1 Kings 7:38

Then made he ten layers of brass: one laver contained forty baths [ i.e; about 340 gals; if we accept the account of Josephus, Ant 1 Kings 8:2 .9. But see on 1 Kings 8:26 ]: and every laver was four cubits. [It is uncertain whether the height or the diameter is meant. Keil decides for the latter—and four cubits, the width of the sides of the stand, may well have been also the diameter of the basin—on the ground that as" the basins were set upon ( עַל ) the stands," it can hardly refer to the height. But it is worthy of remark that "the height of all the ether parts has been mentioned" (Rawlinson). See 1 Kings 8:27 , 1 Kings 8:32 , 1 Kings 8:35 , and without this particular we could not calculate the entire height, which, if the laver were four cubits, would be about thirteen feet. This surprising size is accounted for by remembering the height of the altar, to which the fat and other sacrificial portions had to be transferred from the laver]: and upon every one of the ten bases one laver. [Ten layers would not be at all too many when we remember the prodigious number of victims which were occasionally offered.]