Numbers 7:10

10.And the princes offered for dedicating of the altar Here is another kind of offering, viz., a silver dish and bowl from every tribe, besides a golden spoon, (401) which properly means a censer. Their use was as follows, — that the sacred cakes should be received in the dishes, the wine of libation in the bowls, and the frankincense in the censers. But God would have each tribe contribute their respective vessels, in order that the common interest of the whole people in the sacrifices might be the better testified. Although the word shekel (402) is derived front its being weighed, still it is almost everywhere used for a coined piece of money, which, as we have seen at Exodus 30:0, was of the value of twenty oboli. Josephus estimates it at an Attic tetradrachm. But Ezekiel, when he is inveighing against their fraud in having diminished its weight, settles its value at twenty oboli, and adds that it is the third part of a pound or mina. (Ezekiel 45:12.) But it must be borne in remembrance, as we have also seen elsewhere, that the shekel of the sanctuary was double the ordinary one, for it was worth four drachmas, whereas the common shekel was only worth two drachmas, or a staler. Now, if we calculate, we shall find that the value of each dish amounted to nearly a hundred French livres; and that of each bowl to forty-four. If we take the shekel in the same sense with reference to the censers, or spoons, they must have been very small, only being about seven livres in value: whereas a gold vessel of this size would scarcely hold three grains of frankincense. Wherefore, I doubt whether they had not also gold shekels; but I leave it undecided as a point on which we have no knowledge.

Lastly, follow the animals offered as victims, a young bullock, a ram, and a lamb for a burnt-offering; a kid for a sin-offering; two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, and five lambs for a sacrifice of thanksgiving. It would, however, have been difficult for each prince to present so many out of his own folds or stalls; whence it is probable that they were aided by a general contribution. God chose that each tribe should have its peculiar day appointed for it in order, not only that there might be no confusion or disturbance, but; also that by this lengthened exercise the hearts even of the careless might be stirred up to zealous devotion.