Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Chronicles 4:5

"And it was a handbreadth thick; and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it received and held three thousand baths." — 2 Chronicles 4:5 (ASV)

And the thickness ... a cup. — Identical with 1 Kings 7:26.

With flowers of lilies. — See margin. “Lily” here is shôshannâh; in Kings, shôshân. Septuagint, “graven with lily buds.” Syriac and Arabic, “and it was very beautiful.” Vulgate, “like the lip of a cup, or of an open lily.”

And it received and held three thousand baths. — Literally, holding (whole) baths: three thousand would it contain. The bath was the largest of Hebrew liquid measures. Perhaps the true reading is, “holding three thousand baths,” the last verb being a gloss borrowed from Kings. So Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic omit the clause.

The Septuagint had the present reading. 1 Kings 7:26 reads, two thousand baths would it contain. Most critics assume this to be correct.

Some scribe may have read ’alâphîm, “thousands,” instead of ‘alpayim, “two thousand,” and then added “three” (shĕlôsheth) under the influence of the last verse. But it is more likely that the numeral “three” was inadvertently omitted from the text of Kings, and the indefinite word “thousands” was then made definite by changing it to the dual “two thousand.” Either mistake would be possible because, in the unpointed text, ‘alâphîm and ’alpayim are written alike.

The Syriac has the curious addition, “And he made ten poles, and put five on the right and five on the left, and bore with them the altar of burnt offerings.” Similarly the Arabic version.