The Fallible Study Bible

The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible

1 Kings7:38–39

The Ten Bronze Basins

✦ Public-domain source — quoted & attributed⚙ AI synthesis — generated, verify

1 Kings 7:38–39 — The Ten Bronze Basins. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

38

He also made ten bronze basins, each holding forty baths and measuring four cubits across, one basin for each of the ten stands.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·ya·‘aś ‘ă·śā·rāh nə·ḥō·šeṯ ḵî·yō·rō·wṯ hā·’e·ḥāḏ hak·kî·yō·wr yā·ḵîl ’ar·bā·‘îm baṯ ’ar·ba‘ bā·’am·māh hā·’e·ḥāḏ hak·kî·yō·wr kî·yō·wr ’e·ḥāḏ ‘al- lə·‘e·śer ham·mə·ḵō·nō·wṯ ham·mə·ḵō·w·nāh hā·’a·ḥaṯ

Word by word20 · parsed
וַיַּ֛עַשׂway·ya·‘aśHe also madeH6213
√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
ʻâsâh: to do or make (Qal consecutive imperfect) The chapter's drumbeat verb. From 1 Kings 7:13 onward the subject of wayyaʻaś is the craftsman Hiram, and every furnishing of the house arrives through this one flat word. Cambridge notes on this very verse that “It is only the simple copulative And”: there is no “then” in the Hebrew, no rhetorical build-up, only a narrator who keeps making.
עֲשָׂרָ֥ה‘ă·śā·rāhtenH6235
√ ʻeser — ten (as an accumulation to the extent of the digits)Numbermasculine singular
נְחֹ֑שֶׁתnə·ḥō·šeṯbronzeH5178
√ nᵉchôsheth — copper, hence, something made of that metal, iNounfeminine singular
כִיֹּר֖וֹתḵî·yō·rō·wṯbasinsH3595
√ kîyôwr — properly, something round (as excavated or bored), iNounmasculine plural
kîyôwr: something round, hollowed out; a basin or laver A rare noun (20 verses) that in Exodus names the single bronze laver between tent and altar at which Aaron and his sons washed hands and feet on pain of death. Gill records the Jewish tradition (Targum, Jarchi, Kimchi) that Moses' one laver was placed in Solomon's temple with these five on either side of it. Ten now stand where one stood: the vocabulary of the wilderness has not changed, only the scale.
הָאֶחָ֗דhā·’e·ḥāḏeachH259
√ ʼechâd — properly, united, iArticleNumbermasculine singular
הַכִּיּ֣וֹרhak·kî·yō·wrH3595
√ kîyôwr — properly, something round (as excavated or bored), iArticleNounmasculine singular
יָכִ֣יל׀yā·ḵîlholdingH3557
√ kûwl — properly, to keep inVerbHifilImperfectthird person masculine singular
kûwl: to keep in, contain, sustain (Hifil) The verb is causative: the basin makes room for forty bath. It is the same verb that measures the Sea at 1 Kings 7:26, and, one chapter later, the verb Solomon uses at the dedication of this very house: the heaven of heavens cannot contain God, much less the house he has built (1 Kings 8:27). ⚙ The narrator spends two chapters rating vessels by capacity, and then lets the king say that the one thing the building cannot do is hold what it was built for.
