Context No. 82 of 4322 · 2 Kings
Context · Reflection
2 Kings 25:13-17: in context
13The Chaldeans broke up the pillars of bronze that were in the LORD’s house and the bases and the bronze sea that were in the LORD’s house, and carried the bronze pieces to Babylon. 14They took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the spoons, and all the vessels of bronze with which they ministered. 15The captain of the guard took away the fire pans, the basins, that which was of gold, for gold, and that which was of silver, for silver. 16The two pillars, the one sea, and the bases, which Solomon had made for the LORD’s house, the bronze of all these vessels was not weighed. 17The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a capital of bronze was on it. The height of the capital was three cubits, with network and pomegranates on the capital around it, all of bronze; and the second pillar with its network was like these.
This is the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC as the book of Kings records it, and it is the third time this series has stood in front of these same objects. The account in Jeremiah 52 came earlier, and before that the building of the temple in 2 Chronicles 3, where the pillars were cast.
Here the Babylonian soldiers break up the bronze pillars, the stands, and the great basin called the Sea, and carry the metal to Babylon. They take the pots, shovels, snuffers, and every bronze vessel used in the service, and the gold and silver items are taken as gold and silver, by material rather than by use. The text notes that the bronze of all these was beyond weighing. Then it gives the measurements of the pillars anyway, eighteen cubits high with a bronze capital of three cubits, worked with a network and pomegranates.
The same objects have now been described three ways: as they were commissioned, as they were destroyed, and here as they were inventoried on the way out. A thing made for worship is being valued by weight. When something I made for one purpose gets assessed by a measure it was never built for, what part of it does that measure fail to see?
Sources
- Jeremiah 52:17-23 and 2 Chronicles 3: the same pillars destroyed, and earlier cast
- 1 Kings 7:15-22: Jachin and Boaz, the two bronze pillars at the temple entrance
- 2 Kings 25:16: the bronze of these vessels beyond weighing