The list of (mostly) bronze items taken from the temple into Babylonian exile in 2 Kings 25:13-17 is intricately put together. It begins and ends with references to pillars (vv. 13a, 17), and then mentions the bronze sea and the water stands (vv. 13, 16; the order is reversed the second time – stands and sea in v. 13, sea and stands in v. 16). Between are two lists in vv 14-15. The whole has an overall chiastic shape:
A. Pillars in the house, v 13a
B. Stands and sea in the house, v 13b
C. Bronze vessels, v 14
C’. Silver and gold vessels, v 15
B’. Pillars, sea, stands for the house, v 16
A’. Pillars, v 17
There are a couple of significant lists of seven.
The frame verses (13, 16-17) list large items (pillars, stands, sea) but they are arranged into seven terms: Pillars, stands, sea (v. 13), pillars, sea, stand (v. 16), pillars (v. 17). Note that the pillars are in the first, fourth, and seventh position; note too that the list as a whole is chiastic. At the center of the chiasm above, the lists of bronze vessels and gold and silver vessels also contains seven terms, broken up in a 5 + 2 pattern: pots, shovels, snuffers, spooks, vessels (v 14; all bronze), firepans, and basins (v. 15; silver and gold). So we have a list containing seven terms surrounding an interior list containing seven terms. Dismantling the temple furnishings is a decreation.
Can we press it? Do the lists here correspond to the days of creation? There are some possible correspondences with the frame list:
Day 1: light/darkness: Pillars (link to Yahweh as pillar of light and cloud?)
Day 2: firmament: stands (holding up water?)
Day 3: sea/land: sea (!)
Day 4: heavenly bodies: Pillars (which represent king and priest!)
Day 5: sea beasts: sea (!)
Day 6: man, Eden: stands (which represent a flow of water from the temple)
Day 7: Sabbath: Pillars
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