_ten cubits from brim to brim ... and a line of thirty cubits compassed it_] The mathematical inaccuracy in the measurements here given――10 in diameter, 30 in circumference――has often been pointed out. But the literal Hebrew is “ten _with_ the cubit ... and thirty _with_ the cubit,” and F. C. Burkitt in a communication to the _Cambridge Review_ for May 13, 1914 offers an interesting vindication of the phrase. He writes “... What the verse says about the circumference of the ‘sea’ is that they stretched a string round it, and when they laid the string out flat they had to go thirty times with the cubit, i.e. a man had to put his elbow down thirty times before he got to the end.” [The distance from the point of the elbow to the tip of the longest finger is 1 cubit. ] “No doubt the last time he put his elbow down the string came short: in other words, the ‘sea’ was nine-and-a-bittock across and twenty-nine-and-a-bittock round. As a matter of fact, if a circle be 9 ft. 6 in. across, it is just over 29 ft. 10 in. round. Such a circle I think would be described in Hebrew as ‘ten with the foot-rule’ across and ‘thirty with the foot-rule’ in circumference.” _a line of thirty cubits compassed it_] i.e. it was thirty cubits in circumference. ³And under it was the similitude of oxen¹, which did compass it round about, for ten cubits², compassing the sea round about. The oxen¹ were in two rows, cast when it was cast. ¹ In 1 Kings vii. 24, _knops_. ² Or, _ten in a cubit_. =3.= _under it was the similitude of oxen_] This reading has the support of the LXX., but can hardly be correct. Read (compare 1 Kings vii. 24), =under it there were knops=, “knops” being embossed ornaments, imitating probably the fruit or the flowers of the gourd. _for ten cubits_] Obviously an error, for the “knops” encircle the sea, and its circumference was thirty not ten cubits. The rendering of the margin “ten in a cubit” gives good sense, but is not a fair translation. Whatever the mistake in the Hebrew may be, it appears in 1 Kings vii. 24 also. _The oxen were in two rows, cast when it was cast_] Correct the reading as before and render, =The knops were in two rows, cast when it was cast=. It is mentioned as a triumph of the founder’s art that the laver was cast _complete_, with its ornaments, from the first. ⁴It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east: and the sea was set upon them above, and all their hinder parts were inward. =4.= _three ... and three ... and three ... and three_] Thus the base stood “foursquare,” satisfying the Hebrew idea of completeness; compare Revelation xxi. 12‒16. ⁵And it was an handbreadth thick; and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it received and held three thousand baths.