Ezra 1:9

9 And this [is] their number: dishes of gold thirty, dishes of silver a thousand, knives nine and twenty,

Ezra 1:9 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 1:9

And this is the number of them
Of the vessels delivered, as follows:

thirty chargers of gold, a thousand chargers of silver;
these, according to Ben Melech, were vessels in which water was put to wash hands in; but rather they were, as Aben Ezra observes from the Jerusalem Talmud ^F18, vessels in which they gathered the blood of lambs and bullocks slain for sacrifices:

nine and twenty knives;
which, because the handles of them were of gold or silver, were valuable, and might be very large knives, and what the priests used in slaying and cutting up the sacrifices.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F18 T. Hieros. Yoma, fol. 41. 1.

Ezra 1:9 In-Context

7 And the king Cyrus hath brought out the vessels of the house of Jehovah that Nebuchadnezzar hath brought out of Jerusalem, and putteth them in the house of his gods;

8 yea, Cyrus king of Persia bringeth them out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbereth them to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.

9 And this [is] their number: dishes of gold thirty, dishes of silver a thousand, knives nine and twenty,

10 basins of gold thirty, basins of silver (seconds) four hundred and ten, other vessels a thousand.

11 All the vessels of gold and of silver [are] five thousand and four hundred; the whole hath Sheshbazzar brought up with the going up of the removal from Babylon to Jerusalem.