1 Kings 7:13-33
1 Kings 7:13-33 NCV
King Solomon sent to Tyre and had Huram brought to him. Huram’s mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali. His father was from Tyre and had been skilled in making things from bronze. Huram was also very skilled and experienced in bronze work. So he came to King Solomon and did all the bronze work. He made two bronze pillars, each one twenty-seven feet tall and eighteen feet around. He also made two bronze capitals that were seven and one-half feet tall, and he put them on top of the pillars. Then he made a net of seven chains for each capital, which covered the capitals on top of the two pillars. He made two rows of bronze pomegranates to go on the nets. These covered the capitals at the top of the pillars. The capitals on top of the pillars in the porch were shaped like lilies, and they were six feet tall. The capitals were on top of both pillars, above the bowl-shaped section and next to the nets. At that place there were two hundred pomegranates in rows all around the capitals. Huram put these two bronze pillars at the porch of the Temple. He named the south pillar He Establishes and the north pillar In Him Is Strength. The capitals on top of the pillars were shaped like lilies. So the work on the pillars was finished. Then Huram made from bronze a large round bowl, which was called the Sea. It was forty-five feet around, fifteen feet across, and seven and one-half feet deep. Around the outer edge of the bowl was a rim. Under this rim were two rows of bronze plants which surrounded the bowl. There were ten plants every eighteen inches, and these plants were made in one piece with the bowl. The bowl rested on the backs of twelve bronze bulls that faced outward from the center of the bowl. Three bulls faced north, three faced west, three faced south, and three faced east. The sides of the bowl were four inches thick, and it held about eleven thousand gallons. The rim of the bowl was like the rim of a cup or like a lily blossom. Then Huram made ten bronze stands, each one six feet long, six feet wide, and four and one-half feet high. The stands were made from square sides, which were put on frames. On the sides were bronze lions, bulls, and creatures with wings. On the frames above and below the lions and bulls were designs of flowers hammered into the bronze. Each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles. At the corners there were bronze supports for a large bowl, and the supports had designs of flowers. There was a frame on top of the bowls, eighteen inches high above the bowls. The opening of the bowl was round, twenty-seven inches deep. Designs were carved into the bronze on the frame, which was square, not round. The four wheels, placed under the frame, were twenty-seven inches high. The axles between the wheels were made as one piece with the stand. The wheels were like a chariot’s wheels. Everything on the wheels—the axles, rims, spokes, and hubs—were made of bronze.