אַרְבָּעִ֨ים’ar·bā·‘îmfortyH705
√ ʼarbâʻîym — fortyNumbercommon plural
בַּ֜תbaṯbathsH1324
√ bath — a bath or Hebrew measure (as a means of division) of liquidsNounmasculine singular
bath: a liquid measure Rare (8 verses) and, in the prophets, morally loaded: Ezekiel 45:10-11 commands “a just ephah and a just bath,” and Isaiah 5:10 threatens a vineyard that yields only one bath. The measure that here reports Solomon's generosity is the same measure by which Israel's honesty is later weighed.
אַרְבַּ֤ע’ar·ba‘and measuring fourH702
√ ʼarbaʻ — fourNumberfeminine singular
בָּֽאַמָּה֙bā·’am·māhcubits acrossH520
√ ʼammâh — properly, a mother (iPreposition-b, ArticleNounfeminine singular
ʼammâh: a cubit (properly, a mother, i.e. the forearm as the mother-measure) The text does not say whether the four cubits are height or width, and the commentators split. Barnes assumes height and computes a standing height of about thirteen feet nine inches, concluding that the water had to be drawn off through taps. K&D and the Pulpit follow the diameter reading, since the basins were set upon the stands. Both readings are honest inferences from an ambiguous construct; the text itself withholds the answer.
הָאֶחָ֔דhā·’e·ḥāḏoneH259
√ ʼechâd — properly, united, iArticleNumbermasculine singular
הַכִּיּ֣וֹרhak·kî·yō·wrbasinH3595
√ kîyôwr — properly, something round (as excavated or bored), iArticleNounmasculine singular
כִּיּ֤וֹרkî·yō·wrH3595
√ kîyôwr — properly, something round (as excavated or bored), iNounmasculine singular
A fourth occurrence of kîyôwr, now without the article: one basin, anonymous, apportioned.
אֶחָד֙’e·ḥāḏfor eachH259
√ ʼechâd — properly, united, iNumbermasculine singular
עַל־‘al-H5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
לְעֶ֖שֶׂרlə·‘e·śerof the tenH6235
√ ʻeser — ten (as an accumulation to the extent of the digits)Preposition-lNumberfeminine singular construct
הַמְּכֹנֽוֹת׃ham·mə·ḵō·nō·wṯ. . .H4350
√ mᵉkôwnâh — a pedestal, also a spotArticleNounfeminine plural
mᵉkôwnâh: a pedestal, a fixed place Rare (18 verses), and almost all of its occurrences belong to this one set of objects: their manufacture here, their plundering by Ahaz in 2 Kings 16:17, and their breaking up by the Chaldeans in 2 Kings 25:13 and Jeremiah 52:17. The word is effectively a biography of ten bronze carts from the forge to the exile.
הַמְּכוֹנָ֣הham·mə·ḵō·w·nāhstandsH4350
√ mᵉkôwnâh — a pedestal, also a spotArticleNounfeminine singular
הָאַחַ֔תhā·’a·ḥaṯH259
√ ʼechâd — properly, united, iArticleNumberfeminine singular
The feminine hā·’a·ḥaṯ agrees with the feminine mᵉkôwnâh; the masculine hā·’e·ḥāḏ earlier in the verse agrees with the masculine kîyôwr. The grammar keeps basin and stand distinguishable even while the arithmetic pairs them one to one.
39

