CAPITAL (כֹּתֶ֫רֶת, H4196, צֶ֫פֶת, H7633, רֹאשׁ֒, H8031, כַּפְתּﯴר֮, H4117; capital, knop; lintel [as support for lintel]; KJV Chapiter), the ornamental top of a pillar. Examples of capitals (kōthereth) in the form of the socalled proto-Ionic capital have been found at Megiddo and were presumably used in the Ahab palace at Samaria (Albright, Archaeology of Palestine [1960], 125-127). The chief instances of capitals (kōthereth) are those of the pillars of Jachin and Boaz of Solomon’s Temple (q.v.). They were five cubits high (1 Kings 7:16), but only three according to 2 Kings 25:17. This might mean that they were in two parts, the lower three cubits high, in lily-petal form, surmounted by an inverted bowl form receiving the nets supporting pomegranates. Rôsh describes the capitals of the pillars of the Tabernacle. Amos 9:1 (lintel, KJV) refers actually to the capitals, the easiest point of dislodging them to collapse the temple, thus shaking the thresholds. In Zephaniah 2:14 the ornamental capital, not the lintel, provides a good perch for bird or nest.