1 Reyes 7:31

31. The mouth of it The mouth of the laver; its opening at the top; involving in this case, also, the entire cavity or hollow of the laver.

Within the chapiter and above An obscure and unintelligible expression, meaning, perhaps, the depth of the laver.

A cubit Literally, in a cubit; perhaps an erroneous copying of כאמה , about a cubit. We take the meaning to be, that the depth of the laver was about one cubit.

The mouth thereof was round after the work of the base, a cubit and a half This makes no sense at all, and if we follow the common punctuation, the passage is perfectly unintelligible. It is very likely that some words have here fallen out of the text. As it is, it seems best to punctuate and read as follows: And the mouth was round; the base-work was a cubit and a half; and also upon the mouth were engravings, and their panels were square, not rounded. On this rendering we make the following notes: Mouth… was round That is, the opening was round at the top, like a bowl. Base-work was a cubit and a half The base-work that connected immediately with the laver, and separated it a cubit and a half from the round compass (1 Kings 7:35) of the base above. 1 Kings 7:29. This base work probably consisted of a pedestal and open standards in the form of curved plates, as represented in the figure. (n n.) See on 1 Kings 7:35. Upon the mouth were engravings That is, upon the concave surface of the inside of the laver, and probably also on the outside. Their panels The panels of the engravings. (P P in figure.) The lavers were so cast as to present the appearance of square panels set in the surface, and these panels were covered with sculptured work.