1 Kings 7:25

25 It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking towards the north, and three looking towards the west, and three looking towards the south, and three looking towards the east: and the sea [was set] above upon them, and all their hinder parts [were] inward.

1 Kings 7:25 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 7:25

It stood upon twelve oxen
Figures of them in brass, of full proportion:

three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and
three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east;
and so turned to the four quarters of the world:

and the sea was set above upon them;
as it were on the backs of them, and their mouths served as spouts or cocks, to let water out of it on all sides:

and all their hinder parts were inward;
that they might not be seen, and which met in a centre; they that were north came against those that were south, and they in the east met with those to the west. The brass of the sea, according to Jacob Leon F18, weighed 1,800 arobas, and, with twelve oxen under, 33,500; each aroba being twenty five pounds weight.


FOOTNOTES:

F18 Relation of Memorable Things in the Temple, ch. 4. p. 21.

1 Kings 7:25 In-Context

23 And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: [it was] entirely round, and its hight [was] five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits encompassed it.
24 And under the brim of it around [there were] knobs compassing it, ten in a cubit, compassing the sea around: the knobs [were] cast in two rows, when it was cast.
25 It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking towards the north, and three looking towards the west, and three looking towards the south, and three looking towards the east: and the sea [was set] above upon them, and all their hinder parts [were] inward.
26 And it [was] a hand-breadth thick, and its brim was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths.
27 And he made ten bases of brass; four cubits [was] the length of one base, and four cubits the breadth of it, and three cubits the hight of it.
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