a (sacrificial) knife (as gliding through the flesh) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Numbers 7:13 And his offering was one silver charger, the weight thereof was an hundred and thirty shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the…
Numbers 7:19-89 He offered for his offering one silver charger, the weight whereof was an hundred and thirty shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, af…
1 Kings 7:50 And the bowls, and the snuffers, and the basons, and the spoons, and the censers of pure gold; and the hinges of gold, both for the doors of…
2 Chronicles 4:8 He made also ten tables, and placed them in the temple, five on the right side, and five on the left. And he made an hundred basons of gold.
2 Chronicles 4:11 And Huram made the pots, and the shovels, and the basons. And Huram finished the work that he was to make for king Solomon for the house of…
2 Chronicles 4:21-22 And the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs, made he of gold, and that perfect gold;
2 Chronicles 24:14 And when they had finished it, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, whereof were made vessels for the house of t…
Ezra 8:27 Also twenty basons of gold, of a thousand drams; and two vessels of fine copper, precious as gold.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezra 1:5–end
We are here told,
I. How Cyrus's proclamation succeeded with others. 1. He having given leave to the Jews to go up to Jerusalem, many of them went up accordingly, Ezr 1:5. The leaders herein were the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, eminent and experienced men, from whom it might justly be expected that, as they were above their brethren in dignity, so they should go before them in duty. The priests and Levites were (as became them) with the first that set their faces again towards Zion. If any good work is to be done, let ministers lead in it. Those that accompanied them were such as God had inclined to go up. The same God that had raised up the spirit of Cyrus to proclaim this l…
Shesh-bazzar, the prince of Judah--that is, Zerubbabel, son of Salathiel (compare Ezr 3:8; Ezr 5:16). He was born in Babylon, and called by his family Zerubbabel, that is, stranger or exile in Babylon. Shesh-bazzar, signifying "fire-worshipper," was the name given him at court, as other names were given to Daniel and his friends. He was recognized among the exiles as hereditary prince of Judah.
Adam Clarke on Ezra 1:8
Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah - This was probably the Chaldean name of him who was originally called Zerubbabel: the former signifies joy in affliction; the latter, a stranger in Babylon. The latter may be designed to refer to his captive state; the former, to the prospect of release. Some think this was quite a different person, a Persian or Chaldean, sent by Cyrus to superintend whatever officers or men Cyrus might have sent to assist the Jews on their return; and to procure them help in the Chaldean provinces, through which they might be obliged to travel.
John Gill on 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 (r), 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.
(r) T. Hieros. Yoma, fol. 41. 1.
The Church Fathers
And this is their number: thirty golden bowls, etc. Different types of vessels signify different persons or operations of the faithful. Finally, we read in the Apocalypse that the twenty-four elders had golden bowls full of incense (Rev. 5); and the Scripture explains: These are the prayers of the saints. Therefore, the bowls, which are open, bright vessels, signify the hearts of the simple, who know not how to conceal any deceitful thought within them, but are accustomed to express with a pure tongue what they hold in their mind. Wherefore it is rightly said that such aromatic substances, that is, prayers acceptable to God, are found in them. On the other hand, the impure hearts of the reprobate are deservedly compared to sponges, which are dark and convoluted within. Hence also the Jews, when the Lord was crucified, offered Him a sponge full of vinegar (Matt. 27; Mark 15; John 19); so that by such a service they might signify that to their Creator, coming to them in the flesh, they offered from a deceitful heart thoughts and bitter words, deviating far from the pure taste of their forefathers. The knives, however, which they used for cutting and dividing the limbs of the sacrifices according to the proper