1 Kings 7:13-23

13 King Solomon then asked for a man named Huram to come from Tyre.

14 He was half Israelite, since his mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father had been a craftsman in bronze from Tyre. Huram was extremely skillful and talented in any work in bronze, and he came to do all the metal work for King Solomon.

15 Huram cast two bronze pillars, each 27 feet tall and 18 feet in circumference.

16 For the tops of the pillars he cast bronze capitals, each 7 feet tall.

17 Each capital was decorated with seven sets of latticework and interwoven chains.

18 He also encircled the latticework with two rows of pomegranates to decorate the capitals over the pillars.

19 The capitals on the columns inside the entry room were shaped like water lilies, and they were six feet tall.

20 The capitals on the two pillars had 200 pomegranates in two rows around them, beside the rounded surface next to the latticework.

21 Huram set the pillars at the entrance of the Temple, one toward the south and one toward the north. He named the one on the south Jakin, and the one on the north Boaz.

22 The capitals on the pillars were shaped like water lilies. And so the work on the pillars was finished.

23 Then Huram cast a great round basin, 15 feet across from rim to rim, called the Sea. It was 7 feet deep and about 45 feet in circumference.

1 Kings 7:13-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 7

This chapter gives an account of some buildings of Solomon for himself, 1Ki 7:1-12; and of other things for the use of the temple; of two pillars of brass, 1Ki 7:13-22; of the molten sea, 1Ki 7:23-26; and of ten bases, and ten layers on them, 1Ki 7:27-39; with other utensils and ornaments, 1Ki 7:40-51.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew Hiram (also in 7:40, 45 ); compare 2 Chr 2:13 . This is not the same person mentioned in 5:1 .
• [b]. Hebrew 18 cubits [8.3 meters] tall and 12 cubits [5.5 meters] in circumference.
• [c]. Hebrew 5 cubits [2.3 meters].
• [d]. Hebrew 4 cubits [1.8 meters]; also in 7:38 .
• [e]. Jakin probably means “he establishes”; Boaz probably means “in him is strength.”
• [f]. Hebrew 10 cubits [4.6 meters] across. . . . 5 cubits [2.3 meters] deep and 30 cubits [13.8 meters] in circumference.