Hebrew kiyyor, "basin, laver." A large bronze (not brass) washing basin positioned between the brazen altar and the tabernacle entrance (Exodus 30:17-21, 38:8). Its purpose: priests washed their hands and feet before entering the tabernacle or approaching the altar to serve. The bronze of the original tabernacle laver was cast from "the mirrors of the ministering women who ministered in the entrance of the tent of meeting" (Exodus 38:8). In Solomon's temple, the laver was vastly expanded into "the bronze sea" (1 Kings 7:23-26) — a massive cast bronze basin 10 cubits across, holding 2,000 baths (about 12,000 gallons), supported by twelve bronze oxen, plus ten additional smaller lavers on wheeled stands.
The bronze laver teaches ongoing cleansing between worship. Three notes. (1) Cleansing for serving, not for salvation. The priests had already been consecrated at their ordination (Exodus 29); the laver was not for re-consecration but for daily cleansing for service. Typologically this maps onto the Christian life: once-for-all justification (Hebrews 10:10) followed by ongoing sanctification (John 13:10 — "the one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean"). (2) Specifically hands and feet. These are the instruments of action and walk — what touches the work and what carries the worker. Daily the priest examined what his hands had done and where his feet had gone; daily he washed. Christians ought similarly to examine the day's work and walk. (3) Mirrors of service. That the tabernacle laver was cast from mirrors suggests a layered meaning: the Word is a mirror (James 1:23-25), water is a cleansing agent (Ephesians 5:26 — "the washing of water with the word"), and service requires regular examination. The bronze sea in Solomon's temple scaled this up massively, emphasizing the vast provision of cleansing God makes for His priestly people. Hebrews 10:22 — "let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water" — preserves the laver's imagery for new covenant worshippers.