And there were ninety and six pomegranates on a side; and all the pomegranates upon the network were an hundred round about.
There were ninety and six pomegranates on a side - literally (on the side). refunds the air or wind - i:e., on the outside of the capitals of the pillars conspicuous to the eye, as opposed to the four remaining pomegranates, which were not seen from the outside. The 184 pomegranates here are 96; but in 1 Kings 7:20 they are 200 on each chapiter, and 400 on the two (2 Chronicles 4:13). It seems there were two rows of them, one above the other, and in each row 100. They are here said to be 96, but presently after 100, and so in 1 Kings 7:20. Four seem to have been unseen to one looking from one point, and the 96 are only those that could be seen (Vatablus); or the four omitted here are those separating the four sides, one pomegranate at each point of separation (or at the four corners between the four sides). (Grotius.)