1 Kings 7:18

And he made the pillars [There is evidently a confusion of the text here. Probably we should read, with some MSS . הרמנים , the pomegranates (so LXX .), instead of העמודים , or rather, we should transpose the two words, reading pomegranates where the Masoretic text has pillars, and vice versa. "The pomegranate was one of the commonest ornaments of Assyria.… It is doubtful whether a symbolical meaning was attached to it, or whether it was merely selected as a beautiful natural form" (Rawlinson). Wordsworth characteristically sees in its many ripe seeds, "an expressive emblem of fruitfulness in good works." According to Bähr, it is an image of the law or covenant of Jehovah, and the seeds represent the separate commands. In the tabernacle it was pourtrayed in works of divers colours on the hem of the robe of the ephod ( Exodus 28:33 , Exodus 28:34 ; Exodus 39:24 ). All the Scripture notices of this fruit prove its great abundance in Palestine ( Numbers 13:23 ; Joshua 15:32 ; Joshua 21:25 ;—in the two last passages it appears as the name of a town— Song of Solomon 4:3 , Song of Solomon 4:13 ; Song of Solomon 8:2 ; Joel 1:12 ; Haggai 2:9 , etc.) It was also well known to the Egyptians ( Numbers 20:5 )], and [ or even ] two rows round about upon the one network ["The relation between the two rows of pomegranates and the plaited work is not clearly defined, but it is generally and correctly assumed that one row ran round the pillars below the plaited work and the other above" (Keil). The pomegranates, one hundred in number in each row ( 2 Chronicles 3:16 ), four hundred in all ( 2 Chronicles 4:13 ; Jeremiah 52:23 ), would thus form a double border to the chain work], to cover the chapiters that were upon the top, with pomegranates [rather, on the top of the pillars, as the transposition mentioned above and the sense require]; and so did he for the other chapiter.