1 Kings 7:30

And every base had four brasen wheels, and plates of brass: and the four corners thereof had undersetters: under the laver were undersetters molten, at the side of every addition.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

1 Kings 7:30. Every base had four brazen wheels — Whereby the bases and lavers might be removed from place to place, as need required. Undersetters — Hebrew, shoulders; fitly so called, because they supported the lavers, that they should not fall from their bases, when the bases were removed, together with the lavers.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Plates of brass - Rather, "brazen axletrees."

The "undersetters" (literally, "shoulders") are conjectured to have been four brackets, or bars, proceeding from the four upper corners of the bases, and stretching upward to the outer rim of the laver, which thus rested partly upon them.

At the side of every addition - Rather, "each opposite garlands." The laver was ornamented with a garland at the place where the support reached it.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

27-39. he made ten bases of brass—These were trucks or four-wheeled carriages, for the support and conveyance of the lavers. The description of their structure shows that they were elegantly fitted up and skilfully adapted to their purpose. They stood, not on the axles, but on four rests attached to the axles, so that the figured sides were considerably raised above the wheels. They were all exactly alike in form and size. The lavers which were borne upon them were vessels capable each of holding three hundred gallons of water, upwards of a ton weight. The whole, when full of water, would be no less than two tons [Napier].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Four brazen wheels; whereby the bases and lavers might be carried from place to place, as need required.

Undersetters, Heb. shoulders; fitly so called, because they strongly supported the lavers, that they should not fall from their bases when the bases were removed together with the lavers.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And every base had four brasen wheels, and plates of brass,.... Flat pieces or planks of brass, on which the wheels stood, and not on the bare floor; so that these wheels seem only to serve as supporters, not to carry the laver from place to place, as is usually said; for they were not like chariot wheels, on two sides of the carriage, but set one at each square; and besides, when the lavers were placed upon them, they were fixed in a certain place, 1 Kings 7:39.

and the four corners thereof had undersetters; or "shoulders (a)", or pillars, which were placed on the plates of brass the wheels were; and served with them to support the lavers when laid upon the bases, and so were of the same use as men's shoulders, to bear burdens on them:

under the layer were undersetters molten; cast as, and when and where, the bases were, and the plates on which they stood; this explains the use they were of, being under the laver; these pillars stood at the four corners of the base:

at the side of every addition; made of thin work, 1 Kings 7:29 they stood by the side of, or within side, the sloping shelves.

(a) "humeri", Pagninus, Montanus, &c.

Geneva Study Bible

And every base had four brazen wheels, and plates of brass: and the four corners thereof had undersetters: under the laver were undersetters molten, at the side of every addition.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

30. and plates of brass] For ‘plates’ read axles.

and the four corners thereof had undersetters] The last word is that usually rendered ‘shoulders,’ (see R.V. margin), and the word translated ‘corners’ means rather (1) a footstep, (2) a foot. It is used Exodus 25:12 for the corners (R.V. feet) of the ark, into which rings were to be fixed for the staves to pass through when it was carried about. This seems the more suitable rendering here also and it is a different word that is rendered ‘corners’ in 1 Kings 7:34. The sense would then be ‘the four feet thereof had shoulder pieces’ i.e. attached to them. The purpose of these shoulders appears to have been for the axles to pass through on which the wheels were fixed. The next clause would then run ‘underneath the laver were the shoulders molten.’ But because of that expression some have thought that the ‘shoulder pieces’ rose upward from the top of the four feet, and were meant as stays on which the laver should rest.

at the side of every addition] The last word is the same which in the previous verse has been rendered ‘wreaths.’ And here that sense must also be given to it. Literally, ‘at the side of each one (were) wreaths’ or more idiomatically, (as R.V.) with wreaths at the side of each.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 30. - And every base had four brazen wheels [As the lavers were used for washing "such things as they offered for burnt offering" (2 Chronicles 4:6), and consequently would require to be continually emptied and refilled, they must of necessity be moveable, so that they could be taken, now to the sea, or other reservoir, now to the altar], and plates [Heb. axles] of brass: and the four corners [Heb. feet; פַּעַם signifies step, thence foot, and is here used of artificial feet. These were, no doubt, at the four corners, and served to raise the stand above the wheels, so that the foliage, etc., was not hidden] thereof had undersetters [Heb. shoulders. "The bearings of the axle" (Gesen.) must be meant. The bases had four feet, which apparently terminated in a sort of socket or fork, into which the axletrees were inserted]: under the laver were under setters [Heb. the shoulders] molten [or cast], at the side of every addition. [Lit., opposite to a man (i.e., each) were wreaths. The explanation of Keil is that "from the feet., there ascended shoulder pieces, which ran along the outside of the chest and reached to the lower part of the basin, which was upon the lid of the chest, and, as shoulders, either supported or helped to support it." He thus understands the "shoulder" to extend from the foot, or axletree, to the bottom of the laver. But it seems quite as likely that these shoulders were within the stand; that they started from its upper corners, i.e., "from under the laver" (as in the Hebrew), passed down along its inner angles, and emerged below - the stand may well have had no bottom - in the shape of feet or forks, which rested on the axletrees, and supported both stand and ]aver. Over against this internal shoulder blade or support was placed externally a wreath. But Bahr despairs of arriving at any just and adequate understanding of this arrangement, and, in the absence of drawings, it is perhaps hopeless that we shall ever interpret the words with certainty.] 1 Kings 7:30

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"Every stool had four brazen wheels and brazen axles, and the four feet thereof had shoulder-pieces; below the basin were the shoulder-pieces cast, beyond each one (were) wreaths." The meaning is that the square chests stood upon axles with wheels of brass, after the style of ordinary carriage wheels (1 Kings 7:33), so that they could be driven or easily moved from one place to another; and that they did not rest directly upon the axles, but stood upon four feet, which were fastened upon the axles. This raised the chest above the rim of the wheels, so that not only were the sides of the chest which were ornamented with figures left uncovered, but, according to 1 Kings 7:32, the wheels stood below the panels, and not, as in ordinary carriages, at the side of the chest. With regard to the connection between the axles and the wheels, Gesenius (Thes. p. 972) and Thenius suppose that the axles were fastened to the wheels, as in the Roman plaustra and at the present day in Italy, so as to turn with them; and Thenius argues in support of this, that להם is to be connected not only with what immediately precedes, but also with נהשׁת סרני. But this latter is unfounded; and the idea is altogether irreconcilable with the fact that the wheels had naves (חשּׁקים, 1 Kings 7:33), from which we must infer that they revolved upon the axles. The words להם כּתפת פעמתיו וארבּעה are ambiguous.They may either be rendered, "and its four feet had shoulder-pieces," or, as Thenius supposes, "and its four feet served as shoulder-pieces." פּעמת means stepping feet, feet bent out as if for stepping (Exodus 25:12). The suffix attached to פעמתיו refers to מכונה, the masculine being often used indefinitely instead of the feminine, as in להם in 1 Kings 7:28. Thenius compares these feet to the ἁμαξόποδες of the Greeks, and imagines that they were divided below, like fork-shaped upright contrivances, in which, as in forks, the wheels turned with the axles, so that the axle-peg, which projected outwards, had a special apparatus, instead of the usual pin, in the form of a stirrup-like and on the lower side hand-shaped holder (יד), which was fastened to the lower rim of the מכונה, and descended perpendicularly so as to cover the foot, and the general arrangement of the wheels themselves received greater strength in consequence. These feet, which were divided in the shape of forks, are supposed to be called כּתפת (shoulders), because they were not attached underneath at the edge of the stand, but being cast with the corner rims passed down in the inner angles, so that their uppermost portion was under the basin, and the lowest portion was under the stand, which we are to picture to ourselves as without a bottom, and projecting as a split foot, held the wheel, and so formed its shoulder-pieces. But we cannot regard this representation as either in accordance with the text, or as really correct. Even if להם כּתפת could in any case be grammatically rendered, "they served them (the wheels and axles) as shoulders," although it would be a very questionable course to take להם in a different sense here from that which it bears in the perfectly similar construction in 1 Kings 7:28, the feet which carried the stand could not possibly be called the shoulders of the wheels and their axles, since they did not carry the wheels, but the מכונה. Moreover, this idea is irreconcilable with the following words: "below the basin were the shoulder-pieces cast." If, for example, as Thenius assumes, the mechonah head a cover which was arched like a dome, and had a neck in the centre into which the basin was inserted by its lower rim, the shoulder-pieces, supposing that they were cast upon the inner borders of the chest, would not be below the basin, but simply below the corners of the lid of the chest, so that they would stand in no direct relation whatever to the basin. We must therefore give the preference to the rendering, which is grammatically the most natural one, "and its feet had shoulder-pieces," and understand the words as signifying that from the feet, which descended of course from the four corner borders of the chest down to the axles, there ascended shoulder-pieces, which ran along the outside of the chest and reached to the lower part of the basin which was upon the lid of the chest, and as shoulders either supported or helped to support it. According to 1 Kings 7:34, these shoulder-pieces were so cast upon the four corners of the chest, that they sprang out of it as it were. ליות אישׁ מעבר, opposite to each one were wreaths. Where these festoons were attached, the various senses in which מעבר is used prevent our deciding with certainty. At any rate, we must reject the alternation proposed by Thenius, of ליות into לאחת, for the simple reason that לאחת אישׁ in the sense of "one to the other" would not be Hebraic.