1 Kings 7:16

1Ki 7:16 And he made two chapiters [of] molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars: the height of the one chapiter [was] five cubits, and the height of the other chapiter [was] five cubits:

Ver. 16. To set upon the tops of the pillars.] Hence they were called chapiters, or heads, coronamenta, epistylia; crowns they are called. {Jer 52:22}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Or, pommels.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

And nets of checker work, and wreaths of chain work, for the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars,.... These were the ornaments of the chapiters; the former being like thick branches of trees, with their boughs and leaves curiously wrought, as the word signifies, and the latter like fringes, such as the Jews wore at the skirt of their garments:

seven for the one chapiter, and seven for the other chapiter; perhaps with four rows of checker work, and three of chain work.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The general character of the “chapiters” or capitals, their great size in proportion to the shaft, which is as one to two, and their construction of two quite different members, remind us of the pillars used by the Persians in their palaces, which were certainly more like Jachin and Boaz than any pillars that have reached us from antiquity. The ornamentation, however, seems to have been far more elaborate than that of the Persian capitals.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Five. Comprising all the ornaments. The body was only three cubits, 4 Kings xxv. 17. If we include the circles, which joined it to the pillar, it would be four; ver. 19, and with the rose, and ornaments at the top, five cubits high. Atheneus distinguishes three parts in the Egyptian chapiters; (1) next to the pillar, was seen a circle or wreath of flowers; (2) the stalk, out of which proceeded (3) a rose beginning to open. (Calmet) --- In the passages, which seem to contradict this text, the omission of the cornice or architrave, may cause the difference. (Menochius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The height of the one chapiter was five cubits.

Object. It is but three cubits in 2Ki 25:17.

Answ. The word chapiter is taken diversely, as hundreds of other words are; either more largely for the whole, so it is five cubits; or more strictly, either for the pommels, as they are called, 2Ch 4:12, or for the cornice or crown; and so it was but three cubits, to which the pomegranates being added make it four cubits, as it is below, 1Ki 7:19; and the other work upon it took up one cubit more, which in all made five cubits.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

16. Two chapiters — Or capitals.

Molten brass — Brass melted, so as to be cast into the forms desired. The brass, of which these pillars, the brazen sea, and other vessels were made, had been captured by David from the cities of Hadarezer. 1Ch_18:8.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he made two chapiters or capitals of molten Heb. poured brass, to put upon the tops Heb. heads of the pillars: the height of the one chapiter was five cubits, and the height of the other chapiter was five cubits In 2Ki_25:17 the height is given as three cubits; but this is obviously a clerical error. See 2Ch_3:15; Jer_52:22. A much more important question is whether the chapiter (trtKo) same word, akin to rtK crown of four cubits mentioned in ver. 19 is to be understood as a part of this chapiter, or something additional and superposed, the entablature, e.g. The former appears the more probable. See note on ver. 19. But it is not a fatal objection to the latter view that it would make the entire chapiter, or both members, nine cubits high; no less, that is, than one-half the length of the shaft. No doubt to modern ideas this appears wholly disproportionate; but a double chapiter, bearing the same proportion to the shaft, is found in some of the buildings of Persepolis (Fergusson,. Dict. Bib. 3. p. 1457). From the expression of vers. 41, 42, "the bowls of the chapiters" (cf. 2Ch_4:12, 2Ch_4:13; Jer_52:23) and the word "belly" (fB) in ver. 20, we gather that the chapiters were bowl shaped, or bellied out something like the so called "cushion capital" in Norman architecture.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Five cubits - The word chapiter is taken either more largely for the whole, so it is five cubits; Or, more strictly, either for the pommels, as they are called, 2 Chron. iv, 12, or for the cornice or crown, and so it was but three cubits, to which the pomegranates being added make it four cubits, as it is below, ver. 19, and the other work upon it took up one cubit more, which in all made five cubits.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Two crown shapes. Pomels, in O. F.

Cast. Tresjited, in O.F.

One crown was five amohs high. And at the end of the book it states, “three amohs.” We learned in the Mishnah of “Forty-nine Measurements,” that the two lower amohs of the crowns were similar to the column because there were no designs in them, and the three upper [amohs] that extended beyond, were surrounded with designs, as it is stated, “branches designed like net [mesh] work,” by the likes of the branches of a palm tree they were surrounded But I say, that the two lower amohs were not counted at the end of the book [of Melachim] because they were similar to the column and the column were inserted into the crown two amohs.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.