The instructions given to Moses in the Book of Exodus included the creation of a bronze laver (Hebrew: כיור נחשת kîyōr nəḥōšeṯ), to be sited outside the Tabernacle of Meeting, between the Tabernacle door and the Altar of Burnt Offering, for Aaron, his sons and their successors as priests to wash their hands and their feet before making a sacrifice.

Both the laver and its base were to be made of bronze.^[1] Bronze mirrors supplied by the Israelite women who served at the Tabernacle door were used to make the laver and its base,^[2] and they were then anointed with holy oil along with the Tabernacle, all its furnishings and the priests.^[3]

In Solomon's Temple, the laver was apparently superseded by the molten or brazen sea described in 1 Kings 7:23–26 and 2 Chronicles 4:2–5.