2nd Kings Chapter 16 verse 17 Holy Bible
And king Ahaz cut off the panels of the bases, and removed the laver from off them, and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stone.
read chapter 16 in ASV
And King Ahaz took off the sides of the wheeled bases, and took down the great water-vessel from off the brass oxen which were under it and put it on a floor of stone.
read chapter 16 in BBE
And king Ahaz cut off the panels of the bases, and removed the lavers from off them; and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a stone pavement.
read chapter 16 in DARBY
And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it, and put it upon the pavement of stones.
read chapter 16 in KJV
And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stones.
read chapter 16 in WBT
King Ahaz cut off the panels of the bases, and removed the basin from off them, and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it, and put it on a pavement of stone.
read chapter 16 in WEB
And king Ahaz cutteth off the borders of the bases, and turneth aside from off them the laver, and the sea he hath taken down from off the brazen oxen that `are' under it, and putteth it on a pavement of stones.
read chapter 16 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 17. - And King Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases. By "the bases" are probably meant the stands of the ten brazen layers, which Hiram the Tyrian artificer made for Solomon, and which Solomon placed outside the temple, five on either side of the entrance (1 Kings 7:39). The "borders of the bases" seem to have consisted of ornamental panels, on which were carved, in relief, figures of lions, oxen, and cherubim (1 Kings 7:29), The object of Ahaz in these mutilations may have been merely destructive, as we find Egyptian kings, after a change of religion, mutilating the tablets, and erasing the inscriptions put up in honor of those gods who had ceased to be in favor with them. Or, possibly, he may, as Keil supposes, have wished to transfer the ornamental carvings to some other edifice, e.g. an idolatrous temple or a palace. And removed the laver from off them - removed, i.e., from each base "the laver" which stood upon it - and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it. (On Solomon's "molten sea," or great laver, and the twelve oxen which supported it, comp. 1 Kings 7:23-26, and Jeremiah 52:20.) The "sea" was probably removed from off the backs of the oxen, in order that they might be made use of, as ornaments, elsewhere. And put it upon a pavement of stones; rather, upon a pedestal of stone (ἐπὶ βάσιν λιθίνην, LXX.).
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(17, 18) And king Ahaz cut off.--The key to the right understanding of these verses is given in the last words of 2Kings 16:18. Ahaz spoiled the Temple of its ornamental work, not out of wanton malice, but from dire necessity. He had to provide a present for the king of Assyria. Thus these verses are really a continuation of the first statement of 2Kings 16:10. They inform us how Ahaz managed not to appear empty-handed at Damascus. (So Thenius.) Prof. R. Smith says: "Ahaz, whose treasures had been exhausted by his first tribute, was soon driven by the repeated demands of his masters to strip the Temple even of its ancient bronze-work and other fixed ornaments. The incidental mention of this fact in a fragment of the history of the Temple incorporated in the Book of Kings is sufficient evidence of the straits to which the kingdom of Judah was reduced."Borders of the bases.--See 1Kings 7:28. Thenius thinks Ahaz replaced them with unadorned plates, and set the laver up in a different fashion; but the text does not say so. (Comp., however, 2Kings 25:13; 2Kings 25:16; Jeremiah 52:17.) . . .
