Ezra 8:28

And I said unto them, ye are holy unto the Lord, the vessels are holy also,.... As they were dedicated and set apart to holy service, so the vessels were sacred to holy uses, and therefore not to be converted to any other: and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering unto the Lord God of your fathers: and therefore not to be made use of but in his service.

Ezra 8:28-29 . I said, Ye are holy unto the Lord; the vessels are holy also — Being men consecrated to God’s service, you are bound, above all others, to be faithful in the discharge of your duty, especially being intrusted with holy things, which must be carefully delivered at Jerusalem, just as they were committed to your trust. Watch ye, and keep them, until ye weigh them, &c. — That they be not lost or embezzled, or mingled with other things, keep them together; keep them by themselves; keep them safe, till you weigh them in the temple, before the great men there.

Twenty basons of gold, of a thousand drams - Not of a thousand drams (i. e., darics) each, but worth altogether a thousand darics. As the value of the daric was about 22 shillings of British money, each basin, or saucer, would have been worth (apart from the fashioning) 55 British pounds. Of fine copper - The word translated "fine," which occurs here only, is thought to mean either "yellow" or "glittering" (see the margin). Probably the vessels were of orichalcum, an amalgam which was either brass or something nearly approaching to brass, but which was very rarely produced in the ancient world, and, when produced, was regarded as highly valuable.

27. two vessels of fine copper, precious as gold—Almost all commentators agree in maintaining that the vessels referred to were not made of copper, but of an alloy capable of taking on a bright polish, which we think highly probable, as copper was then in common use among the Babylonians, and would not be as precious as gold. This alloy, much esteemed among the Jews, was composed of gold and other metals, which took on a high polish and was not subject to tarnish [Noyes].

28 . Ye are holy ] i.e. consecrated to the Lord, as priests and Levites. Their sanctity not lessened by life in exile. the vessels are holy also ] R.V. and the vessels are holy , being votive offerings. unto the Lord God of your fathers ] R.V. unto the Lord, the God of your fathers . Cf. note on Ezra 7:28 . The appeal to their hereditary sanctity and to their special vocation recalls to memory the covenant of Jehovah with the Israelites. Cf. Exodus 19:5-6 .

The expression is well illustrated by Malachi 4:4 ‘the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and judgements’ and Nehemiah 8:14 ‘The law which the Lord had commanded by Moses’. all his request ] What the request was, which Ezra preferred to Artaxerxes, we are not told, but are left to gather it from the letter of Artaxerxes (12–26). The word ‘request’ in the Hebrew denotes an eager quest, and occurs elsewhere in the O.T. only in the book of Esther ( Ezra 5:3 ; Ezra 5:7-8 , Ezra 7:3 , Ezra 9:12 ). according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him ] This expression is characteristic of the writer. It occurs again Ezra 7:28 , with the adjective ‘good’, Ezra 7:9 , Ezra 8:18 ; Nehemiah 2:8 ; Nehemiah 2:18 , and in a slightly different form Ezra 8:22 ; Ezra 8:31 . ‘The hand of the Lord’ denotes the merciful favour, as may be seen from the context here and in Ezra 7:28 , even without the addition of the adjective good: cf. ‘the eye of the Lord’, chap. Ezra 5:5 . Similar is the phrase in 2 Chronicles 30:12 . From that ‘hand’ comes discipline as well as bounty, Job 2:10 ‘Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?’ Job 19:21 ‘the hand of God hath touched me’. In adversity ‘the hand of the Lord’ is described as ‘ against ’, not ‘upon’ a person. See Deuteronomy 2:15 ; Ruth 1:13 .

On delivering these treasures, Ezra adds the admonition: Ye are holy to the Lord, and the vessels are holy, and the gold and the silver are a free-will offering unto the Lord God of your fathers; watch and keep (that which is committed to you). Since they were themselves, as priests and Levites, holy to the Lord, they were also to treat and keep the gifts committed to their charge as holy gifts, until, on their arrival at Jerusalem, they should weigh them (i.e., deliver them by weight) before the priests, the Levites, and the princes of Israel, in the chambers of the house of the Lord. The article to הלּשׁכוה (stat. construct.) is among the incorrectnesses of the later Hebrew.