The Mobile Bronze Basins | Solomon's Temple

1. Use. My initial supposition was that these carts were parked along the Temple, but they were totally mobile and could go anywhere water was needed. However, II Chronicles 4:6 demonstrates that these basins had very specific use: they were used for washing processed offerings, particularly burnt offerings (Leviticus 1:9, 13). The specified locations of the basins, five to the south and five to the north, likely coincide with where these offerings would have been killed and processed.
2. More water than the Tabernacle. Offerings would have been heavy, would have to be transported farther, and there would have been far more of them offered than before. As a result, much more water would have been required, and containing it would have been important since the floor would have been stone, not absorbent sand as it was in the Tabernacle.
3. Heavy carts on tracks. The weight of the mobile basin (even approximate) is about that of a modern automobile. These would have been heavy and hardly maneuverable. It is likely that they only moved forward and backward, perhaps even along tracks or grooves built to contain them. (This reminds me of the four wheels described in Ezekiel 1:15–21.)
4. A hoist system? The basin carts are also somewhat tall. I wonder if these didn’t run under a dressing/hoist system near where the offerings were processed. The carcass could be lifted, dipped in the water, cleaned, then lifted again, while the mobile basin was removed to another spot where it could be drained, cleaned and refilled.
5. Mechanisms? The cubit-long circular “collar” described under the basin, along with its supports, indicates (to my mind) that this may have been housing for a drain, and perhaps even simple mechanics for operating it. One possibility is that the “engraving” is not etched into the metal, but punctures the metal housing to create some sort of simple “lock” for a drain mechanism.
6. Artistry. These mobile basins were massively detailed, and were far more beautiful than what I have created. The “wreaths” are a translational guess based on something that means “thin work” or perhaps “woven” or “spiral” work. Whatever was sculpted here was highly detailed and required great skill on the part of the artisan, Huram.
7. Changes under Ahaz. All the worse then to read that King Ahaz took these beautiful furnishings and cut them for scrap in deference to foreign kings (2 Kings 16:17). See my notes on the Court of the Temple for more on what Ahaz changed, and on what was later restored.

“Again, much of this is my own assumption and should not be taken as absolute! Perhaps with further study and research better alternatives will present themselves.”