1 Kings 7:25

It stood [Heb. standing ] upon twelve oxen [The import of the number twelve is well explained by. Bähr, Symbolik, 1:201 sqq. Like seven, it is compounded out of three and four. But the primary reference here is to the twelve tribes], three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east [So the tribes in the camp formed a square round the tabernacle, three on each side—east, south, west, and north ( Numbers 2:1-34 .)]: and the sea was set above upon them, and all their hinder parts were inward. [.The same regard of the cardinal points has been noticed in the pomegranates on the capitals of the two columns. See note on verse 20. Keil says the feet of the oxen no doubt rested on a metal plate, so that they were fixed and immoveable; but this lacks proof. The oxen would be immovable in any case, owing to the weight of the metal and the water. All conjectures as to the height and size of the oxen are necessarily of little value.