1 Kings 7:40

40 Then Hiram made the basins, the shovels, and the sprinkling basins.^[a] So Hiram finished all the work that he was doing for King Solomon on the Lord's temple:

1 Kings 7:40 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 7:40

And Hiram made the lavers, and the shovels, and the basins,
&c.] The lavers are not the ten before mentioned, of the make of which an account is before given; but these, according to Jarchi and Ben Gersom, are the same with the pots, ( 1 Kings 7:45 ) and so they are called in ( 2 Chronicles 4:11 ) the use of which, as they say, was to put the ashes of the altar into; as the "shovels", next mentioned, were a sort of besoms to sweep them off, and the "basins" were to receive the blood of the sacrifices, and sprinkle it; no mention is here made of the altar of brass he made, but is in ( 2 Chronicles 4:11 ) , nor of the fleshhooks to take the flesh out of the pots, as in ( 2 Chronicles 4:16 ) ,

so Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he made King Solomon
for the house of the Lord;
what he undertook, and was employed in, he finished, which were all works of brass; of which a recapitulation is made in the following verses to the end of the forty fifth, where they are said to be made of "bright brass", free of all dross and rust; "good", as the Targum, even the best brass they were made of; the brass David took from Hadarezer, ( 1 Chronicles 18:8 ) which Josephus ^F7 too much magnifies, when he says it was better than gold.

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 Antiqu. l. 7. c. 5. sect. 3.

1 Kings 7:40 In-Context

38 Then he made 10 bronze basins-each basin holding 220 gallons and each was six feet wide-one basin for each of the 10 water carts.

39 He set five water carts on the right side of the temple and five on the left side. He put the reservoir near the right side of the temple toward the southeast.

40 Then Hiram made the basins, the shovels, and the sprinkling basins. So Hiram finished all the work that he was doing for King Solomon on the Lord's temple:

41 two pillars; bowls for the capitals that were on top of the two pillars; the two gratings for covering both bowls of the capitals that were on top of the pillars;

42 the 400 pomegranates for the two gratings (two rows of pomegranates for each grating covering both capitals' bowls on top of the pillars);

Footnotes

• [a]. 2 Ch 4:11