed portion of oil, measured by the bath, is a tenth of a bath from each cor (a cor consists of ten baths or one homer, since ten baths are equivalent to a homer).