2 Kings 25:16-17

25:16 The bronze of the items that King Solomon made for the Lord’s temple – including the two pillars, the big bronze basin called “The Sea,” the twelve bronze bulls under “The Sea,” ¹  and the movable stands – was too heavy to be weighed. 25:17 Each of the pillars was about twenty-seven feet ²  high. The bronze top of one pillar was about four and a half feet ³  high and had bronze latticework and pomegranate shaped ornaments all around it. The second pillar with its latticework was like it.

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¹ tc The MT lacks “the twelve bronze bulls under ‘the Sea,’” but these words have probably been accidentally omitted by homoioarcton. The scribe’s eye may have jumped from the וְהָ (vÿha-) on וְהַבָּקָר (vÿhabbaqar), “and the bulls,” to the וְהָ on וְהַמְּכֹנוֹת (vÿhammÿkhonot), “and the movable stands,” causing him to leave out the intervening words. See the parallel passage in Jer 52:20.

² tn Heb “eighteen cubits.” The standard cubit in the OT is assumed by most authorities to be about eighteen inches (45 cm) long.

³ tn Heb “three cubits.” The parallel passage in Jer 52:22 has “five.”