What does Hiram make for Solomon’s temple, and where are the brass vessels cast?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Hiram makes the brass pillars, sea, bases, lavers, cauldrons, shovels and basins. The vessels are cast in clay ground in the plains of the Jordan, between Socoth and Sartham; their great quantity makes the brass impossible to weigh.

Chapter breakdown

Solomon builds his own house in thirteen years and brings it to completion. He also builds the house of the forest of Libanus, a hundred cubits long, fifty wide and thirty high, with four galleries between cedar pillars cut from cedar trees. Cedar boards cover the whole vault, supported by forty-five pillars; one row has fifteen pillars. They face one another with equal spaces between them, and the square beams over them are equal in all things. He makes a pillared porch fifty cubits long and thirty wide, another porch before the greater porch, and pillars with chapiters on them. The throne porch contains the seat of judgment and is covered with cedar from floor to top. In the middle of the porch is a small house of similar work where he sits in judgment. He also builds a house of the same work as the porch for Pharao’s daughter, whom he has married.

The buildings are made of costly stones sawed by rule and measure, inside and outside, from foundation to wall tops and outside to the great court. The foundations use great costly stones of ten or eight cubits; above them are hewn costly stones of equal measure and cedar planks. The great court has three rows of hewn stones around it and one row of cedar planks, an arrangement also used in the Lord’s house’s inner court and porch.

Solomon brings Hiram from Tyre. He is the son of a widow of Nephthali’s tribe, with a Tyrian father who was a brass worker. Hiram has wisdom, understanding and skill for all work in brass, and performs the work when he comes to Solomon. He casts two brass pillars, each eighteen cubits high; the account says a line of twelve cubits compassed both pillars. He makes two molten-brass chapiters for their tops, each five cubits high. Their network and wreathed chain work are skillfully made, with seven rows of nets on one chapiter and seven nets on the other. Two rows around each network cover the top chapiters with pomegranates. The chapiters have lily work in the porch of four cubits. Other chapiters are above, according to the pillar’s measure opposite the network, with two hundred pomegranates in rows around the other chapiter. Hiram sets the pillars in the temple porch, naming the right one Jachin and the second Booz.

Challoner’s separate note explains Jachin as firmly established and Booz as in its strength. It says that by recording these names in Scripture the spirit of God would have readers understand the invincible firmness and strength of the pillars on which the true temple of God, the church, is established.

Lily work on the pillar tops completes their work. Hiram also makes a round molten sea ten cubits from brim to brim, five high and thirty around. Engraved work under its brim runs around it for ten cubits, with two cast rows of chamfered sculptures. It stands above twelve oxen: three face north, three west, three south and three east, with their hind parts hidden inside. The laver is a hand breadth thick, and its brim resembles a cup’s brim or a crisped lily’s leaf. It contains two thousand bates.

Challoner’s separate note says two thousand bates is about ten thousand gallons and was the usual amount of water put into the sea. When full to the brim it could hold three thousand. The note refers to 2 Paralipomenon 4:5.

Hiram makes ten brass bases, each four cubits long, four wide and three high, with engravings between their joinings. Between the little crowns and ledges are lions, oxen and cherubims, also in the joinings above; below the lions and oxen hang what look like brass bands. Each base has four wheels and brass axles, and at its four sides molten supports under the laver face one another. The laver’s inner mouth is in the chapiter’s top; the part showing outside measures one cubit around, and together it is one and a half cubits. There are various engravings at the pillar corners, and the spaces between the pillars are square rather than round.

The four wheels at the base’s corners are joined together beneath it, each one and a half cubits high. They are like chariot wheels, with axles, spokes, strakes and naves all cast. The four corner supports are part of the base itself, cast and joined together. A round half-cubit rim on top is made to hold the laver, with its own engravings and sculptures. Brass plates and corners are engraved with cherubims, lions and palm trees, in the likeness of a standing man; they seem added around rather than engraved. All ten bases share the same casting, measure and engraving.

Hiram makes ten brass lavers. The admitted text describes one laver as containing four bases and measuring four cubits; a laver is put on each of the ten bases. Five bases are set on the temple’s right and five on its left. The sea is placed on the right, opposite the east southward. Hiram makes cauldrons, shovels and basins and finishes all Solomon’s work in the Lord’s temple.

The inventory lists two pillars, the two cords of their chapiters, two networks covering those cords at the pillar tops, and four hundred pomegranates in two rows for each network. It includes ten bases with ten lavers, one sea with twelve oxen beneath it, and the cauldrons, shovels and basins. All Hiram’s vessels for Solomon’s Lord’s house are fine brass. The king casts them in clay ground in the Jordan plains between Socoth and Sartham. Solomon places all the vessels, but the brass cannot be weighed because of its exceedingly great quantity.