He set five stands on the south side of the temple and five on the north, and he put the Sea on the south side, at the southeast corner of the temple.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·yit·tên ’eṯ- ḥā·mêš ham·mə·ḵō·nō·wṯ ‘al- mî·yā·mîn ke·ṯep̄ hab·ba·yiṯ wə·ḥā·mêš ‘al- miś·śə·mō·lōw ke·ṯep̄ hab·ba·yiṯ wə·’eṯ- nā·ṯan hay·yām hay·mā·nîṯ mik·ke·ṯep̄ qê·ḏə·māh mim·mūl ne·ḡeḇ hab·ba·yiṯ

Word by word22 · parsed
וַיִּתֵּן֙way·yit·tênHe setH5414
√ nâthan — to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etcConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
nâthan: to give, put, set (Qal consecutive imperfect) The placement verb of the whole furnishing account. Cambridge insists that the same rendering should be kept for both its occurrences in this verse, since the Hebrew uses one word for both the stands and the Sea: the ten and the one are disposed by a single act.
אֶת־’eṯ-H853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
חָמֵ֞שׁḥā·mêšfiveH2568
√ châmêsh — fiveNumberfeminine singular
הַמְּכֹנ֔וֹתham·mə·ḵō·nō·wṯstandsH4350
√ mᵉkôwnâh — a pedestal, also a spotArticleNounfeminine plural
עַל־‘al-onH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
מִיָּמִ֔יןmî·yā·mînthe southH3225
√ yâmîyn — the right hand or side (leg, eye) of a person or other object (as the stronger and more dexterous)Preposition-mNounfeminine singular
yâmîyn: the right hand or side, as the stronger The lexicon derives the word from strength and dexterity, not direction. That the right becomes the south is an orientation convention (facing east), and Poole cross-refers to 1 Kings 6:8 and Psalm 89:12 for it. The Pulpit calls this verse “decisive as to which was the right and which the left,” since the verse itself glosses the right as the south.
כֶּ֤תֶףke·ṯep̄sideH3802
√ kâthêph — the shoulder (proper, iNounfeminine singular construct
kâthêph: the shoulder A body-part noun (58 verses) used architecturally of the flanks of a building, as it is used of the shoulder-pieces of the ephod and, at 1 Kings 7:30 and 7:34, of the shoulder-supports under the basins on these very stands. The same word therefore names both the part of the stand that bears the basin and the part of the house that bears the stands.
הַבַּ֙יִת֙hab·ba·yiṯof the templeH1004
√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcArticleNounmasculine singular
וְחָמֵ֛שׁwə·ḥā·mêšand fiveH2568
√ châmêsh — fiveConjunctive wawNumberfeminine singular
עַל־‘al-onH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
מִשְּׂמֹאל֑וֹmiś·śə·mō·lōwthe northH8040
√ sᵉmôʼwl — properly, dark (as enveloped), iPreposition-mNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular
sᵉmôʼwl: the left, properly dark, as enveloped The lexicon traces the word to darkness, the left being the shaded side to one who faces the sunrise. With the pronominal suffix it reads “his left,” which is why K&D can insist that the stands are placed relative to the house, not relative to the altar: the building, not the officiant, supplies the point of view.
כֶּ֥תֶףke·ṯep̄H3802
√ kâthêph — the shoulder (proper, iNounfeminine singular construct
הַבַּ֖יִתhab·ba·yiṯH1004
√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcArticleNounmasculine singular
וְאֶת־wə·’eṯ-andH853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Conjunctive wawDirect object marker
נָתַ֞ןnā·ṯanhe putH5414
√ nâthan — to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etcVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
A second nâthan, now a Qal perfect rather than the narrative imperfect, which sets the Sea slightly apart from the sequence: the ten stands were disposed, and the Sea he had put here.
הַיָּ֗םhay·yāmthe SeaH3220
√ yâm — a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of waterArticleNounmasculine singular
yâm: a sea, a large body of water The molten Sea of 1 Kings 7:23-26, ten cubits across, holding two thousand bath by the same verb kûwl used of these basins in v. 38. Ten movable basins for the sacrifices and one immovable Sea for the priests: the water of the house is reckoned in both distributed and undiminished forms.
הַיְמָנִ֛יתhay·mā·nîṯon the southH3233
√ yᵉmânîy — right (iArticleAdjectivefeminine singular
מִכֶּ֨תֶףmik·ke·ṯep̄sideH3802
√ kâthêph — the shoulder (proper, iPreposition-mNounfeminine singular construct
קֵ֖דְמָהqê·ḏə·māhat the southeast cornerH6924
√ qedem — the front, of place (absolutely, the fore part, relatively the East) or time (antiquity)Adverbthird person feminine singular
qedem: the front, the fore part, hence the East; also antiquity The adverbial qêḏəmāh fixes the Sea toward the front of the house, which is the east, the side of entry. The same noun means ancient time, so the word for the direction one faces is also the word for what lies behind one in history.
מִמּ֥וּלmim·mūl. . .H4136
√ mûwl — properly, abrupt, iPreposition-m
נֶֽגֶב׃סne·ḡeḇ. . .H5045
√ negeb — the south (from its drought)Nounproperfeminine singular
negeb: the south, from its drought Parsed as a proper noun, the dry southland. The narrator could have said têmân or repeated yâmîn; instead the last coordinate of the water-works of the temple is named for thirst.
הַבַּ֧יִתhab·ba·yiṯof the templeH1004
√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcArticleNounmasculine singular

