"He also made the pots and shovels and sprinkling bowls. So Huram finished all the work he had undertaken for King Solomon in the temple of the Lord: the two pillars; the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars; the two sets of network decorating the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars; the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of network (two rows of pomegranates for each network decorating the bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars); the ten stands with their ten basins; the Sea and the twelve bulls under it; the pots, shovels and sprinkling bowls. All these objects that Huram made for King Solomon for the temple of the Lord were of burnished bronze. The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain of the Jordan between Sukkoth and Zarethan. Solomon left all these things unweighed, because there were so many; the weight of the bronze was not determined." (1 Kings 7:40-47) The bronze pots, shovels and sprinkling bowls were used in the offerings made at the temple. We don't know how many of these utensils were made but many scholars believe Solomon commissioned enough of them to stockpile quite a few in storage for the future. This way, as the utensils began to look worn, they could be replaced with new ones.
1 Kings 7 doesn't mention the bronze altar made by Huram but it is included in the parallel account in 2 Chronicles 4. "He made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high." (2 Chronicles 4:1) This is the place where the act of sacrifice would have taken place. It is by necessity large enough to accommodate the volume of offerings/the size of the offerings: approximately thirty feet long, thirty feet wide, and fifteen feet tall.
"Solomon also made all the furnishings that were in the Lord's temple: the golden altar; the golden table on which was the bread of the Presence; the lampstands of pure gold (five on the right and five on the left, in front of the inner sanctuary); the gold floral work and lamps and tongs; the pure gold basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes and censers; and the gold sockets for the doors of the innermost room, the Most Holy Place, and also for the doors of the main hall of the temple." (1 Kings 7:48-50) Here in Chapter 7 we find mention of only one table for bread; however, in 2 Chronicles 4:8 we find Solomon making ten tables of gold. I don't know if all ten tables were utilized in displaying the bread of the Presence or if only one table was utilized for the bread itself. The other tables may have been used for offerings of incense which were supposed to be placed beside the bread. Solomon does everything in abundance and he might have ordered incense to be offered on nine of the ten tables.
We studied the bread of the Presence (sometimes referred to as the showbread) in Leviticus 24. It consisted of twelve loaves made with the finest of flour. Twelve fresh loaves were to be placed on the table every Sabbath day, arranged in two stacks of six. Each week as the old bread was taken up, it could be eaten by the priests, but they could only consume it at the tabernacle. I doubt there would have been more than twelve loaves in the temple since the twelve loaves represented the nation of Israel, so I can't say for certain how these tables were arranged and used to accommodate the twelve loaves. There are some things we just simply can't know about the temple since it has not been standing for so many centuries now.
The author concludes Chapter 7 with these words: "When all the work King Solomon had done for the temple of the Lord was finished, he brought in the things his father David had dedicated---the silver and gold and the furnishings---and he placed them in the treasuries of the Lord's temple." (1 Kings 7:51) In 1 Chronicles 29 we are given some details about the things David dedicated toward the temple that would be built not in his lifetime but in his son's lifetime. These things included gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and precious and semi-precious stones. His generosity toward the project encouraged his fellow Israelites to be generous as well by donating the same types of items David donated. These items have been kept in the custody of Jehiel the Gershonite until the day came when they could be moved into the finished temple.
Join us tomorrow as the final and most important item of all is moved to its new home at the temple: the ark of the covenant.
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