a large round bronze basin, used for washing, for cooking, or for holding fire
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
At its heart the word names a large round vessel of bronze. The same basic shape could be put to very different uses, and Scripture reaches for this single word for each of them:
the bronze basin of the tabernacle and temple, kept full of water so the priests could wash their hands and feet before serving
an ordinary pan or kettle used in the kitchen, named alongside other cooking vessels (like the סִיר)
a shallow pan that holds burning coals, a brazier bright with fire
What ties these together is not their function but their form: a wide, deep, metal basin. Context, not the word itself, tells a reader whether it is filled with water, food, or fire. By far the most frequent use is the sanctuary basin, so most English Bibles reach for the old word "laver" here, though it means nothing more than a washstand for the priests.
Nuances
1athe bronze washing basin of the tabernacle and temple, where priests cleansed their hands and feet before serving
In a single passage the word leaves the world of vessels behind. At the dedication of the temple, Solomon stands on a bronze structure about eight feet square and five feet high, set in the middle of the courtyard, and from it he kneels and prays before the whole assembly. Here the word means a raised platform or stage, something to stand on and be seen, not something to hold water.
Most scholars connect this back to the basin shape, picturing a broad, low bronze dais, but in this verse the sense is plainly architectural.
A cooking pot or caldron for boiling meat and stew over a fire.2Ki 4:38Exo 16:3Ezk 24:3
Pots and pans for carrying away the ashes and grease of the altar service.Exo 27:3Exo 38:32Ki 25:14
A separate word spelled the same way: thorns or thornbushes, often as crackling kindling.Ecc 7:6Isa 34:13Nam 1:10
מִזְרָקa small bowl for tossing blood or wine at the altar, as against this word's large basin for washing
סַףa bowl or basin used for blood or set at a threshold, smaller and never the priests' washing stand
kiyyor in the other biblical languages
νιπτήρGreek“wash basin”the basin Jesus poured water into to wash the disciples' feet; the New Testament's nearest match to the priestly washing basin
What scholars say about kiyyor
The lexica (BDB, HALOT) treat כִּיּוֹר as a single lexeme denoting a large metal basin, with sub-senses for the cultic laver (Exod 30:18 and the ten wheeled basins mounted on the stands of 1 Kgs 7), the domestic cooking pot (1 Sam 2:14, listed beside דּוּד, קַלַּחַת, and פָּרוּר), and the fire-pan or brazier (Zech 12:6). The tabernacle laver of Exod 38:8, cast from the bronze mirrors of the serving women, and the ten mobile basins of Solomon's temple are the best-attested referents. The anomalous 2 Chr 6:13, where Solomon stands on a bronze כִּיּוֹר five by five by three cubits, is taken by most as a derived architectural sense, a raised platform or dais, which Japhet and other commentators relate to the broad basin shape; a minority have suspected a textual disturbance, though the Chronicler's reading is generally retained.
Sources
BDB, s.v. כִּיּוֹרlexicon
HALOT, s.v. כִּיּוֹרlexicon
Sara Japhet, I & II Chronicles (OTL, 1993)commentary