Matthew Poole and continuators on 1 Kings 7:26

26 And it was an hand-breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths .

Which amounts to 500 Barrels, each Bath containing about 8 Gallons; the Bath being a measure of the same bigness with an Ephah, Ezek. 45. 11. Obj. This Sea is said to contain 3000 Baths, 2 Chron. 4. 5. Ans. Either there were two sorts of Baths, as of Cubits, the one common, the other Sacred, and the Sacred held half as much more as the common: or rather he here speaks of what it did actually and usually contain, to wit, 200 Baths, which was sufficient for use; and in 2 Chron. 4. 5. he speaks of what it could contain if it were filled to the brim, as it is implied in the Hebrew words, which differ from these, and properly sound thus, strengthning it self (to wit, to receive and hold as much as it could, or being filled to its utmost capacity) it contained, or could contain 3000 Baths.