2 Chronicles 4:5
New International Version
It was a handbreadth in thickness, and its rim was like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held three thousand baths.

New Living Translation
The walls of the Sea were about three inches thick, and its rim flared out like a cup and resembled a water lily blossom. It could hold about 16,500 gallons of water.

English Standard Version
Its thickness was a handbreadth. And its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily. It held 3,000 baths.

Berean Standard Bible
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.

King James Bible
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.

New King James Version
It was a handbreadth thick; and its brim was shaped like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It contained three thousand baths.

New American Standard Bible
It was a hand width thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom; it could hold three thousand baths.

NASB 1995
It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom; it could hold 3,000 baths.

NASB 1977
And it was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom; it could hold 3,000 baths.

Legacy Standard Bible
And it was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, as a lily blossom; it could hold 3,000 baths.

Amplified Bible
It was a handbreadth (the width of the four fingers) thick; its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold 3,000 baths (measures).

Christian Standard Bible
The basin was three inches thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup or a lily blossom. It could hold eleven thousand gallons.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
The reservoir was three inches thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup or a lily blossom. It could hold 11,000 gallons.

American Standard Version
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.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And its thickness, a hands breadth, and the rim of the sea as the round rim of a cup that is very beautiful, and he made ten poles, and he put five at the right side and five at the left, by which to hold up the altar of burnt offering.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And its thickness was a hand-breadth, and its brim as the brim of a cup, graven with flowers of lilies, holding three thousand measures: and he finished it.

Contemporary English Version
The sides of the bowl were 75 millimeters thick, and its rim was in the shape of a cup that curved outward like flower petals. The bowl held about 60,000 liters.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Now the thickness of it was a handbreadth, and the brim of it was like the brim of a cup, or of a crisped lily: and it held three thousand measures.

English Revised Version
And it was an 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.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
The pool was three inches thick. Its rim was like the rim of a cup, shaped like a lily's bud. It held 18,000 gallons.

Good News Translation
The sides of the tank were 3 inches thick. Its rim was like the rim of a cup, curving outward like the petals of a flower. The tank held about 15,000 gallons.

International Standard Version
It was a handbreadth thick, with its brim fashioned like the brim of a cup. Similar in shape to a lily blossom, it could hold 3,000 baths.

JPS Tanakh 1917
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.

Literal Standard Version
And its thickness [is] a handbreadth, and its lip as the work of the lip of a cup flowered with lilies; holding [within]—it contains three thousand baths.

Majority Standard Bible
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.

New American Bible
It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim resembled that of a cup, being lily-shaped. It had a capacity of three thousand baths.

NET Bible
It was four fingers thick and its rim was like that of a cup shaped like a lily blossom. It could hold 18,000 gallons.

New Revised Standard Version
Its thickness was a handbreadth; its rim was made like the rim of a cup, like the flower of a lily; it held three thousand baths.

New Heart English Bible
It was almost three inches thick; and its brim was worked like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it received and held three thousand baths.

Webster's Bible Translation
And the thickness of it was a hand-breadth, 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.

World English Bible
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.

Young's Literal Translation
And its thickness is a handbreadth, and its lip as the work of the lip of a cup flowered with lilies; taking hold -- baths three thousand it containeth.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Bronze Altar and Molten 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.

Cross References
Exodus 25:25
And make a rim around it a handbreadth wide and put a gold molding on the rim.

1 Kings 7:25
The 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.

1 Kings 7:26
It was a handbreadth thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold two thousand baths.

2 Chronicles 4:4
The 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.


Treasury of Scripture

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.

with flowers of lilies.

See

1 Kings 7:26
And it was an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths.

1 Kings 7:26
And it was an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths.

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Baths Blossom Brim Capacity Containeth Cup Curved Edge Flower Flowers Hand Handbreadth Hand-Breadth Held Hold Lily Lip Open Received Rim Thereof Thick Thickness Thousand Three Work Worked Wrought
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Baths Blossom Brim Capacity Containeth Cup Curved Edge Flower Flowers Hand Handbreadth Hand-Breadth Held Hold Lily Lip Open Received Rim Thereof Thick Thickness Thousand Three Work Worked Wrought
2 Chronicles 4
1. The altar of brass
2. The molten sea upon twelve oxen
6. The ten lavers, candlesticks, and tables
9. The courts, and the instruments of brass
19. The instruments of gold














(5) And the thickness . . . a cup.--Identical with 1Kings 7:26.

