Axletree

The axletree appears only in the description of the wheeled bronze bases Hiram cast for Solomon's temple. The word names the cross-piece on which a pair of wheels turns, and it is one of several wheel-parts catalogued as part of the same molten work.

The Wheels of the Bronze Bases

The wheeled stands beneath the temple lavers are described component by component: "And the four wheels were underneath the panels; and the axletrees of the wheels were in the base: and the height of a wheel was a cubit and half a cubit" (1 Ki 7:32). The next verse compares the wheels to chariot-work and lists their parts together: "And the work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel: their axletrees, and their felloes, and their spokes, and their naves, were all molten" (1 Ki 7:33). Axletrees, felloes, spokes, and the wheel-hubs — every piece of the apparatus came from the same casting.