Jeremiah 52:20

The two pillars, one sea, and twelve brasen bulls that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made in the house of the LORD: the brass of all these vessels was without weight.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

52:12-23 The Chaldean army made woful havoc. But nothing is so particularly related here, as the carrying away of the articles in the temple. The remembrance of their beauty and value shows us the more the evil of sin.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

twelve brasen bulls that were under - Omitted in 2 Kings nd in Jeremiah 27:19. Probably rightly, for what is said here of their being under the bases is a mistake. The bases were under the ten lavers. The Septuagint makes sense by translating it: "the twelve brasen bulls under the sea."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

20. bulls … under the bases—But the bulls were not "under the bases," but under the sea (1Ki 7:25, 27, 38); the ten bases were not under the sea, but under the ten lavers. In English Version, "bases," therefore, must mean the lower parts of the sea under which the bulls were. Rather, translate, "the bulls were in the place of (that is, 'by way of'; so the Hebrew, 1Sa 14:9), bases," or supports to the sea [Buxtorf]. So the Septuagint. 2Ki 25:16 omits the "bulls," and has "and the bases"; so Grotius here reads "the bulls (which were) under (the sea) and the bases."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Solomon made two pillars, 1 Kings 7:15, which, Jeremiah 52:21, he called Jachin and Boaz; Jeremiah 52:23, a molten sea, ten cubits broad; this, Jeremiah 52:25, stood upon twelve oxen, and had ten bases, Jeremiah 52:27: the making of all these took up a vast quantity of brass, as any one will easily judge, who, 1 Kings 7:27, readeth the dimensions of these things.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The two pillars, one sea, and twelve brasen bulls,.... The two pillars of Jachin and Boaz before mentioned, and the molten or brasen sea, with the twelve bulls or oxen the sea stood upon, 1 Kings 7:25;

that were under the bases; or "by the bases", as Jarchi; or rather, "that were instead of bases" (d); for the twelve oxen were the bases on which the molten sea stood:

which King Solomon had made in the house of the Lord; this is mentioned to show that these were the selfsame pillars, sea, and oxen, and other vessels, that Solomon made, that were now carried away; for though Ahaz took down the sea from off the brasen oxen, and put it on a pavement of stones, yet it seems not to have been destroyed; and might be restored to its proper place by Hezekiah, or some other prince;

the brass of all these vessels was without weight; there was no weight sufficient to weigh them; the weight of them could not very well be told; they were so heavy, that in Solomon's time the weight of them was not taken, when they were placed in the temple, so neither when they were taken away, 1 Kings 7:47.

(d) "qui erant in loco basium", Piscator,

Geneva Study Bible

The two pillars, one sea, and twelve brasen bulls that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made in the house of the LORD: the brass of all these vessels was without {h} weight.

(h) It was so much in quantity.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

20. twelve brasen bulls that were under, etc.] There appears to be some confusion in the MT. In the Temple as built by Solomon the bases were under the lavers, while the twelve bulls supported the sea. (1 Kings 7:25; 1 Kings 7:44.)

Jeremiah 52:20

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The carrying away of the vessels of the temple is more fully stated than in 2 Kings 25:13-17. The large brazen articles, the two pillars at the porch (cf. 1 Kings 7:15.), the bases (1 Kings 7:27.), and the brazen sea (1 Kings 7:23.), which were too vast in their proportions to be easily carried away to Babylon, were broken to pieces by the Chaldeans, who carried off the brass of which they were made. אשׁר לבּית is more correct than אשׁר (Kings), and "all their brass" is more precise than simply "their brass" (Kings). In the enumeration of the smaller brazen vessels used for the temple service, Jeremiah 52:18, there is omitted, in 2 Kings, ואת־המּזרקות, "and the bowls" (used in sacrifice); this omission is perhaps due merely to an error in transcription. The enumeration of the gold and silver vessels in Jeremiah 52:19 has been much more abbreviated in 2 Kings 25:15, where only "the fire-pans and the bowls" are mentioned, while in the text here, besides these there are named "the basons," then "the pots (Eng. vers. caldrons), and the candlesticks, and the pans (Eng. vers. spoons), and the cups." For particulars regarding these different vessels, see on 1 Kings 7:40, 1 Kings 7:45, 1 Kings 7:50. In Jeremiah 52:20, reference is made to the fact that the mass of metal in the vessels that were carried away was without weight. The same is stated in 2 Kings 25:16, where, however, there is no mention of the twelve brazen bulls; while in the text of Jeremiah, אשׁר תּחת המּכנות is faulty, and we must read instead, אשׁר תּחתּיו והמּכנות. The assertion of Graf, in his commentary on this verse, and of Thenius on 2 Kings 25:16, - that the notice regarding the twelve brazen bulls is incorrect, because these were then no longer in Jerusalem (27:19), but had previously been removed by Ahaz from under the brazen sea for Tiglath-pileser, - we have already, under 2 Kings 16:17, shown to be erroneous. The apposition of כּל־הכּלים to לנחשׁתּם explains the reference of the suffix. In Jeremiah 52:21-23, the narrator, in order to call attention to the amount of art exhibited on the vessels destroyed by the Chaldeans, gives a brief description of the brazen pillars with their capitals. This description is much shortened in 2 Kings 25:17, and contains notices completing that which is given of these works of art in 1 Kings 7. For details, see the passage referred to.