1 Kings 7:29
1 Kings 7:2929and on the panels between the uprights were lions, oxen, and cherubim. On the uprights was a pedestal above, and below the lions and oxen were wreaths of beveled work.
— Solomon's bronze stands depicting "lions, bulls, and cherubim" — does not appear in Watchtower argumentation about images. The verse is another uncomfortable data point against the claim that forbids all representational art, because it shows the temple's liturgical furniture saturated with carved creatures by divine sanction.
Include in the temple witness. The ten stands carrying the basins for ritual washing were decorated with lions, bulls, and cherubim on every panel. These were not hidden decorations; they were on the instruments priests handled during daily temple service. The rs reading of would have to call every one of these panels a violation — which makes the temple, built to God's own specifications, into the largest idol factory in the ancient Near East. Any reading that produces that conclusion has missed what the verse prohibits. The actual Torah line runs through , , and : do not make representations to bow down to them, and do not represent God himself (who "showed you no form") with a creature-image. Representational art of creatures for liturgical decoration is everywhere in the Old Testament — including in the temple Jehovah himself commissioned.