The “Molten Sea”, or Is It? Scholarly discourse on the huge water basin in the court of Solomon’s Temple has generally revolved around two issues: how to reconcile two conflicting traditions about its size and how it functioned in the Temple cult (1). However, the basin’s name has hardly received due attention. The basin is variously called qxwm µyh (1 Kgs 7,23; 2 Chr 4,2), tçjnh µy “the Sea of bronze” (2 Kgs 25,13; 1 Chr 18,8; Jer 52,17), and µyh “the Sea” (1 Kgs 7,24; 2 Kgs 16,17). The term qxwm µyh is translated in English Bibles as the “molten sea” (RSV), the “cast sea” (NRSV), the “sea of cast metal” (NASB), the “Sea of cast metal” (NEB), and the “tank of cast metal” (NJPS) (2). In these modern versions of the Bible, qxwm is interpreted to be derived from the Hebrew root qxy “to cast, pour”. However, based on the following observations, I propose an alternative root verb qwx “to constrain, press upon, harass, oppress”, which yields the translation “The Sea has been constrained” (3). The translation “Molten Sea” has little to commend it because the English word “molten” describes not water but metal or glass liquefied by heat. There is a grammatical problem, as well. Hebrew grammar dictates that when a subject noun is definite and the participle is not, the participle functions predicatively (4). Since µyh is definite, the indefinite Hophal participle qxwm cannot be translated attributively. It follows that qxwm µyh must be interpreted as a complete sentence, and not as a phrase. Various factors may have contributed to the mistaken association of qxwm µyh with the root qxy, rather than with the original qwx. It is possible that the translators were prejudiced by the term tçjnh µy “the Sea of bronze”. This designation, however, suggests either that the Deuteronomistic historian intentionally downplayed the original mythological import of the Sea’s name by deriving it from its construction material, or that the historian did not fully understand the meaning and significance of the Sea’s archaic name qxwm µyh. The second suggestion is not difficult to imagine in view of the fact that the (1) According to 1 Kgs 7,26, the basin’s volume was 2,000 baths whereas 2 Chr 4,5 reports that it was 3,000 baths. For a recent discussion of the size of the basin, see J. BYL, “On the Capacity of Solomon’s Molten Sea”, VT 48 (1998) 309-314. (2) Refer to the following translations in major commentaries and dictionaries: the “Sea, cast (of metal)” (M. COGAN, II Kings. A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary [AB 11; 1988] 259), the “molten sea” (C. MEYERS, “Sea, Molten”, ABD V,1061-1062), the “cast, or poured, metal sea” (J.L. MIHELIC, “Sea, Molten”, IDB, 253), and the “reservoir (of cast metal)” (S.J. DEVRIES, 1 Kings [WBC 12; Waco, TX 2003] 104). Lexica also list the word in question under the root verb qxy. BDB, 427; HALOT, 428; The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (ed. D.J.A. CLINES) (Sheffield 1998) IV, 269. (3) The word qxwm, a noun from qwx, is actually used to refer to God’s constraining of great waters in Job 37,10. The water “in constraint” may mean it is “frozen”. (BDB, 848; HALOT, 559; D.J.A. CLINES, Job 21–37 [WBC 18A; Nashville 2006] 841). For the noun form qxwm, rather than the expected qwxm, compare the following mêm prefixed nouns from hollow roots: π[wm (Isa 8,23), and hq[wm (Ps 66,11). (4) B.K. WALTKE – M. O’CONNOR, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (Winona Lake 1990) 260.