2 Chronicles 4:5
It 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.
Note A handbreadth is approximately 2.9 inches or 7.4 centimeters.
Note 3,000 baths is approximately 17,400 gallons or 66,000 liters.
And the thickness of it was an handbreadth, and the brim of it like the work of the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies; and it received and held three thousand baths.
Note with flowers…: or, like a lilyflower
It was a handbreadth thick. Its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily. It received and held three thousand baths.
Note A bath is about 5.6 U. S. gallons or 21.1 liters, so 3,000 baths is about 16,800 gallons or 63.3 kiloliters.
And it was a handbreadth thick; and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it received and held three thousand baths.
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Related passages
From the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, grouped by the word they explain.
- with flowers of lilies
- or, like a lily flower. threethousand baths. In the parallel passage, it is said to hold only two thousand baths; which some think may be reconciled by supposing that the quantity of water which was commonly in it was 2,000 baths, but that, if filled up to the top, it would hold 3,000. But, as we have already seen that the Babylonish cubit was less than that of the ancient Hebrews, it might be the same with measures of capacity; so that 2,000 of the ancient Jewish baths might have been equal to 3,000 of those used after the captivity. The Targum cuts the knot: "It received 3,000 baths of dry measure, and held 2,000 of liquid measure." See 1 Ki 7:26.
- 1 Kings 7:26