Solomon makes the Lord’s house’s vessels: a gold altar and gold table for the loaves of proposition; pure-gold candlesticks, five on the right and five on the left opposite the oracle; lily-like flowers, gold lamps above them and gold snuffers. Pots, fleshhooks, bowls, mortars and censers are of the purest gold, as are the door hinges for the inner holy of holies and the temple house. After finishing all the work in the Lord’s house, Solomon brings in the silver, gold and vessels dedicated by David his father, placing them in the house’s treasures.

The story inside

The chapter first describes Solomon’s houses, judgment porch, stonework and court. It then follows Hiram’s brass work, beginning with the named pillars and the sea, continuing through the engraved bases, wheels and lavers, and gathering the finished vessels in an inventory. The casting place and inability to weigh the brass are stated after that inventory. Gold vessels and David’s dedicated treasures close the account. The two separate Challoner notes explain the pillar names and distinguish the sea’s usual amount of water from its brimful capacity.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The house and porch details are distinct: thirteen years for Solomon’s own house, a hundred by fifty by thirty cubits for the forest house, and fifty by thirty for the pillared porch. The text states four galleries, forty-five pillars and fifteen in a row; changing that into a new total row arrangement would add a detail.
2
The sea and ten lavers have different descriptions. The sea’s two thousand bates belong to Scripture, while the approximate gallons and brimful three thousand belong to Challoner’s note. The difficult four-bases wording for a laver must not silently become forty baths.
3
The closing inventory connects Hiram’s finished objects to their casting place. It explains that the brass cannot be weighed because of its great quantity. Gold vessels are then listed separately, and David’s dedicated silver, gold and vessels are placed in the treasures after the work is finished.