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. Ten of one measure — 7:38

The verse is arithmetic: ten, forty, four, one, one, one, one. K&D opens his comment by making the uniformity explicit, that Hiram made “the ten stools of one kind of casting, measure, and form,” and the Hebrew backs him by repeating אֶחָד (ʼechâd) four times in a single line. The one contested number is the four cubits. Barnes takes it as height and calculates the whole assembly at about thirteen feet nine inches, which forces him to conclude that the water “must have been drawn from them, as from the molten sea, through cocks or taps.” Benson thinks it “more likely that these words relate to the diameter.” K&D argues the same from the shape of the noun כִּיּוֹר (H3595, a round, hollowed thing) and from the preposition: the basins were set upon the stands, so a height measurement makes little sense; he pictures vessels “widespreading” like shells. The Pulpit records both sides and notes with Rawlinson that the heights of all the other parts have been given, which is a real argument for Barnes. ⚙ The text does not decide it, and neither will this note.

ii. Why ten, and why on wheels — 7:38

The tabernacle had one laver. Gill records the Jewish tradition (Targum, Jarchi, Kimchi) that Moses' laver itself stood in Solomon's temple with these five on either side of it, and he states the purpose plainly: the basins were “for the priests to wash their burnt offerings in,” citing 2 Chronicles 4:6. K&D gives the practical logic: the wheels let the priests bring water to where the sacrifices were being prepared and carry the dirty water away again, and the sheer number answers “the greater extension of the sacrificial worship, in which it often happened that a considerable number of sacrifices had to be made ready for the altar at the same time.” The Pulpit says the same more bluntly: ten would not be too many given the prodigious number of victims. JFB, quoting Napier, puts each full basin at roughly three hundred gallons, upwards of a ton, and the loaded stand at two tons. ⚙ Whatever the cubits measured, the vessels were enormous and there were ten of them, and Scripture's only stated reason is that the blood and filth of Israel's worship needed carrying off.

iii. Right hand and left, and a Sea toward the drought — 7:39

Verse 39 is orientation, and the Hebrew does it with a body: five stands on the כֶּתֶף (kâthêph, shoulder) of the house at its right hand, five at its left, and the Sea at the right shoulder toward the front. Cambridge and the Pulpit both flag the shoulder; Poole and the Pulpit both settle that the right is the south, the Pulpit calling the verse “decisive.” Gill is the honest dissenter, noting that a man entering at the east gate would have the north on his right, though he then follows the verse's own gloss. K&D refuses the most natural English assumption, that the five and five flanked the altar, and places them instead along the two flanks of the hall, with the Sea standing forward of them between hall and altar, southeast of the one and southwest of the other. Ellicott agrees on the southeast. The Pulpit adds a reason: the Sea was kept off the direct east line, probably for convenience, so as not to stand between the porch and the altar. ⚙ The last word of the description is נֶגֶב, the parched south, set opposite a bronze Sea. The narrator may mean nothing by it. It is still the arrangement he chose to record.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Fallible, offered to be tested. Two verses of inventory hide an argument about holiness. Israel's God commanded that the priests wash before they approached, and the penalty attached to that command in Exodus 30 was death; so when the house is enlarged and the sacrifices multiplied, the first thing multiplied with them is water. Not the altar, not the incense, not the gold: the washing. And the water is made mobile. Ten carriages on wheels exist so that cleansing can be brought to the place where the defilement is, rather than the defiled thing dragged to a fixed font. Alongside them stands one Sea that never moves and never runs out, and both are measured by the same verb, כּוּל (kûwl, to contain), so that the reader is told in one word how much the little vessels hold and how much the great one holds. Gill and Henry both read the arrangement typologically: continual washing in the blood of Christ, a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness. That reading is ancient and, in its substance, apostolic. What the Hebrew adds to it is the geometry. The provision is both distributed (ten, apportioned one to a stand, wheeled to the work) and undivided (one Sea, standing still). The priests met both on the same morning. ⚙ And the last coordinate given is the Negeb, the dry land: the water of the house is stationed facing the thirst.

Ten basins on wheels and one Sea that never moves: cleansing is both brought to the mess and never drawn down. (This is the tool's own reading, not a verse of Scripture.)

