LAVER lāv ər (כִּיּﯴר, H3963, כִּיֹּר׃֙, prob. from root kwr meaning be or make round; also tr. “pan” (1 Sam 2:14), “pot” (Zech 12:6) and “platform” (prob. because of its round, bowl-like shape, 2 Chron 6:13).

1. The laver for the Tabernacle with its base was made of bronze (Exod 30:18, passim); contained water so that Aaron and his sons could bathe their hands and feet when they entered the tent of meeting or approached the altar to minister (Exod 30:18, 19); was made by Bezalel of the tribe of Judah and Oholiab of the tribe of Dan (Exod 31:1-9) along with other able men among the people (Exod 35:10-16); and was made from the mirrors of the “ministering” (Heb. word şābā suggests an organized host) women who ministered at the door of the tent of meeting. Of these women Aben-ezra said: “It is a custom of all women to behold their face every morning in a mirror, that they may be able to dress their hair; but lo! these were women in Israel that served the Lord, who abandoned this worldly delight and gave away their glasses as a free-will offering, for they had no more use of them; but they came every day to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation to pray, and hear the words of the commandments” (Patrick Fairbairn, The Typology of Scripture, II [1900], p. 258). After anointment with the prescribed oil (Exod 30:22-29; Lev 8:11) and acceptance by Moses (Exod 39:39) it was the last article set in place before the erection of the court (Exod 40:7, 17). The Bible does not state its shape, size, ornamentation, or transport.

2. In Solomon’s Temple a great “molten sea” took the place of the laver in the Tabernacle for the priests’ ablutions (2 Chron 4:6). This “sea” was five cubits in height, ten cubits in diameter from brim to brim, and thirty cubits in circumference (1 Kings 7:23). Some regard the last two figures as a mathematical impossibility (e.g. Louis Cassels, “Understanding the Bible,” Presbyterian Life, Dec. 1, 1966, p. 13). The circumference, however, may not include the outward flare of its lily shape at the brim (1 Kings 7:26), whereas the diameter may refer to the brim at its widest section. Gourds ran under its brim, ten to the cubit, surrounding the sea in two rows and cast at the same time as the vessel itself (1 Kings 7:24). According to KD the MT “the likeness of oxen” in the synoptic account of 2 Chronicles 4:3 is corrupt. It rested upon four groups of three bronze oxen oriented to the four compass points (1 Kings 7:25). This selection represented the priestly service of the twelve tribes even as the lions on Solomon’s throne represented the royal service. A basalt laver supported by two bulls from the early first millennium b.c. was found at Carchemish (NBD, p. 718, fig. 132). The thickness of the bronze metal was a hand’s breadth and the vessel held 2,000 baths (1 Kings 7:26). According to KD the reading “3,000 baths” (2 Chron 4:5) is corrupt.

Besides the great molten sea located on the SE corner of the Temple Hiram of Tyre (1 Kings 7:13, 14, 40-44) also made ten bronze lavers, distributed evenly between the N and S sides of the Temple (1 Kings 7:39). These lavers, four cubits in diameter and containing forty baths (1 Kings 7:38), were used for washing the animals to be offered as burnt offerings (2 Chron 4:6), and were set upon mobile bronze stands (1 Kings 7:27-37). A similar construction from Cyprus, c. 1150 b.c., clarifies the painstaking study of these stands found in A Dictionary of the Bible ed. by William Smith (cf. NBD, p. 1244, fig. 205).

In connection with his apostasy, Ahaz cut off the panels of the stands, removed the lavers from them and replaced the sea on a pediment of stone (2 Kings 16:17). The Chaldeans broke up what remained of the sea and stands and carried the bronze to Babylon (2 Kings 25:13). No mention is made in Scripture of the laver(s) in the second Temple, nor by Josephus in his account of Herod’s restoration.