1He made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and ten cubits high. 2He also made the Sea of cast metal. It was circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim, five cubits in height, and thirty cubits in circumference. 3Below the rim, figures of oxen encircled it, ten per cubit all the way around the Sea, cast in two rows as a part of the Sea. 4The Sea stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The Sea rested on them, with all their hindquarters toward the center. 5It was a handbreadth thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold three thousand baths. 6He also made ten basins for washing and placed five on the south side and five on the north. The parts of the burnt offering were rinsed in them, but the priests used the Sea for washing. 7He made ten gold lampstands according to their specifications and placed them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north. 8Additionally, he made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north. He also made a hundred gold bowls. 9He made the courtyard of the priests and the large court with its doors, and he overlaid the doors with bronze. 10He put the Sea on the south side, at the southeast corner. 11Additionally, Huram made the pots, shovels, and sprinkling bowls. So Huram finished the work that he had undertaken for King Solomon in the house of God: 12the two pillars; the two bowl-shaped capitals atop the pillars; the two sets of network covering both bowls of the capitals atop the pillars; 13the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of network (two rows of pomegranates for each network covering both the bowl-shaped capitals atop the pillars); 14the stands; the basins on the stands; 15the Sea; the twelve oxen underneath the Sea; 16and the pots, shovels, meat forks, and all the other articles. All these objects that Huram-abi made for King Solomon for the house of the LORD were of polished bronze. 17The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zeredah. 18Solomon made all these articles in such great abundance that the weight of the bronze could not be determined. 19Solomon also made all the furnishings for the house of God: the golden altar; the tables on which was placed the Bread of the Presence; 20the lampstands of pure gold and their lamps, to burn in front of the inner sanctuary as prescribed; 21the flowers, lamps, and tongs of gold—of purest gold; 22the wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, ladles, and censers of purest gold; and the gold doors of the temple: the inner doors to the Most Holy Place as well as the doors of the main hall.
Matthew Henry's Commentary
The furniture of the temple. - Here is a further account of the furniture of God's house. Both without doors and within, there was that which typified the grace of the gospel, and shadowed out good things to come, of which the substance is Christ. There was the brazen altar. The making of this was not mentioned in the book of Kings. On this all the sacrifices were offered, and it sanctified the gift. The people who worshipped in the courts might see the sacrifices burned. They might thus be led to consider the great Sacrifice, to be offered in the fulness of time, to take away sin, and put an end to death, which the blood of bulls and goats could not possibly do. And, with the smoke of the sacrifices, their hearts might ascend to heaven, in holy desires towards God and his favour. In all our devotions we must keep the eye of faith fixed upon Christ. The furniture of the temple, compared with that of the tabernacle, showed that God's church would be enlarged, and his worshippers multiplied. Blessed be God, there is enough in Christ for all.