Ezra 8:27

Ezr 8:27 Also twenty basons of gold, of a thousand drams; and two vessels of fine copper, precious as gold.

Ver. 27. Of a thousand drachms] 312 pounds 10 shillings. The Hebrew (or rather Chaldee) word here rendered a drachm seems to be taken from the Greek word Dραχμη.

And two vessels of fine copper] Ex orichalco praestante, Of some choice mixed metal, Auro contra non caro. Overlaid with gold without no dross.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Read Ezra 2:29.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

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].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(27) A thousand drams.—Darics, and therefore the whole worth rather more than a thousand guineas.

Fine copper.—Probably the Roman Orichalcum, a metal very highly valued.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

27. also twenty basons of gold] R.V. and twenty bowls of gold: ‘bowl’ as in Ezr_1:10.

of a thousand drams] R.V. of a thousand darics. About £1 each: see on Ezr_2:69.

The total specified values then are about

£243,750 + £37,500 + £675,000 + £1,000 = £957,250,

or nearly a million of our money.

fine copper] R.V. fine bright brass. The Hebrew word (Muçhâbh) occurs only here. LXX. στίλβοντος. Some have suggested ‘orichalchum’, a variety of brass.

1Es_8:57, ‘And twelve (not ‘two’) vessels of brass even of fine brass, glittering like gold’.

precious] a rare word in the Hebrew, occurring also in Gen_27:15, ‘goodly raiment’; 2Ch_20:25; Dan_11:38; Dan_11:43, ‘precious things’ (cf. Dan_10:3, ‘pleasant bread’ or bread of preciousness), applied metaphorically to Daniel himself ‘greatly beloved’ (lit. a man of precious things), Dan_9:23; Dan_10:11; Dan_10:19.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

CHAPTER VIII.

Solids. Hebrew adarconim. Darics, equivalent to the golden sicle. (Calmet) (1 Paralipomenon xxix. 7.) --- Best. Protestants, "of fine copper, precious as gold." It might resemble the Corinthian brass, or aurichalcum, (Haydock) composed of gold, silver, and brass melted together, in the burning of Corinth, by L. Mummius. (Pliny, [Natural History?] xxxiv. 2.) --- Yet no such Corinthian vessels have come down to us; so that the account seems fabulous; and, at any rate, the city was not taken in the days of Esdras, but in the year 608 of Rome. We cannot say whether he speaks of copper, brass, &c. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Heb. desirable as gold; not that it was of equal price and worth with it, but for its incomparable excellency in its kind, and for its great rarity, for which cause there were only two vessels of that sort.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

27. A thousand drams — Worth about five thousand five hundred dollars. See on the word dram, or daric, at Ezr_2:69.

Fine copper — Or, rather, copper shining beautifully. The value of all these treasures, according to the above estimate, must have been nearly seven million dollars, an amount so great as to lead us to suspect some corruption or error in the numbers.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Twenty basons of gold, of a thousand drams. (see comment Ezr_2:69) The "basons" would be worth about each. Fine copper, precious as gold. The metal intended is probably that known to the Romans as orichalchum, which is generally believed to have been brass, but which may have been a more complicated amalgam. Being rarely, and perhaps only accidentally, produced, this metal was highly valued.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And...sprinkling bowls bowls for sprinkling [the blood of the sacrifices].

of one thousand darics a type of coin. There were one thousand darics in these twenty sprinkling bowls of gold.

golden of golden copper (or) a type of copper coin.

fine Heb. טוֹבָה, the feminine form, modifying copper (נְחֹשֶּׁת).

two two vessels.

precious as gold Heb. חֲמוּדוֹת כַּזָהָב. He calls the vessels חֲמוּדוֹת in the feminine form.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.