The two pillars … the one sea … the stands: See verse 17 and 27.19. The two pillars are described in some detail in verses 21-23. As the Revised Standard Version note indicates, under the sea is literally “under” (without an object) in Hebrew. However, it is possible to translate without a note, as in Traduction œcuménique de la Bible (“the twelve bronze bulls which supported the moveable stands”) or New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh (“the one tank and the twelve bronze oxen which supported it”). Hebrew Old Testament Text Project proposes rendering this part of the verse as “the two columns, the one sea and the twelve bronze bulls which were underneath, and the stands.”

From Revised Standard Version English readers could get the impression that it was only the stands that Solomon the king had made. But in fact it was all the things listed in this verse that he made. Good News Translation makes this clear by beginning the list with “The bronze objects that King Solomon had made for the Temple….” Translators may wish to vary this somewhat by saying, for example, “King Solomon had made some objects of bronze for the temple. They were … They were too heavy to weigh.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .