Palaces and Bronze

"But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years." The House of the Forest of Lebanon, a hundred cubits long, on four rows of cedar pillars; a porch of pillars; a porch for the throne, "the porch of judgment"; and a house for Pharaoh's daughter.

"And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. He was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass." He casts two pillars eighteen cubits high, with capitals of lily-work and pomegranates. "And he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin: and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz."

"And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about… It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three… west… south… east… it contained two thousand baths." Ten bronze stands on wheels with lavers; pots, shovels, basins; all cast in clay ground in the Jordan plain between Succoth and Zarethan. The bronze was not weighed, "because they were exceeding many."

Jachin and Boaz

The names may mean "He establishes" and "In strength"; perhaps the first words of royal inscriptions or blessings. Freestanding pillars flanking temple entrances are known at 'Ain Dara, Tell Tayinat and in temple models.

The Sea: 2,000 or 3,000 baths?

1 Kings 7:26 gives the Sea 2,000 baths; 2 Chronicles 4:5 gives 3,000. A bath is variously estimated at about 22 or about 40 liters. Harmonizations (a capacity versus normal fill) exist; the texts are shown side by side.

Bronze-casting in the Jordan valley

Excavations at Tell es-Sa'idiyeh and Tell Deir Alla, in the area named (Succoth, Zarethan), found evidence of metalworking. Copper came from the Arabah (Faynan and Timna), where large-scale 10th-century BC copper production is documented.