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The bath that measures the Sea also measures the basins verbal / quotation: confirmed

The Verifier links this verse to 1 Kings 7:26 and to 2 Chronicles 4:5 through two shared lexemes: the verb כּוּל (kûwl, H3557, to contain) and the measure בַּת (baṯ, H1324), which stands in only eight verses of the canon. The same pair of words rates the molten Sea at two thousand bath and each of these ten basins at forty. Benson and Poole both send the reader back to 1 Kings 7:26 for the conversion, and Poole gives it as “ten barrels.” The verbal link is real: one capacity verb, one rare unit, applied first to the one great vessel and then to the ten small ones.

1 Kings 7:26 · 2 Chronicles 4:5

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H1324 bath (rare, in 8 vv) and H3557 kûwl (in 37 vv). Not a quotation; the tier rests on the rarity of bath, which links the Sea's capacity notice to the basins' capacity notice within one account.

Ahaz cuts the panels off the stands verbal / quotation: confirmed

2 Kings 16:17 shares with this verse the two nouns that are almost peculiar to these objects: כִּיּוֹר (kîyôwr, H3595, in 20 verses) and מְכוֹנָה (mᵉkôwnâh, H4350, in 18 verses), together with the bronze, H5178. There Ahaz cuts off the borders of the stands, removes the basin from them, and takes the Sea down off its oxen. The vocabulary of the making is reused, item for item, for the unmaking. ⚙ The narrator of Kings tends to record the furnishings in this way twice: once as they are cast and once as they are stripped.

2 Kings 16:17

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H3595 kîyôwr (rare, in 20 vv), H4350 mᵉkôwnâh (rare, in 18 vv), H5178 nᵉchôsheth (in 119 vv). Two rare technical nouns, effectively confined to this set of objects, carried over into the despoiling notice; no quotation is claimed.

The stands broken in pieces and carried to Babylon verbal / quotation: confirmed

2 Kings 25:13 and its near-duplicate Jeremiah 52:17 both share מְכוֹנָה (mᵉkôwnâh, H4350, 18 verses) and נְחֹשֶׁת (nᵉchôsheth, H5178) with this verse: the Chaldeans break in pieces the pillars, the stands and the bronze Sea, and carry the bronze to Babylon. The rare noun that here names ten new carriages of one casting, one measure and one form is, in those verses, the object of a verb of shattering. ⚙ Read together, 1 Kings 7:38-39 and 2 Kings 25:13 are the two ends of one inventory.

2 Kings 25:13 · Jeremiah 52:17

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H4350 mᵉkôwnâh (rare, in 18 vv) and H5178 nᵉchôsheth (in 119 vv) in both 2 Kings 25:13 and Jeremiah 52:17. A real verbal link on a rare technical noun; the thematic inference about beginnings and endings is the machine's, not the Verifier's.

A just bath: the measure that later weighs Israel structural / thematic: confirmed

The unit shares the rare liquid measure בַּת (baṯ, H1324, 8 verses) with Ezekiel 45:11 and 45:14, where the prophet legislates “a just ephah and a just bath,” and with Isaiah 5:10, where a ten-acre vineyard yields one bath. The measure that reports the generosity of Solomon's temple is the same measure by which the prophets test Israel's honesty and by which the land's failure is counted. ⚙ This is a shared lexeme within a shared subject (measurement), not a citation; the tier is set accordingly rather than at the verbal level the rarity alone might allow.

Ezekiel 45:11 · Ezekiel 45:14 · Isaiah 5:10

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H1324 bath (rare, in 8 vv), plus H6235 ʻeser in the Ezekiel 45:14 and Isaiah 5:10 candidates. Rarity would permit a verbal tier, but the connection here is a motif (honest measure) rather than a quotation or a shared formula, so it is deliberately downgraded.

Water brought to the worshipper: the laver and the washing of regeneration typological

Gill says of these basins that they “were typical of the large provision made in the blood of Christ for the cleansing of his people,” citing Romans 12:1; Henry, on the same block, says spiritual priests and sacrifices “must be washed in the laver of Christ's blood, and of regeneration.” Both are reading the wheeled lavers alongside Titus 3:5 and Ephesians 5:26. ⚙ Note what the badge cannot say: 1 Kings is Hebrew and Titus is Greek, so no shared Strong's number exists and no verbal link can be claimed. The connection is figural, resting on the shared institution of priestly washing before approach (Exodus 30:20) and on the New Testament's own use of washing language, and it is a reading long held rather than a novel one.

