1 Kings 7:27-29 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

(27-29) The smaller lavers of brass for washing the sacrifices, and the movable bases on which they rested, are described still more elaborately. Some of the details of the description are obscure, and it is clear that our translators were very much at fault about them. Generally, however, it appears that each base was a kind of hollow chest, 6 feet square on plan, and 4½ feet high, having at the angles pilasters or fillets (“ledges” in 1 Kings 7:28), with panels on each side (“borders” in 1 Kings 7:28), ornamented with “lions, oxen, and cherubims,” below which hung festoons of thin metal-work — (“certain additions made of thin work,” in 1 Kings 7:29). Each base was set on four brazen wheels with brazen axles (“plates” in 1 Kings 7:30) only 27 inches high, and with naves, felloes, and spokes, all cast in brass. On each base was a convex circular stand (1 Kings 7:35), with a “mouth,” or circular opening (apparently “the chapiter” of 1 Kings 7:31), upon which, or over which, the laver stood. This was nine inches high, ornamented with carvings of “cherubims, lions, and palm-trees.” From the four corners of the upper surface of the base sprang “undersetters,” apparently brackets helping to support the laver, which rested above the “mouth” of the convex stand, and to keep it fast in its place (1 Kings 7:30; 1 Kings 7:34). The laver was 6 feet in diameter, and held 40 baths, or about 360 gallons. The whole stood high, no doubt to bring it nearly on a level with the brazen altar, which was 15 feet high. In form, perhaps, each laver was a smaller copy of the molten sea. Of the whole a conjectural description and sketch are given in the Dictionary of the Bible, art. LAVERS.