StrongerBible

mekhonah

מְכוֹנָה

HebrewH4350stand, base, ...

Appears 24 times · tap a cell to see the verses

1Ki 7:27 (2×)1Ki 7:281Ki 7:301Ki 7:321Ki 7:34 (2×)1Ki 7:35 (2×)1Ki 7:371Ki 7:38 (2×)1Ki 7:391Ki 7:43 (2×)2Ki 16:172Ki 25:132Ki 25:162Ch 4:14 (2×)Ezr 3:3Jer 27:19
Word studymeh-khoh-NAHnoun

What mekhonah means

a base or stand: the fixed support an object is set on to hold it in place

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This word names the fixed support that something rests on, a base or stand. It comes from a root meaning to set firmly in place. In almost every appearance it is a specific piece of temple furniture: one of the ten portable bronze stands King Solomon had built to hold the large water basins the priests used for washing.

These were not simple pedestals. Each was an ornate wheeled cart of cast bronze, its side panels decorated with lions, oxen, and angel-like figures, with a round collar on top that cradled the basin. The books of Kings and Jeremiah trace their whole story, from Solomon's craftsmen casting them to the day Babylon's army broke them up and carried the bronze away.

The word turns up once more, long afterward, when the returning exiles set the rebuilt altar back on its base. There it means the altar's proper footing, the settled place where it belongs, rather than a wheeled stand.

A simpler, more general word for a base or pedestal is כֵּן, and a closely related term מָכוֹן names a fixed dwelling or resting place rather than a physical stand.

Nuances

1aone of the ten wheeled bronze stands in Solomon's temple that carried the priests' washing basins
1Ki 7:27 (2×)1Ki 7:281Ki 7:301Ki 7:321Ki 7:34 (2×)1Ki 7:35 (2×)1Ki 7:371Ki 7:38 (2×)1Ki 7:391Ki 7:43 (2×)2Ki 16:172Ki 25:13
1bthe base or footing on which the altar is set in its place
Ezr 3:3

What scholars say about mekhonah

מְכוֹנָה derives from the root כּון (to be firm, to be established), and the standard lexicons treat it as a single noun meaning a base or stand. Its concentrated use is architectural: BDB and HALOT class the occurrences in 1 Kings 7 (with parallels in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and Jeremiah) as the technical term for the ten mobile bronze laver-stands of the Solomonic temple, described at length in 1 Kings 7:27-37. The plural with suffix in Ezra 3:3 is read as the base or emplacement on which the altar was re-erected. There is no significant dispute over the sense.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. מְכוֹנָהlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. מְכוֹנָהlexicon

All attested forms of מְכוֹנָה

f p absolute

מְּכֹנוֹת

1Ki 7:27, 1Ki 7:37, 1Ki 7:38, 1Ki 7:39, 1Ki 7:43, 1Ki 7:43, 2Ki 16:17, 2Ki 25:13

f s absolute

מְּכוֹנָה, מְּכֹנָה

1Ki 7:27, 1Ki 7:28, 1Ki 7:30, 1Ki 7:32, 1Ki 7:35, 1Ki 7:38, 1Ki 7:34, 1Ki 7:34

f p construct

מְכוֹנֹתָיו

Ezr 3:3