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How many baths, 2,000 or 3,000?

  1. 2,000 baths (1 Kings 7:26) - "And it was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, as a lily blossom; it could hold two thousand baths."
  2. 3,000 baths (2 Chronicles 4:5) - "And it was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom; it could hold 3,000 baths."

It appears that the difference in numbers is do to a copyist error.  The characters used for the numbers 2,000 and 3,000 are similar.  = 2,000 and = 3,000.  A tired copyist could easily mistake one for another.1

  1. 1. Haley, Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible, p. 382.