He also gave orders to make a large metal bowl called the Sea. It was four and a half metres across, just over two metres deep, and thirteen and a half metres around.
The Babylonian soldiers took the two bronze columns that stood in front of the temple, the ten moveable bronze stands, and the large bronze bowl called the Sea. They broke them into pieces so they could take the bronze to Babylonia.
He also took a lot of bronze from the cities of Tibhath and Cun, which had belonged to Hadadezer. Later, Solomon used this bronze to make the large bowl called the Sea, and to make the pillars and other furnishings for the temple.
Its outer edge was decorated with two rows of carvings of bulls, ten bulls to about every forty-five centimetres, all made from the same piece of metal as the bowl.
He saved us because of his mercy, and not because of any good things that we have done. God washed us by the power of the Holy Spirit. He gave us new birth and a fresh beginning.
“Sir,” I answered, “you must know.” Then he told me: “These are the ones who have gone through the great suffering. They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and have made them white.