(40) The lavers.--These should be (as in 1 Kings 7:45) "pots." The verse describes the completion of Hiram's work by the making of the smaller vessels.
It is curious that no mention is made of the construction of the brasen altar. It has been supposed by some that the old altar reared by David (2 Samuel 24:25) was retained. But in 2 Chronicles 4:1, and in Josephus's account, it is expressly said that a brasen altar was made by Hiram, 30 feet square and 15 feet high. Probably, therefore, the absence of all mention of it here is simply an omission in the record.
Verse 40. - And Hiram made the layers [So the Rec. Text. But perhaps we ought to read סִירותi.e., pots, here, as in ver. 45 and 2 Chronicles 4:11. This word is joined with shovels and basons, not only in these two passages, but also in Exodus 27:3, 2 Kings 25:14, Jeremiah 52:18; in other words, the appropriate term in this connexion would be "pots," while "layers," having been just mentioned in ver. 38, would involve an idle repetition. Altogether, therefore, there can be little doubt that we should here read הסירות for הכירות. It is apparently the reading of the Chald., LXX., and some MSS. These" pots "were used, not for carrying away the ashes (Keil), but, as the name implies (סִיר, effervescere), for boiling the flesh of the peace offering (1 Samuel 2:13, 14), and the shovels [these, again, as the name implies (יָע from יָעָהabstulit; see Gesen., Thesaurus, p. 607), were used for taking away the ashes from the altar (Exodus 27:3; Numbers 4:14), and the basons. [The sacrificial bowls for receiving the blood of the victims (Exodus 38:3; Numbers 4:14).] So Hiram made an end of doing all the work [the writer now recapitulates the work of Hiram. The repetition may be due to the fact that the history was compiled from various lists and documents] that he made king Solomon for [Heb. omits the prep.] the house of the Lord.
7:13-47 The two brazen pillars in the porch of the temple, some think, were to teach those that came to worship, to depend upon God only, for strength and establishment in all their religious exercises. Jachin, God will fix this roving mind. It is good that the heart be established with grace. Boaz, In him is our strength, who works in us both to will and to do. Spiritual strength and stability are found at the door of God's temple, where we must wait for the gifts of grace, in use of the means of grace. Spiritual priests and spiritual sacrifices must be washed in the laver of Christ's blood, and of regeneration. We must wash often, for we daily contract pollution. There are full means provided for our cleansing; so that if we have our lot for ever among the unclean it will be our own fault. Let us bless God for the fountain opened by the sacrifice of Christ for sin and for uncleanness.
And Hiram made the lavers, and the shovels, and the basins,.... The lavers are not the ten before mentioned, of the make of which an account is before given; but these, according to Jarchi and Ben Gersom, are the same with the pots, 1 Kings 7:45 and so they are called in 2 Chronicles 4:11 the use of which, as they say, was to put the ashes of the altar into; as the "shovels", next mentioned, were a sort of besoms to sweep them off, and the "basins" were to receive the blood of the sacrifices, and sprinkle it; no mention is here made of the altar of brass he made, but is in 2 Chronicles 4:11, nor of the fleshhooks to take the flesh out of the pots, as in 2 Chronicles 4:16,
so Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he made King Solomon for the house of the Lord; what he undertook, and was employed in, he finished, which were all works of brass; of which a recapitulation is made in the following verses to the end of the forty fifth, where they are said to be made of "bright brass", free of all dross and rust; "good", as the Targum, even the best brass they were made of; the brass David took from Hadarezer, 1 Chronicles 18:8 which Josephus (g) too much magnifies, when he says it was better than gold.
It is curious that no mention is made of the construction of the brasen altar. It has been supposed by some that the old altar reared by David (2 Samuel 24:25) was retained. But in 2 Chronicles 4:1, and in Josephus's account, it is expressly said that a brasen altar was made by Hiram, 30 feet square and 15 feet high. Probably, therefore, the absence of all mention of it here is simply an omission in the record.
so Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he made King Solomon for the house of the Lord; what he undertook, and was employed in, he finished, which were all works of brass; of which a recapitulation is made in the following verses to the end of the forty fifth, where they are said to be made of "bright brass", free of all dross and rust; "good", as the Targum, even the best brass they were made of; the brass David took from Hadarezer, 1 Chronicles 18:8 which Josephus (g) too much magnifies, when he says it was better than gold.
(g) Antiqu. l. 7. c. 5. sect. 3.