II Chronicles 4:3
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Below the rim, figures of oxen encircled it, ten per cubit all the way around the Sea, cast in two rows as a part of the Sea.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Ch2 4:1-6. The copper furniture of the court. Ch2 4:1. The altar of burnt-offering. Its preparation is passed over in 1 Kings 6 and 7, so that there it is only mentioned incidentally in connection with the consecration of the temple, Kg1 8:22, Kg1 8:54, and Kg1 9:25. It was twenty cubits square (long and broad) and ten cubits high, and constructed on the model of the Mosaic altar of burnt-offering, and probably of brass plates, which enclosed the inner core, consisting of earth and unhewn stones; and if we may judge from Ezekiel's description, Eze 43:13-17, it rose in steps, as it were, so that at each step its extent was smaller; and the measurement of twenty cubits refers only to the lowest scale, while the space at the top, with the hearth, was only twelve cubits square; cf. my Bibl. Archaeol. i. S. 127, with the figure, plate iii. fig. 2.
Open source ↗We have here a further account of the furniture of God's house. I. Those things that were of brass. The altar for burnt-offerings (Ch2 4:1), the sea and lavers to hold water (Ch2 4:2-6), the plates with which the doors of the court were overlaid (Ch2 4:9), the vessels of the altar, and other things (Ch2 4:10-18). II. Those that were of gold. The candlesticks and tables (Ch2 4:7, Ch2 4:8), the altar of incense (Ch2 4:19), and the appurtenances of each of these (Ch2 4:20-22). All these, except the brazen altar (Ch2 4:1), were accounted for more largely, Kg1 7:23, etc.
Open source ↗Cross-references
Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.
The form of their faces was that of a man, and each of the four had the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left side, and also the face of an eagle.
Each of the cherubim had four faces: the first face was that of a cherub, the second that of a man, the third that of a lion, and the fourth that of an eagle.
The first living creature was like a lion, the second like a calf, the third had a face like a man, and the fourth was like an eagle in flight.