Numbers 7:38

Summary

This verse lists one item among the offerings brought by a tribal leader: a gold pan or dish, of a weight given only as "ten," filled with incense. The Hebrew sentence has no verb — it is a list entry, naming the object, its material, its numeric value, and its contents in sequence.

Key words

• kaf ("a pan", H3709I) — feminine singular construct noun; here it names the vessel type and stands in construct relation to what follows, though the sentence is elliptical rather than a full construct chain.
• 'achat ("one", H0259) — feminine cardinal number agreeing with kaf, marking that a single pan is being described.
• 'asarah ("ten", H6235) — feminine cardinal number with no accompanying noun of measure in the Hebrew text itself; the unit (shekel) is not stated but assumed from the pattern of the surrounding list.
• zahav ("gold", H2091) — masculine singular noun identifying the material of the pan.
• me.le'ah ("full", H4392) — feminine singular adjective agreeing with kaf, describing the pan's state as filled.
• qetoret ("incense", H7004) — feminine singular noun naming what fills the pan.

What the text says

The Hebrew clause is verbless and paratactic: kaf 'achat ("one pan") is followed immediately by 'asarah ("ten") and zahav ("gold"), then me.le'ah qetoret ("full of incense"). There is no explicit noun of measurement attached to 'asarah; the number "ten" stands alone. In the wider chapter, this list format repeats for each tribal leader's offering, and the weight unit for gold and silver items is established by convention in the passage rather than restated in every line, so 'asarah is understood by readers to refer to a weight (shekels) without the word being written here. The adjective me.le'ah ("full") and the noun qetoret ("incense") close the entry, describing the pan's content.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text lacks any word for "shekel" — it simply juxtaposes 'achat ("one") and 'asarah ("ten") with zahav ("gold"). The Vulgate (VULCLEM) supplies an explicit verb and noun not present in the Hebrew: appendens decem siclos ("weighing ten shekels"), making the elliptical construction explicit. The Latin also renders kaf as mortariolum aureum ("small golden mortar"), using an adjective for "gold" rather than the Hebrew's separate noun zahav. The LXX (θυσίσκην... δέκα χρυσῶν) preserves the same numerical ellipsis as the Hebrew, listing "one, ten, of gold" without an explicit unit word. Modern translations (RV1909, BSB, SBLIBRE) all add "siclos"/"shekels"/"weighing," interpretively supplying the measurement unit that the Hebrew leaves unstated.