With flowers of lilies.--See margin. "Lily" here is shoshann?h; in Kings, shosh?n. LXX., "graven with lily buds." Syriac and Arabic, "and it was very beautiful." Vulg., "like the lip of a cup, or of an open lily."

And it received and held three thousand baths.--Literally, holding (whole) baths: three thousand would it contain. The bath was the largest of Hebrew liquid measures. Perhaps the true reading is, "holding three thousand baths," the last verb being a gloss borrowed from Kings. So Vulg. Syriac and Arabic omit the clause. The LXX. had the present reading. 1Kings 7:26 reads, two thousand baths would it contain. Most critics assume this to be correct. Some scribe may have read 'al?phim, "thousands," instead of 'alpayim, "two thousand," and then have added "three" (sh?l?sheth) under the influence of the last verse. But it is more likely that the numeral "three" having been inadvertently omitted from the text of Kings, the indefinite word "thousands" was made definite by turning it into the dual "two thousand" Either mistake would be possible, because in the unpointed text 'al?phim and 'alpayim are written alike. The Syriac has the curious addition, "And he made ten poles, and put five on the right and five on the left, and bare with them the altar of burnt offerings." Similarly the Arabic version.

Verse 5. - An handbreadth. Not זֶרֶת, "a span" (nevertheless tabled by Conder, 'Handbook to the Bible,' 2nd edit., p. 79, as a handbreadth, and put at eight digits, two palms, or 5.33 inches), but טֶפַח, "the palm of the open hand," the breadth of the four fingers, which Thenius puts at 3.1752 inches, but Conder's table at 2.66 inches. It received and held should be translated, it was able to hold. Three thousand baths. The parallel has two thousand baths, and this latter is the likelier reading. It is, however, conceivable that the statement of Kings may purport to give the quantity of water used, and that of Chronicles the quantity which the vessel at its fullest could accommodate. As to the real capacity of the bath, we are hopelessly at sea. Josephus's estimate of it is about eight gallons and a half, that of the rabbinists about four gallons and a half (see Smith's 'Dictionary of the Bible,' 3:1742), and Conder, in the 'Handbook to the Bible,' p. 80, a fractional quantity above six gallons. The largest bowls on the Assyrian bas-reliefs, the silver bowl of Croesus, and the bronze bowl in Scythia (Herodotus, 1:51; 4:81), did not, under the lowest estimate of the bath, hold as much as one-half of the contents of this vast sea of brass of Solomon. The use of this vessel was, as we read in the next verse, for the priests to wash in, or, as some would read, to wash at (Exodus 30:18-20).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
It was a handbreadth
טֶ֔פַח (ṭe·p̄aḥ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 2947: A spread of the hand, a palm-breadth, a corbel

thick,
וְעָבְי֣וֹ (wə·‘ā·ḇə·yōw)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 5672: Density, depth, width

and its rim
וּשְׂפָתוֹ֙ (ū·śə·p̄ā·ṯōw)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 8193: The lip, language, a margin

was fashioned
כְּמַעֲשֵׂ֣ה (kə·ma·‘ă·śêh)
Preposition-k | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 4639: An action, a transaction, activity, a product, property

like the brim
שְׂפַת־ (śə·p̄aṯ-)
Noun - feminine singular construct
Strong's 8193: The lip, language, a margin

of a cup,
כּ֔וֹס (kō·ws)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 3563: A cup, a lot, some unclean bird, an owl

like a lily
שֽׁוֹשַׁנָּ֑ה (šō·wō·šan·nāh)
Noun - common singular
Strong's 7799: A lily, as a, flower of architectural ornament, a, trumpet

blossom.
פֶּ֖רַח (pe·raḥ)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 6525: A calyx, bloom

It could hold
יָכִֽיל׃ (yā·ḵîl)
Verb - Hifil - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 3557: To keep in, to measure, to maintain

three
שְׁלֹ֥שֶׁת (šə·lō·šeṯ)
Number - masculine singular construct
Strong's 7969: Three, third, thrice

thousand
אֲלָפִ֖ים (’ă·lā·p̄îm)
Number - masculine plural
Strong's 505: A thousand

baths.
בַּתִּ֔ים (bat·tîm)
Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 1324: A bath (a Hebrew measure)


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OT History: 2 Chronicles 4:5 It was a handbreadth thick (2 Chron. 2Ch iiCh ii ch 2 chr 2chr)
2 Chronicles 4:4
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