And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass,.... Not of the brass of the offering, for of that were made the brazen altar, its grate and vessels, the sockets of the court and court gate, and the pins of the tabernacle, Ex 38:29 but no mention is made there of the laver; for that was made, as here said,of the looking glasses of [the women] assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation; though these are called looking glasses, it is not to be supposed that they were made of glass as ours are; for of what use could such be in the making of a brazen laver?
Some indeed choose to read the words "with the looking glasses" , and take the sense to be, that there were looking glasses about the laver, affixed to it, that when the priests came to wash, they might see their spots, and the better know how to cleanse themselves from them: but it should be observed, that the priests did not come hither to wash their faces, but their hands and feet, Ex 30:19 and so stood in no need of looking glasses for that purpose.
The particle b is here, as Aben Ezra observes, instead ofm, and denotes the matter of which the laver was made, and therefore these instruments to behold the face in, or those mirrors, were of brass, as both he and Philo the Jew affirm; and, indeed, what else could they be, for a laver of brass to be made of?
mirrors in former times were made of various sorts of metal polished, some of gold, some of silver, some of brass, and some of brass and tin ; and the Indians to this day have mirrors made of brass, well polished, and exactly represent the complexion .
Pliny says , that those of Brundusium, which were made of brass and tin mixed, were with the ancient Romans reckoned the best.