1 Kings 7:40

40 ¹Hiram also made ²the pots, the shovels, and the basins. So Hiram finished all the work that he did for King Solomon on the house of the LORD:

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 And he made ten basins of bronze. Each basin held forty baths, each basin measured four cubits, and there was a basin for each of the ten stands.

39 And he set the stands, five on the south side of the house, and five on the north side of the house. And he set the sea at the southeast corner of the house.

40 Hiram also made the pots, the shovels, and the basins. So Hiram finished all the work that he did for King Solomon on the house of the LORD:

41 the two pillars, the two bowls of the capitals that were on the tops of the pillars, and the two latticeworks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the tops of the pillars;

42 and the four hundred pomegranates for the two latticeworks, two rows of pomegranates for each latticework, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars;

Cross References

• 1. For ver. 40-51, see 2 Chronicles 4:11 - 5:1
• 2. Exodus 27:3; Exodus 38:3