BASE (כֵּנ֩, H4029); also pedestal, foot. In Exodus the support for the laver (large washing basin) for the priests, provided for their ritual cleansing “that they die not” (Exod 30:18-21). Bezaleel melted down the polished copperbronze mirrors of the women (38:8) and cast the base from them. Its form is unknown. There was also a foot or pedestal (or plinth?) to the altar of burnt sacrifice (30:28; 35:16; 39:39). It was to be anointed when installed in the Tabernacle (Exod 40:11; Lev 8:11). Presumably the laver was used in the initial bathing of Aaron and his sons when they prepared for induction into office (Num 8:7ff.).

The ten lavers of Solomon’s Temple (see Jerusalem Temple) are designated bases, more properly stands (מְכﯴנָה, H4807, 1 Kings 7:27) which received the lavers on top. Each was four cubits long by four wide and three high. The frame had corner posts to which were attached upper and lower rails, with the spaces thus formed filled in with cast or embossed panels. The rails and posts also had floral or animal decoration (v. 29). Axles of bronze were attached to the posts and received bronze wheels one and a half cubits in diameter, made after the manner of chariot wheels (vv. 32, 33). At the top of the frame were shoulders which supported a ring to receive the lavers. This ring was a cubit and a half in diameter and one cubit high above the frame (v. 31). Both the shoulders and the ring were decorated, the shoulders having attached, wreathlike decoration. The corners of the bases were fashioned to receive the axles. With the axles thus held rigidly, it would not be possible to turn them and thus easily wheel about the bases. The description renders obscure the details of attachment of the various parts, but the wheeled bases of Cyprus (H. Pressman, Altorientalische Texte unde Bilder Sum Alten Text. II, 42; also BA, IV, 29) sheds some light on construction. Joining of parts was either by rivetting with bronze rivets or a type of fusion welding with additional metal in the molten state run between edges (R. J. Forbes, Studies in Ancient Technology [1964], VIII, 137).

Sacrificial offerings were purified by water from the lavers on the stands (2 Chron 4:6). Since lavers are not mentioned in Ezekiel’s Temple, they are presumably absent.