1st Kings Chapter 7 verse 15 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 15. - For he cast two pillars of brass [The process of casting, as practised by the ancients, receives considerable illustration from the paintings of Thebes (see Wilkinson, "Anc. Egypt." 2 pp. 234, 256; Kitto, "Daily Bib. Illus." Sol. and Kings, pp. 72, 73)], of eighteen cubits high apiece [Heb. eighteen cubits was the height of the one column. This was the height of the shaft (cf. 2 Kings 25:17; Jeremiah 52:21). To this must be added the capital (vers. 16, 19), which measured five (or, according to some, nine) cubits, and probably the pedestal. The pillars were hollow, the metal being four finger breadths thick (Jeremiah 52:21). In 2 Chronicles 3:15 the height is given as thirty-five cubits - a discrepancy which has been variously explained. According to some writers (e.g., Abravanel, Movers, Wordsworth), this represents the total length of the two pillars (each pillar consequently being 17.5 cubits) - an idea which, perhaps, finds some slight support in the word employed אָרֶך length. Here it is ׃תהגךךה קומָה By others it has been supposed that the total height of base, column, and capital was thirty-five cubits, which, if not incredible, is very improbable. Others think it a part of that systematic reduplication of the heights of edifices by the chronicler, of which we have already had an instance in ch. 6. (where see note). But the true explanation would seem to be that, by a clerical error, thirty-five (לה) has been substituted in the text for eighteen (יח). So Keil and Bahr]: and a line [or thread] of twelve cubits did compass either of them [Heb. the second column] about. [It must not be supposed, from the fact that the height of the one column is given, and the circumference of the other, that they were dissimilar in height and breadth or girth. There has probably been an accidental abbreviation of the full expression, "Eighteen cubits was the height of the one pillar, and eighteen cubits was the height of the other pillar; and a line of twelve cubits compassed the one pillar, and a line of twelve cubits compassed the other pillar." It is just possible, however, that the peculiarity results from the actual system of measurement employed in this case. As they were castings, it would be needless to measure both pillars, and so the length may have been ascertained from the first, and the breadth from the second. The columns would thus be about twenty-seven feet high, and about six feet in diameter.]

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(15-22) With regard to the two pillars, Jachin ("He shall establish") and Boaz ("In it is strength"), the text gives no account of their destination, except that they were set up in the porch of the Temple (1Kings 7:21). Mr. Fergusson considers that they were supports to the roof of the vestibule; and if this were thirty cubits high, the twenty-seven cubits of each pillar, allowing for the slope of the roof to the apex, would suit well enough. But the absence of all reference to their position as parts of the building, and the entire separation of the description of their fabrication from the account of the building itself, rather favoured the other supposition, that they were isolated pillars set up in front of the porch as symbolic monuments, conveying the idea of Psalms 46, "God is our hope and strength;" "God is in the midst of her, therefore shall she not be removed." It is particularly noticed (2Kings 25:13-16; Jeremiah 52:17; Jeremiah 52:20-23) that they were broken up by the Chaldaeans. on the capture of Jerusalem, and the brass carried away. The description is exceedingly elaborate, and, except in one or two parts, clear enough. The shaft of each pillar was twenty-seven feet high, and its diameter something less than six feet. Josephus says that it was hollow, but of considerable thickness. Above the shaft was a chapiter (or capital) of great proportionate size (seven and a half feet high), covered with a net-work and festoons of metal-work, and ornamented with two rows of pomegranates, a hundred in each row. Over these again was "lily-work" of six feet in height--probably some conventionalised foliage, technically known by that name, like the "honeysuckle ornament" in classical architecture, or the conventional "dog-tooth" or "ball-flower" of Gothic. The whole height, even if there were no base or plinth below, would be twenty-seven cubits, or forty feet and a half. In the Dict. of the Bible (TEMPLE) is given a drawing of a pillar at Persepolis, which bears a considerable resemblance to the general description here given, but, being executed in stone, is far less elaborate in ornamentation. The whole style of the narrative shows that these were regarded as monuments of the highest artistic skill, and well known to all, as from their position they would be constantly before the eyes both of priests and people. There was, so far as can be seen, nothing to correspond to them in the Tabernacle.