order, so that with everything properly distinguished, a part would be consumed on the sacred altar by fire, a part would be for the use of priests, a part for Levites, and a part for the offerers; these surely demonstrate in the Church those who are distinguished by the grace of discernment, who perfectly know how to discern from the saving sacrifice, which is Christ, what should be said to all, what to the more perfect, what exceeds the measure of human thought and should be attributed to the fire of the Holy Spirit; likewise, because all who are dedicated to Him in faithful service are victims of God. The knives by which the limbs of the sacrifice are divided into pieces are typologically understood to be the scribes educated in the kingdom of heaven; who, carefully examining the merits and thoughts of their hearers, know well how to judge with whom they should advance in the rank of ecclesiastical ministry. The cups, which are vessels for drinking, figuratively express those who are accustomed to be inflamed with the fervent ardor of inner charity. As for the fact that some vessels were gold, some silver; the golden ones signify those who shine with…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Babylon — The Greek form of BABEL; Semitic form Babilu, meaning “The Gate of God.” In the Assyrian tablets it means “The city of the dispersion of the tribes.” The monumental list of its kings reaches back to…
Captivity — (1.) Of Israel. The kingdom of the ten tribes was successively invaded by several Assyrian kings. Pul (q.v.) imposed a tribute on Menahem of a thousand talents of silver (2 Kings 15:19, 20; 1 Chr.…
Charger — A bowl or deep dish. The silver vessels given by the heads of the tribes for the services of the tabernacle are so named (Num. 7:13, etc.). The “charger” in which the Baptist’s head was presented was…
Knife — (1.) Heb. hereb, “the waster,” a sharp instrument for circumcision (Josh. 5:2, 3, lit. “knives of flint;” comp. Ex. 4:25); a razor (Ezek. 5:1); a graving tool (Ex. 20:25); an axe (Ezek. 26:9). (2.)…
Temple, Solomon’s — Before his death David had “with all his might” provided materials in great abundance for the building of the temple on the summit of Mount Moriah (1 Chr. 22:14; 29:4; 2 Chr. 3:1), on the east of the…
Temple, the Second — After the return from captivity, under Zerubbabel (q.v.) and the high priest Jeshua, arrangements were almost immediately made to reorganize the long-desolated kingdom. The body of pilgrims, forming…
Knife · Of the temple, returned from Babylon — Of the temple, returned from Babylon
Temple, The Second · Cyrus: Gave the vessels of the first temple for — Cyrus: Gave the vessels of the first temple for
Zerubbabel · Leads the Emancipated Jews back from Babylon — Leads the Emancipated Jews back from Babylon
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Keil & Delitzsch on Ezra 1:7-10
King Cyrus, moreover, caused those sacred vessels of the temple which had been carried away by Nebuchadnezzar to be brought forth, and delivered them by the hand of his treasurer to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah, for the use of the house of God which was about to be built. הוציא, to fetch out from the royal treasury. The "vessels of the house of Jahve" are the gold and silver vessels of the temple which Nebuchadnezzar, at the first taking of Jerusalem in the reign of Jehoiakim, carried away to Babylon, and lodged in the treasure-house of his god (Ch2 36:7 and Dan 1:2). For those which he took at its second conquest were broken up (Kg2 24:13); and the other gold and silver goods which, as…
5,400 articles of gold and silver: The numbers listed total only 2,499 items. A parallel account, in the apocryphal book 1 Esdras 2:13-15, lists 5,469 items, while a list in the Jewish historian Josephus’s Antiquities 11.15 lists 5,220 objects. Ezra’s shortened list illustrates the kind of items included but does not include every item. Keeping track of consecrated utensils reduced the possibility of confusing these sacred items with the pagan utensils used in the worship of other gods.
Rashi on Ezra 1:9
their number of the vessels of the House of the Lord.
basins Heb. אֲגַרְטְלֵי. They are kinds of vessels.
knives Heb. מַחֲלָפִים. They are knives, and this expression refers to the chamber of the knives (בֵּית הַחֲלִיפוֹת). Because they would deposit the knives therein, it was called the chamber of the depository of the knives (לִשְּׁכַּת בֵּית הַחֲלִיפוֹת).
