What Does 2 Chronicles 4:5 Mean in the King James?

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.

2 Chronicles 4:5 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The basin’s “brim” is literally its “lip”, the same Hebrew word used for human lips and language, so even a vessel’s boundary is named as an opening.

THE MEANING

The verse gives this vessel an exact form: a wall one handbreadth thick, a lip shaped like a cup’s, lily-work, and room for three thousand baths. Its edge is carefully made, and its capacity is part of its design.

THE ROOT

וּשְׂפָתוֹ

u-sefato

GROWS FROM

שפה

s-f-h

lip; by extension, an edge or language

Hebrew calls the basin’s brim a “lip,” using the same word for the edge of a mouth and for language. One word holds together a vessel’s opening, the human mouth’s edge, and speech.

ALSO GROWS

saphah: lip

שָׂפָה

The basin’s brim is called a lip, just as the edge of a mouth is.

saphah: language

שָׂפָה

The same word can name language, linking a physical lip with the speech formed there.

sefat hayam: seashore, literally “lip of the sea”

שְׂפַת הַיָּם

The word also names the edge of a body of water, like the basin’s rim.

יָכִיל

yakhil

GROWS FROM

יכל

y-k-l

be able; have capacity

The Hebrew uses one capacity verb, yakhil, “can contain,” where the KJV says “received and held.” The measure is presented as what the basin is able to hold.

ALSO GROWS

yakhol: to be able

יָכֹל

The shared root frames holding as a matter of capacity.

yukhal: he or it can

יוּכַל

This form expresses ability, the same idea behind the basin’s stated capacity.

THE PATTERN

A vessel is defined by both the form of its opening and the amount it can hold.

And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.

2 Kings 4:6 · KJVThe oil continues to fill the available vessels, and stops when there is no more capacity to receive it.

Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.

John 2:7 · KJVThe waterpots receive water to the limit of their capacity, with the brim marking their fullness.

If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.

2 Timothy 2:21 · KJVThe vessel’s form and preparation are joined to what it is able to hold and serve.

THE THREAD

The lips of the righteous feed many: but fools die for want of wisdom.

Proverbs 10:21 · KJV

“Lips” here translates the same Hebrew word, ⁨שָׂפָה⁩ (saphah), used for the basin’s brim. In this verse, lips become a source that feeds many; the shared word connects the vessel’s opening with the mouth’s capacity to give.

This reading is from Selah Verse.

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