UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 169 



" Hence it appears that the molten sea, with 

 its appendages the lavers, were altogether for the 

 washings ; but each part was appropriated to 

 distinct purposes the lavers for the washing 

 of burnt-offerings, and the sea for the washing of 

 the priests ; as it would not have been proper for 

 the priests to have washed in the same water in 

 which the burnt-offerings were washed. The 

 lavers are not noticed in the book of Kings, in 

 which the contents only of the sea are alluded 

 to but in Chronicles you perceive they are both 

 mentioned. The lavers received one thousand 

 baths, exactly the difference which makes these 

 accounts appear contradictory but which is 

 completely explained by observing that a part 

 only of the sea is alluded to by one writer, while 

 the other describes the whole of it." 



My uncle mentioned some other passages in 

 the Old Testament, which are misunderstood, in 

 consequence of some slight inaccuracy in the 

 English construction. I think I can give one of 

 them nearly in his words. " In 2nd Chronicles, 

 chap, ii., an astonishing number of men are said 

 to have been employed in building the Temple 

 a number that at first sight appears incredible, 

 supposing them employed on the Temple only. 

 But we are told by the learned that the original 

 does not signify that they were all employed on 

 what, properly speaking, was called the Temple, 

 or inner-house, where the cherubim were kept. 



Q 



