Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageKing Ahaz stripped the decorative panels from the movable stands and removed their basins. He lifted the great Sea down from its bronze oxen and set it on a stone pavement.
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GKing Achaz cut off the panels of the stands and removed the lavers from them; he also took down the Sea from the bronze oxen beneath it and set it upon a pavement of stone.
KJV
King James VersionAnd king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brasen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stones.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleKing Ahaz also cut off the frames of the movable stands and removed the bronze basin from each of them. He took down the Sea from the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone base.
Footnotes
The *mekhonot* (bronze wheeled stands) and the *Yam* (the great bronze Sea) were among Solomon's most magnificent Temple furnishings (1 Kgs 7:27–39), symbolising the ordered cosmos and the primordial waters brought under divine mastery. Their dismantling to fund Assyrian tribute is a de-creation act—symbolically reversing the cosmic order that the Temple embodied. The bronze oxen supporting the Sea carried deep theological weight in ancient Near Eastern iconography, representing divine strength and the foundations of the created order. Stripping them is not merely fiscal pragmatism; it is the deconstruction of a sacred cosmology.