1 Kings 7:23-51

Contemporary English Version

²³ Hiram also made a large bowl called the Sea. It was just over two meters deep, about 4.5 meters across, and 13.5 meters around. ²⁴ Two rows of bronze gourds were around the outer edge of the bowl, ten gourds to every 45 centimeters. ²⁵ The bowl itself sat on top of twelve bronze bulls with three bulls facing outward in each of four directions. ²⁶ The sides of the bowl were 75 millimeters thick, and its rim was like a cup that curved outward like flower petals. The bowl held about 40,000 liters.

²⁷ Hiram made ten movable bronze stands, each one over a meter high, almost two meters long, and almost two meters wide. ^28-29 The sides were made with panels attached to frames decorated with flower designs. The panels themselves were decorated with figures of lions, bulls, and winged creatures. ^30-31 Each stand had four bronze wheels and axles and a round frame 68 centimeters across, held up by four supports 45 centimeters high. A small bowl rested in the frame. The supports were decorated with flower designs, and the frame with carvings.

The side panels of the stands were square, ³² and the wheels and axles were underneath them. The wheels were about 68 centimeters high ³³ and looked like chariot wheels. The axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were made out of bronze.

^34-35 Around the top of each stand was a 22-centimeter strip, and there were four braces^[a] attached to the corners of each stand. The panels and the supports were attached to the stands, ³⁶ and the stands were decorated with flower designs and figures of lions, palm trees, and winged creatures. ³⁷ Hiram made the ten bronze stands from the same mold, so they were exactly the same size and shape.

^38 (A) Hiram also made ten small bronze bowls, one for each stand. The bowls were almost two meters across and could hold about 800 liters.

³⁹ He put five stands on the south side of the temple, five stands on the north side, and the large bowl at the southeast corner of the temple.

⁴⁰ Hiram made pans for hot ashes, and also shovels and sprinkling bowls.

A List of Everything inside the Temple

(2 Chronicles 4.11—5.1)

This is a list of the bronze items that Hiram made for the Lord's temple: ⁴¹ two columns; two bowl-shaped caps for the tops of the columns; two chain designs on the caps; ⁴² 400 pomegranates^[b] for the chain designs; ⁴³ ten movable stands; ten small bowls for the stands; ⁴⁴ a large bowl; twelve bulls that held up the bowl; ⁴⁵ pans for hot ashes, and also shovels and sprinkling bowls.

Hiram made these bronze things for Solomon ⁴⁶ near the Jordan River between Succoth and Zarethan by pouring melted bronze into clay molds.

⁴⁷ There were so many bronze things that Solomon never bothered to weigh them, and no one ever knew how much bronze was used.

^48 (B) Solomon gave orders to make the following temple furnishings out of gold: the altar; the table that held the sacred loaves of bread;^{[c] 49 (C)} ten lampstands that went in front of the most holy place; flower designs; lamps and tongs; ⁵⁰ cups, lamp snuffers, and small sprinkling bowls; dishes for incense; fire pans; and the hinges for the doors to the most holy place and the main room of the temple.

^51 (D) After the Lord's temple was finished, Solomon put into its storage rooms everything that his father David had dedicated to the Lord, including the gold and the silver.