Bible Strands
2 Kings 16:17
King Ahaz also cut off the frames of the movable stands and removed the bronze basin from each of them. He took down the Sea from the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone base.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — King Ahaz orders structural changes to the temple furnishings while Uriah the priest executes the commands, occurring during a period of Assyrian pressure that soon prompts further alterations to the temple layout.
The words — וַ/יְקַצֵּץ (va/y.ka.Tzetz) means "and he cut off," and וַ/יָּ֤סַר (va/i.Ya.sar) means "and he removed."
The thread — These dismantled components correspond to the bronze stands and Sea described in 1 Kings 7:23 and 2 Chronicles 4:14, which the Chaldeans later broke up in 2 Kings 25:13.
Why it lands — The text records Ahaz physically dismantling sacred furniture to meet political demands, requiring the reader to observe how royal pragmatism overrides established worship arrangements.
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 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.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 7:23 He also made the Sea of cast metal. It was circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim, five cubits in height, and thirty cubits in circumference.
- 2 Kings 25:13 Moreover, the Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars and stands and the bronze Sea in the house of the LORD, and they carried the bronze to Babylon.
- 2 Chronicles 4:14 the stands; the basins on the stands;
- 2 Chronicles 28:24 Then Ahaz gathered up the articles of the house of God, cut them into pieces, shut the doors of the house of the LORD, and set up altars of his own on every street corner in Jerusalem.
- 2 Chronicles 29:19 Moreover, we have prepared and consecrated all the articles that King Ahaz in his unfaithfulness cast aside during his reign. They are now in front of the altar of the LORD.”
- Jeremiah 52:20 As for the two pillars, the Sea, the twelve bronze bulls under it, and the movable stands that King Solomon had made for the house of the LORD, the weight of the bronze from all these articles was beyond measure.