Test your recall

Why could the brass not be weighed after Solomon placed the vessels, and where had those vessels been cast?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 35427–35458
3 Kings Chapter 7 Solomon’s palace, his house in the forest, and the queen’s house: the work of the two pillars: the sea (or laver) and other vessels. 7:1. And Solomon built his own house in thirteen years, and brought it to perfection. 7:2. He built also the house of the forest of Libanus; the length of it was a hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty cubits, and the height thirty cubits: and four galleries between pillars of cedar: for he had cut cedar trees into pillars. 7:3. And he covered the whole vault with boards of cedar, and it was held up with five and forty pillars. And one row had fifteen pillars, 7:4. Set one against another, 7:5. And looking one upon another, with equal space between the pillars, and over the pillars were square beams in all things equal. 7:6. And he made a porch of pillars of fifty cubits in length, and thirty cubits in breadth: and another porch before the greater porch, and pillars, and chapiters upon the pillars. 7:7. He made also the porch of the throne wherein is the seat of judgment; and covered it with cedar wood from the floor to the top. 7:8. And in the midst of the porch, was a small house, where he sat in judgment of the like work. He made also a house for the daughter of Pharao (whom Solomon had taken to wife) of the same work, as this porch;
Lines 35460–35472
7:9. All of costly stones, which were sawed by a certain rule and measure, both within and without: from the foundation to the top of the walls, and without, unto the great court. 7:10. And the foundations were of costly stones, great stones of ten cubits or eight cubits. 7:11. And above there were costly stones of equal measure hewed, and in like manner planks of cedar. 7:12. And the great court was made round with three rows of hewed stones, and one row of planks of cedar, which also was observed in the inner court of the house of the Lord, and in the porch of the house.
Lines 35474–35507
7:13. And king Solomon sent, and brought Hiram from Tyre, 7:14. The son of a widow woman, of the tribe of Nephthali, whose father was a Tyrian, an artificer in brass, and full of wisdom, and understanding, and skill to work all work in brass. And when he was come to king Solomon, he wrought all his work. 7:15. And he cast two pillars in brass, each pillar was eighteen cubits high: and a line of twelve cubits compassed both the pillars. 7:16. He made also two chapiters of molten brass, to be set upon the tops of the pillars: the height of one chapiter was five cubits, and the height of the other chapiter was five cubits: 7:17. And a kind of network, and chain work wreathed together with wonderful art. Both the chapiters of the pillars were cast: seven rows of nets were on one chapiter, and seven nets on the other chapiter. 7:18. And he made the pillars, and two rows round about each network to cover the chapiters, that were upon the top, with pomegranates: and in like manner did he to the other chapiter. 7:19. And the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars, were of lily work, in the porch of four cubits. 7:20. And again there were other chapiters on the top of the pillars above, according to the measure of the pillar over against the network: and of pomegranates there were two hundred, in rows round about the other chapiter. 7:21. And he set up the two pillars in the porch of the temple: and when he had set up the pillar on the right hand, he called the name thereof Jachin: in like manner he set up the second pillar, and called the name thereof Booz.
Lines 35509–35513
Jachin.... That is, firmly established.—Ibid. Booz.... That is, in its strength. By recording these names in holy writ, the spirit of God would have us understand the invincible firmness and strength of the pillars on which the true temple of God, which is the church, is established.
Lines 35515–35533
7:22. And upon the tops of the pillars he made lily work: so the work of the pillars was finished. 7:23. He made also a molten sea, of ten cubits, from brim to brim, round all about; the height of it was five cubits, and a line of thirty cubits compassed it round about. 7:24. And a graven work, under the brim of it, compassed it for ten cubits going about the sea: there were two rows cast of chamfered sculptures. 7:25. And it stood upon twelve oxen, of which three looked towards the north, and three towards the west, and three towards the south, and three towards the east: and the sea was above upon them, and their hinder parts were all hid within. 7:26. And the laver was a hand breadth thick: and the brim thereof was like the brim of a cup, or the leaf of a crisped lily: it contained two thousand bates.
Lines 35535–35537
Two thousand bates.... That is, about ten thousand gallons. This was the quantity of water which was usually put into it: but it was capable, if brimful, of holding three thousand. See 2 Par. 4.5.
Lines 35539–35557
7:27. And he made ten bases of brass, every base was four cubits in length, and four cubits in breadth, and three cubits high. 7:28. And the work itself of the bases, was intergraven: and there were gravings between the joinings. 7:29. And between the little crowns and the ledges, were lions, and oxen, and cherubims; and in the joinings likewise above: and under the lions and oxen, as it were bands of brass hanging down. 7:30. And every base had four wheels, and axletrees of brass: and at the four sides were undersetters, under the laver molten, looking one against another. 7:31. The mouth also of the laver within, was in the top of the chapiter: and that which appeared without, was of one cubit all round, and together it was one cubit and a half: and in the corners of the pillars were divers engravings: and the spaces between the pillars were square, not round.
Lines 35559–35579
7:32. And the four wheels, which were at the four corners of the base, were joined one to another under the base: the height of a wheel was a cubit and a half. 7:33. And they were such wheels as are used to be made in a chariot: and their axletrees, and spokes, and strakes, and naves, were all cast. 7:34. And the four undersetters, that were at every corner of each base, were of the base itself, cast and joined together. 7:35. And on the top of the base, there was a round compass of half a cubit, so wrought that the laver might be set thereon, having its gravings, and divers sculptures of itself. 7:36. He engraved also in those plates, which were of brass, and in the corners, cherubims, and lions, and palm trees, in likeness of a man standing, so that they seemed not to be engraven, but added round about. 7:37. After this manner, he made ten bases, of one casting and measure, and the like graving.
Lines 35581–35590
7:38. He made also ten lavers of brass: one laver contained four bases, and was of four cubits: and upon every base, in all ten, he put as many lavers. 7:39. And he set the ten bases, five on the right side of the temple, and five on the left: and the sea he put on the right side of the temple, over against the east southward. 7:40. And Hiram made cauldrons, and shovels, and basins, and finished all the work of king Solomon in the temple of the Lord.
Lines 35592–35612
7:41. The two pillars and the two cords of the chapiters, upon the chapiters of the pillars: and the two networks, to cover the two cords, that were upon the top of the pillars. 7:42. And four hundred pomegranates for the two networks: two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the cords of the chapiters, which were upon the tops of the pillars. 7:43. And the ten bases, and the ten lavers on the bases. 7:44. And one sea, and twelve oxen under the sea. 7:45. And the cauldrons, and the shovels, and the basins. All the vessels that Hiram made for king Solomon, for the house of the Lord, were of fine brass. 7:46. In the plains of the Jordan, did the king cast them in a clay ground, between Socoth and Sartham. 7:47. And Solomon placed all the vessels: but for its exceeding great multitude the brass could not be weighed.
Lines 35614–35630
7:48. And Solomon made all the vessels for the house of the Lord: the altar of gold, and the table of gold, upon which the loaves of proposition should be set: 7:49. And the golden candlesticks, five on the right hand, and five on the left, over against the oracle, of pure gold: and the flowers like lilies, and the lamps over them of gold: and golden snuffers, 7:50. And pots, and fleshhooks, and bowls, and mortars, and censers, of most pure gold: and the hinges for the doors of the inner house of the holy of holies, and for the doors of the house of the temple, were of gold. 7:51. And Solomon finished all the work that he made in the house of the Lord, and brought in the things that David, his father, had dedicated, the silver and the gold, and the vessels, and laid them up in the treasures of the house of the Lord.