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1 Kings 7 · a question people ask

Ten cubits across and thirty around?

In the text

The verse says, "He made the molten sea ten cubits from brim to brim, round in shape. Its height was five cubits; and a line of thirty cubits encircled it" (7:23). 2 Chronicles gives the same numbers: "the molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim. It was round, five cubits high, and thirty cubits in circumference" (2 Chronicles 4:2). Neither verse says where the line was measured, or how the two numbers are meant to fit. The text doesn't explain them, and these notes don't add an explanation.

The verses

“He made the molten sea ten cubits from brim to brim, round in shape. Its height was five cubits; and a line of thirty cubits encircled it.”
1 Kings 7:23 · World English Bible
“Also he made the molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim. It was round, five cubits high, and thirty cubits in circumference.”
2 Chronicles 4:2 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 1 Kings 7

1 Kings 7: Two pillars and a sea

Hiram the bronze-worker is described in Bezalel's words: "filled with wisdom and understanding and skill" (7:14) is, in Hebrew, the verb and three nouns of Exodus 31:3, without "the Spirit of God". And the right-hand pillar's name, Jachin, is given by Strong's as "he (or it) will establish".

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions