Solomon built a facility containing how many baths?
- Two thousand (1 Kings 7:26)
- Over three thousand (2 Chronicles 4:5)
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1 Kings 7:26And it was an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths.
2 Chronicles 4:5 And the thickness of it was an handbreadth, and the brim of it like the work of the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies; and it received and held three thousand baths.
Within the temple that Solomon built to the LORD stood a large basin that was known as “the sea”. It was five cubits in height and thirty cubits in circumference:
1 Kings 7:23 And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.
It stood between the altar and the porch. Unlike the 10 smaller basins that were on the left and right which were used to wash some of the burnt offerings, this “sea” was for the priests to wash in:
2 Chronicles 4:6 He made also ten lavers, and put five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them: such things as they offered for the burnt offering they washed in them; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.
We find information regarding the amount of water in this “sea” in the 2 verses used to make the claim regarding a contradiction.
This supposed contradiction is again based on the recorded numbers in both accounts. It being asserted that the author of 1 Kings has the basin containing a full 1000 baths less than the author of 2 Chronicles.
The Septuagint does not record how many baths the facility contained in Kings but it does record 3000 in 2 Chronicles and thus this contradiction is not “resolved” by the text in the Septuagint.
1 Kings 7:26 and its rim was as the work of the rim of a cup, a lily-flower, and the thickness of it was a span.
2 Chronicles 4:5 And its thickness was a hand-breadth, and its brim as the brim of a cup, graven with flowers of lilies, holding three thousand measures: and he finished it.
Almost all modern versions also read 2000 and 3000 baths respectfully, including the NIV, ESV, NASB, ASV, ISV and ERV
So how do we reconcile the differences between the two recorded numbers?
Again we find the copyist error answer given by some.
“Three thousand baths – See 1 Kings 7:23 note. It is quite possible that either here or in Kings the text may have been accidentally corrupted.”
Barnes notes on the Bible 2 Chronicles 4:5
“The LXX. had the present reading. 1Kings 7:26 reads, two thousand baths would it contain. Most critics assume this to be correct. Some scribe may have read ’alāphîm, “thousands,” instead of ‘alpayim, “two thousand,” and then have added “three” (shĕlōsheth) under the influence of the last verse. But it is more likely that the numeral “three” having been inadvertently omitted from the text of Kings, the indefinite word “thousands” was made definite by turning it into the dual “two thousand” Either mistake would be possible, because in the unpointed text ‘alāphîm and ’alpayim are written alike.”
Ellicott’s commentary for English readers
I won’t be asserting the copyist error answer.
Yet again, this apparent contradiction evaporates into oblivion with the simplest of studies when we take a closer look at the wording that the two authors use.
The author of 2 Chronicles records that the basin received and held 3000 baths while the author of 1 Kings records that the basin contained 2000 baths. How simple was that to answer?
The Hebrew word translated as contained in 1 Kings 7 and held in 2 Chronicles 4 is כּוּל kul while the Hebrew received is חָזַק chazaq.
The author of 2 Chronicles uses both words and is recording the total number of baths that the basin could hold.
The author of 1 Kings uses just kul with the purpose of giving the number of baths that the basin held.
So while the facility could hold 3000 baths as we are told in 2 Chronicles, it actually only contained 2000, simply meaning that the water contained in the basin was less than the water that the basin could hold. The two authors recorded two different numbers because they were not recording the same thing. As they are not recording the same thing, there is no contradiction.
As this is such an easy one to answer, the fact that Shabir included this in his list demonstrates perfectly that he is not actually looking for answers to the contradictions, but rather bringing the Bible into doubt.
Shabir could also have read the many commentaries on this particular “contradiction”.
I shall just cite a few here.
John Gill:
“it contained 2,000 baths; which is reckoned about five hundred barrels of water; it was filled by the Gibeonites; in 2 Chronicles 4:5, it is said to receive and hold 3,000 baths, which the Jewish writers (s) thus reconcile;”
John Gill’s exposition of the entire Bible (on 1 Kings 7:26)
Matthew Poole offers 2 possible answers, the first being that there were two different facilities, which I would not agree with but is at least possible, the second being that of the difference of what could be held and what actually was.
“Answ. Either there were two sorts of baths, as of cubits, the one common, the other sacred, and the sacred held half as much more as the common; or rather, he here speaks of what it did actually and usually contain, to wit, two thousand baths, which was sufficient for use; and in 2 Chronicles 4:5, he speaks of what it could contain if it were filled to the brim, as it is implied in the Hebrew words, which differ from these, and properly sound thus, strengthening itself, (to wit, to receive and hold as much as it could, or being filled to its utmost capacity,) it contained, or could contain, three thousand baths.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and colleges:
it contained two thousand baths] In 2 Chronicles 4:5 it is said ‘three thousand baths.’ Perhaps the smaller quantity was about what was usually kept in supply, the larger what it could contain if it were quite full.
On 1 Kings 7:26
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