The brazen laver of the Mosaic ritual; made by Solomon out of bronze captured by David at Tibhath and Chun, cities of Hadarezer (1 Chronicles 18:8). It served the same purpose for the officiating priests of Solomon’s Temple as did the layer for those officers at the tabernacle The dimensions of the sea (1 Kings 7:23-26) were as follows: height, 5 cubits; circumference, 30 cubits (consequently it was about 10 cubits in diameter); and a handbreadth in thickness. It was capable of holding 2,000 “baths”; on the smallest calculation, about 17,000 gallons. “Under the brim of it round about there were knops which did compass it, for ten cubits compassing the sea round about; the knops were in two rows, cast when it was cast” (ib. 24). This great brazen vessel was set on the backs of twelve brazen oxen; three of them facing each cardinal point, and all of them facing outward; see illustration, p. 358.
The humiliation of Ahaz before Tiglath-pileser III. and his desecration of the Temple and all sacred things led him to take this sea down from its position on the oxen, and to set it upon a pavement of stone (2 Kings 16:17). It was finally (2 Kings 25:13) broken into pieces at the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and the material was carried to Babylon.
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Author: Jewish Encyclopedia
Keywords: Brazen laver, Brasen laver, Laver, Brasen sea, Brazen sea, molten sea, Bronze sea, Sea of brass, Sea of bronze, Cast metal sea, 12 oxen, Twelve oxen
Bible reference(s): Exodus 30:18, Exodus 38:8, Exodus 39:39, Exodus 40:30, 1 Kings 7:23-26, 2 Kings 16:17, 2 Kings 25:13, 2 Chronicles 4:2-6
Source: Isidore Singer (editor), The Jewish Encyclopedia (12 Volumes), (1906).
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