Wesley Corpus

Lilly work - Made like the leaves of lillies. In the porch - Or, as in the porch; such work as there was in the porch of the temple, in which these pillars were set, ver.21, that so the work of the tops of these pillars might agree with that in the top of the porch. The belly - So he calls the middle part of the chapiter, which jetted farthest out. Two hundred - They are said to be ninety and six on a side of a pillar; in one row and in all an hundred, Jer 52:23, four great pomegranates between the several checker - works being added to the first ninety six. And it must needs be granted, that there were as many on the other side of the pillar, or in the other row, which makes them two hundred upon a pillar, as is here said, and four hundred upon both pillars, as they are numbered, 2Chron 4:13. Jachin - Jachin signifies he; That is, God shall establish, his temple, and church, and people: and Boaz signifies, in it, or rather, in him (to answer the he in the former name) is strength. So these pillars being eminently strong and stable, were types of that strength which was in God, and would be put forth by God for the defending and establishing of his temple and people, if they were careful to keep the conditions required by God on their parts. A Sea - He melted the brass, and cast it into the form of a great vessel, for its vastness called a sea, which name is given by the Hebrews to all great collections of waters. The use of it was for the priests to wash their hands and feet, or other things as occasion required, with the water which they drew out of it. Knops - Carved or molten figures: for this word signifies figures or pictures of all sorts. Ten, &c. - So there were three hundred in all. Cast - Together with the sea; not carved. Two rows - It seems doubtful whether the second row had ten in each cubit, and so there were three hundred more; or, whether the ten were distributed into five in each row. Oxen - Of solid brass, which was necessary to bear so great a weight.