1 Kings 7:27

CONSTRUCTION OF THE TEN BASES AND THE LAVERS

"And he made the ten bases of brass; four cubits was the length of one base, and four cubits the breadth thereof, and three cubits the height of it. And the work on the bases was of this manner: they had panels, and there were panels between the ledges; and on the panels that were between the ledges were lions, oxen and cherubim; and upon the ledges there was a pedestal above; and beneath the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging work. And every base had four brazen wheels, and axles of brass; and the four feet thereof had undersetters: beneath the laver were the undersetters molten, with wreaths at the side of each. And the mouth of it within the capital and above was a cubit: and the mouth thereof was round after the `work of a pedestal, a cubit and a half,' and also on the mouth of it were gravings, and their panels were foursquare, not round. And the four wheels were underneath the panels; and the axletrees of the wheels were in the base: and the height of a wheel was a cubit and half a cubit. And the work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel: their axletrees, and their felloes, and their spokes, and their naves, were all molten. And there were four undersetters at the four corners of each base: the undersetters thereof were of the base itself. And in the top of the base there was a round compass half a cubit high; and on the top of the base the stays thereof and the panels thereof were of the same. And on the plates of the stays thereof, he graved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, according to the space of each, with wreaths round about. After this manner he made the ten bases: all of them had one casting, one measure, and one form.

And he made ten lavers of brass: one laver contained forty baths; and every laver was four cubits; and upon every one of the ten bases one laver. And he set the bases, five on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house: and he set the sea on the right side of the house, eastward the south."

All of this construction of the molten sea and all the ten lavers on their bases with wheels and fancy decorations appear to have been related in some unknown manner to the laver of the Tabernacle described in Exodus.

It is impossible to conclude from what is written here either what might have been the actual appearance of all these articles, or what particular utility was served by any of them. "This description of both the bases and the lavers which they supported (1 Kings 7:27-39) is extremely obscure. We know however that the bases (as the name implies) were simply the stands or pediments for the lavers which they supported."[12]