Numbers 7:62

Summary

The verse describes a single ritual object among the offerings brought by one of the tribal leaders in Numbers 7: a gold kaf ("pan/dish") weighing an amount expressed as "ten," filled with incense. The Hebrew text names the material (gold) and the contents (incense) but does not explicitly state the unit of weight.

Key words

• kaf ("a pan", H3709I) — feminine singular noun in the construct state, meaning it stands in a "X of Y" relationship; here it anticipates zahav as its qualifying term, "pan of gold."
• 'achat ("one", H0259) — feminine singular cardinal number, agreeing with kaf and specifying the count of the vessel: "one pan."
• 'asarah ("ten", H6235) — feminine singular numeral placed between 'achat and zahav; it functions as the weight figure, but no noun for "shekel" appears in this verse, so the unit of measure is grammatically absent from the Hebrew and must be supplied from context.
• zahav ("gold", H2091) — masculine singular noun specifying the material of the kaf, completing the construct relation begun by kaf.
• qetoret ("incense", H7004) — feminine singular noun functioning as the object that the pan is "full" of, following the adjective me le'ah.

What the text says

The clause has no verb; it is a nominal list describing an object, typical of the inventory style used throughout Numbers 7. The construct noun kaf ("pan of...") is separated from its construct partner zahav ("gold") by the two numerals 'achat ("one") and 'asarah ("ten"), producing the sequence "pan, one, ten, gold" rather than a straightforward "one gold pan of ten." This word order is a recurring feature of the formula repeated for each tribal leader's offering in this chapter: the count of the vessel ('achat) and the weight figure ('asarah) are both inserted before the material noun is stated.

Notably, the Hebrew numeral 'asarah ("ten") is not attached to any explicit unit word in this verse — no term for "shekel" appears. The weight unit is therefore not overtly present in the Hebrew wording of this clause; it is inferred from the numeral's conventional function in this type of list. The adjective me le'ah ("full") governs qetoret ("incense") to describe the pan's contents, forming a straightforward adjective-plus-noun phrase rather than a construct chain.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (appendens decem siclos, "weighing ten shekels") and the Spanish versions (de diez siclos, "of ten shekels") explicitly supply the word "shekels," which is not present as a separate lexical item in the Hebrew text provided. The BSB similarly adds "weighing ten shekels." The LXX renders the numeral construction as δέκα χρυσῶν ("ten of gold"), keeping the ambiguity of the unit but shifting "gold" into a genitive plural construction rather than treating it as the construct partner of "pan" as in the Hebrew.