Titus 3:5 · Ephesians 5:26 · Hebrews 10:22

basis: Cross-Testament (Hebrew to Greek): no shared Strong's lexeme is possible, so no verbal tier. Figural basis: priestly washing before approach, read by Gill and Henry as typical of cleansing in Christ's blood and the washing of regeneration. Ancient and widely held, not novel.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The laver multiplied: continual washing for those already consecrated ancient/widely-held

⚙ The priests who used these ten basins were already ordained, already washed once at their consecration. The basins existed because they went on needing washing daily. Gill draws exactly this out: those whose “works, services, and sacrifices, as well as persons and garments, need continual washing in that blood.” Henry states the pastoral edge of it, that we must wash often “for we daily contract pollution,” and that “there are full means provided for our cleansing,” so that remaining unclean is the worshipper's own fault. The New Testament keeps both halves: one washing that is not repeated, and a continual cleansing for those inside the covenant. This is the common Protestant reading recorded here by Gill and Henry, and it is older than they are.

1 John 1:7 · John 13:10 · Hebrews 10:22

Washing the work of the burnt offering ancient/widely-held

⚙ K&D states the function from 2 Chronicles 4:6: the basins on the stands were for washing “the work of the burnt-offering,” that is, for cleansing the flesh and the fat that were to be consumed on the altar. The sacrifice itself had to be made clean before it could be offered. Gill, pointing to Romans 12:1, applies that to the worshipper who is himself the living sacrifice. The argument of Hebrews 9:13-14 runs on the same track: if the ashes of a heifer sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ purge the conscience, so that the one purged may then serve. The order is the temple's order, cleansing before service, and the New Testament does not reverse it.

2 Chronicles 4:6 · Romans 12:1 · Hebrews 9:13-14

The basin that comes to the disciples novel

⚙ Offered as a novel reading, and held loosely. The striking thing about these ten lavers, as K&D explains it, is that they were mounted on wheels so that water could be brought to the priests where they stood at their work, and the fouled water carried away again. In John 13 the Lord does not summon the disciples to a font; he takes a basin to them, kneels at their feet, and afterwards says that one already bathed needs only his feet washed. ⚙ No commentator in this brief draws that line, and no shared vocabulary supports it (the Gospel is Greek, the Kings account Hebrew). It is offered as a figure only, and it should be weighed against the plainer and better attested reading above.

John 13:5 · John 13:10

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text: BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbering. Two Hebrew verses, twenty and twenty-two words. ⚙ What is genuinely uncertain here: (1) whether the four cubits of v. 38 give the height or the diameter of the basins. Barnes assumes height and derives a total height near fourteen feet and therefore taps; Benson, K&D and the Pulpit (following Keil) prefer diameter, K&D on the ground that the basins were set upon the stands; the Pulpit preserves Rawlinson's counter-argument that the heights of all other parts have been given. The grammar does not settle it and this synthesis does not pretend to. (2) The capacity of the bath. Poole and Benson give “ten barrels,” Gill cites Bishop Cumberland at about seven and a half wine gallons, the Pulpit cites Josephus for roughly 340 gallons per basin, and JFB quotes Napier at three hundred gallons; these are reconstructions of an ancient measure, not data from the text. (3) Right and left. The verse glosses the right as the south, and Poole, the Pulpit and K&D all follow it; Gill records the alternative reckoning from a man entering at the east gate, under which the right would be north. His own exposition wavers, and this is preserved rather than tidied. (4) The Cambridge note that this description's language is in parts obscure (“There is much uncertainty about the meaning of parts of the language in this description of the bases”) is retained as a caution on every reconstruction above, including the diagrams the commentators draw. (5) All cross-Testament links in this unit are figural. Hebrew and Greek share no Strong's numbers, so no badge here tiers such a link as verbal. (6) The John 13 reading is marked novel because no source in this brief advances it.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)