1 Kings 18:32

And with the stones [the twelve he had chosen out of the ruins. Cf. Exodus 20:25 ] he built an altar in the name of the Lord [not "by the command of Jehovah" (Bähr), but rather as the minister and for the service of Jehovah, or, as Keil. "by the authority and for the glory of Jehovah." Nor is it certain that "he called, as he Built it, on the name of Jehovah, and so dedicated it to His service" (Rawl.) See Genesis 12:8 ; Genesis 13:4 ; Genesis 33:20 ; Genesis 35:7 ]: and he made a trench [or channel, 2 Kings 18:17 ; Isaiah 7:3 ; Isaiah 36:2 ; Ezekiel 31:4 . The word implies that it was for holding the water, not for keeping off the people] about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed [Heb. as the inside (lit; house ) of two seahs of seed . These words have been variously interpreted. Keil, with Thenius and Wordsworth, understands that "the trench was so large that you could sow two seahs of seed upon the ground which it covered." But apart from the fact that בַּיִת must refer to capacity rather than superficial extent, one does not measure a trench, as Bähr observes, by the ground which it covers, but by its depth. He would follow Gesenius in understanding that the trench was so deep as to hold two seahs of seed; i.e; as deep as the grain measure containing two seahs. The סְאָה was the third of an ephah. Cf. Jos; Ant. 9.4. 5, and the σάτα τρία of Matthew 13:33 .]