Ezra 1:9

9 And this is the number of them: thirty chargers of gold, a thousand chargers ^[a] of silver, nine-and-twenty knives,

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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Ezra 1:9 In-Context

7 And king Cyrus brought forth the vessels of the house of Jehovah, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem and had put in the house of his god.

8 And Cyrus king of Persia brought them forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.

9 And this is the number of them: thirty chargers of gold, a thousand chargers of silver, nine-and-twenty knives,

10 thirty basons of gold, silver basons of a second [sort] four hundred and ten, [and] other vessels a thousand.

11 All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand four hundred. The whole did Sheshbazzar bring up, when they of the captivity were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Footnotes

• [a]. Large shallow basons or dishes, either for the blood of sprinkling or fine flour offerings: see Num. 7.13; 1Kings 7.40. The word only occurs in this passage.