Bronze Sea

The “bronze Sea” was a large tank of water in the courtyard of Solomon’s temple. The priests used its water for washing. It is sometimes called the “Sea of cast metal” or simply “the Sea” (1 Kings 7:23–44; 2 Kings 16:17; 25:13; 1 Chronicles 18:8; 2 Chronicles 4:2–6, 15; Jeremiah 52:17).

The tank was made of cast bronze and was about 7.6 centimeters (three inches). This thickness was called a handbreadth. It stood on 12 bronze oxen, with three oxen facing in each of the four directions. The tank was in the courtyard at the southeast corner of the temple.

It was five cubits (about two meters or 7.5 feet) high and 10 cubits (4.6 meters or 15 feet) in diameter. It held either 2,000 baths (1 Kings 7:26) or 3,000 (2 Chronicles 4:5). This difference may have resulted from an error made when a scribe copied the text.

A bath was a unit used to measure liquids. It was equal to about 23 liters (six gallons). The tank may therefore have held about 68,136 liters (18,000 gallons) of water.

See also Temple; Laver.