Difficult Passages · Numbers in Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles
Did the molten sea hold two thousand baths or three thousand?
It contained two thousand in use; filled to the brim it received and held three thousand.
The Passages
1 Kings 7:26
26 And it was an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths.
2 Chronicles 4:5
5 And the thickness of it was an handbreadth, and the brim of it like the work of the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies; and it received and held three thousand baths.
The Difficulty
“It contained two thousand baths” (1 Kings 7:26). “It received and held three thousand baths” (2 Chronicles 4:5).
The Answer
The KJV’s own words give the answer. Kings says what the sea “contained” as it was used; Chronicles says what it “received and held,” its full measure. Haley notes that the Hebrew verb rendered “received” in Chronicles is a different one from that rendered “contained” and “held.” Two thousand baths was its ordinary filling for the priests’ washing; three thousand, its capacity to the brim.
Gill: “in common, for the use of the priests … it had no more than 2,000 baths in it, but, if filled up to the brim, it would hold 3,000.”
Sources
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In common, for the use of the priests, whether for washing their hands and feet, or dipping their bodies, it had no more than 2000 baths in it, but if filled up to the brim, it would hold 3000.
Checked against: Internet Archive scan of the first edition, 2026-10-23 -
The Hebrew verb rendered “contained” and “held” is different from that translated “received”; and the meaning may be that the sea ordinarily contained 2000, but when filled to its utmost capacity received and held 3000 baths.
Checked against: Internet Archive scan of the 1874 edition, 2026-10-19
