And within the oracle he made two cherubims of olive tree, each ten cubits high.
Within the oracle he made two cherubim of olive tree. [The Septuagint (Alexandrine) has: xuloon kuparisinoon, cypress wood, overlaid with gold.] Josephus ('Antiquities.' b. 8:, ch. 3:, sec. 13) says they were of solid gold.
Each ten cubits high. [The Septuagint has: deka peecheoon megethos, the size of ten cubits.] Josephus represents the height of each of them as five cubits; probably, however, the error was not that of Josephus, but a transcriber. Layard ('Nineveh and Babylon,' p. 652) gives it as his opinion that what is called "gold" in these passages, as well as in the profane authors of antiquity, was really copper, alloyed with other metals-the aurichalcum, or orichalcum, of the Greeks-such as was used in the bowls and plates discovered at Nimroud.