Bible Strands
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.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The text records the construction specifications for the bronze Sea during Solomon’s temple project, placing it on twelve oxen and adjacent to ten washing basins.
The words — טֶפַח (tefach) means handbreadth and measures the basin’s wall thickness, while שׁוֹשַׁנָּה (shoshannah) translates to lily blossom and describes the fluted shape of its rim.
The thread — This description runs parallel to 1 Kings 7:26, which repeats the handbreadth thickness and lily-blossom rim but records a capacity of two thousand baths rather than three thousand.
Why it lands — The verse demands attention to the exact physical and volumetric specifications of the priestly washing basin, recording its thickness, decorative rim, and measured capacity without commentary.
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 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.
Cross-references
- 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.