2 Chronicles 4
EasyEnglish Bible
Solomon's workers make things for the temple
4 Solomon's workers made a bronze altar. It was 9 metres long, 9 metres wide and 4 metres high. 2 They used bronze to make a big bath which they called ‘the Sea’. It was in the shape of a circle 4½ metres across. It was 2½ metres deep. It was 14 metres around the outside.[a] 3 All around its edge, below the top, there were two rows of images of things that looked like bulls. They were all part of the same piece of bronze as the big bath. There were 20 bulls for every metre around the edge.
4 They put the bronze ‘Sea’ on top of 12 bronze bulls. Three pointed north, three pointed west, three pointed south and three pointed east. Their backs were towards the middle of the ‘Sea’. 5 The bronze walls of the ‘Sea’ were 7½ centimetres thick. Its top edge was like a cup in the shape of a lily flower. The ‘Sea’ contained about 65,000 litres of water.
6 They made ten bowls to wash in. They put five bowls on the south side and five bowls on the north side. The priests used them to wash all the things that they used for the burnt offerings. But the priests washed themselves in the water from the bronze ‘Sea’.
7 They used gold to make ten lampstands. They made them in the way that Solomon told them. They put the lampstands in the temple, five lampstands on the south side and five lampstands on the north side.[b]
8 They also made ten tables. They put them in the temple, five tables on the south side and five tables on the north side. They also used gold to make 100 bowls.
9 They made a small yard for the priests and another big yard with doors. They covered the doors with bronze. 10 They put the bronze ‘Sea’ on the south side of the temple, at its south-east corner.
11 Huram-Abi also made more pots, small tools and bowls. So he finished all the work in God's temple that King Solomon had asked him to do. He made these things:
12 two pillars;
two pieces for the top of each pillar, with the shape of big bowls;
rows of chains on the tops of the pillars;
13 400 images of pomegranates for the two groups of chains (there were two rows of these images around the piece at the top of each pillar, which had the shape of a bowl);
14 the carts with the buckets that were on them;
15 the big bronze bath called ‘the Sea’ and the 12 bulls under it;
16 the pots, small tools and forks for meat.
King Solomon asked Huram-Abi to make all these things for the Lord's temple. He used bright bronze to make all these things. 17 The king told his workers to pour the hot bronze into shapes in the ground. They did that at a special place in the region of the Jordan Valley, between Succoth and Zarethan. 18 Solomon did not weigh any of these things, because there were so many of them. No one ever knew the weight of the bronze.
Inside the temple
19 Solomon's workers also made all these things for God's temple:
the gold altar;
the tables which had the special bread on them;
20 the pure gold lampstands with their lamps (the plans showed how the lamps had to burn at the entrance of the Most Holy Place);
21 the gold images of flowers;
the lamps;
the small tools that held things for the altar;
22 the small tools of pure gold that they used for the lamps;
the bowls for water;
the dishes for ashes;
the baskets that carried hot coals;
the gold pieces that held the doors of the Most Holy Place;
the gold pieces that held the doors of the temple's big hall.
Footnotes
- 4:2 ‘The Sea’ was full of water. The priests used this to wash themselves when they went into the temple.
- 4:7 See 1 Chronicles 28:14-15.
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