Numbers 7:26

Summary

Numbers 7:26 describes one part of a tribal leader's offering: a single gold dish weighing a certain amount, filled with incense. The verse belongs to a repeated formula used throughout Numbers 7 for each of the twelve tribal offerings.

Key words

• kaf ("a pan", H3709) — feminine singular noun in construct state, meaning it is grammatically bound to what follows; here it introduces the description of the dish's weight and material.
• 'achat ("one", H0259) — feminine singular cardinal number, agreeing with kaf to specify "one pan/dish."
• 'asarah ("ten", H6235) — feminine singular cardinal number, giving the numeral for the dish's weight.
• zahav ("gold", H2091) — masculine singular noun, identifying the material of the pan.
• qetoret ("incense", H7004) — feminine singular noun, the substance filling the dish, governed by the preceding adjective me le'ah ("full", H4392).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is compact: kaf 'achat ("one pan"), 'asarah zahav ("ten, gold"), me le'ah qetoret ("full, incense"). Grammatically, kaf stands in construct form, which links it forward to the quantity and material that follow, producing the sense "a pan — one [pan], ten [units] of gold, full of incense." Notably, the Hebrew text does not state the unit of weight explicitly in this verse; the noun for "shekel" is not present. The number 'asarah ("ten") stands alone, and its unit of measure must be inferred from the parallel structure used throughout Numbers 7, where the weight standard is stated explicitly in earlier verses of the chapter (using the word "shekel"). This elliptical repetition is a feature of the list format: once the measure is established, later instances of the formula omit the noun for the unit and rely on the reader recognizing the pattern.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) supplies the noun "siclos" ("shekels") explicitly — "appendens decem siclos" ("weighing ten shekels") — a word not present in the Hebrew of this verse. The LXX (LXXSWETE) renders the phrase as "δέκα χρυσῶν" ("ten of gold[s]"), also without an explicit unit-word for "shekel," structuring the weight differently by placing "gold" in the genitive plural rather than as a separate noun modified by "ten." Modern translations (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) uniformly add "shekels" as the understood unit, an interpretive addition not literally present in the six Hebrew words of this verse, though consistent with the wider chapter's formula.