John Calvin Commentary Numbers 7:10

"And the princes offered for the dedication of the altar in the day that it was anointed, even the princes offered their oblation before the altar." — Numbers 7:10 (ASV)

And the princes offered for dedicating of the altar. Here is another kind of offering: namely, a silver dish and bowl from every tribe, besides a golden spoon,⁴⁰¹ which properly means a censer. Their use was as follows: the sacred cakes were to 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 its respective vessels, so that the common interest of the whole people in the sacrifices might be better testified.

Although the word shekel⁴⁰² is derived from its being weighed, it is still almost everywhere used for a coined piece of money, which, as we have seen in Exodus 30, 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, establishes 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 remembered, 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 stater. Now, if we calculate, we will find that the value of each dish amounted to nearly one 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, being only about seven livres in value; whereas a gold vessel of this size would scarcely hold three grains of frankincense. Therefore, I am inclined to think they also had gold shekels, but I leave it undecided as a point on which we have no knowledge.

Lastly, there were the animals offered as victims: a young bullock, a ram, and a lamb for a burnt offering; a kid for a sin offering; and 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 from his own folds or stalls; from this, it is probable that they were aided by a general contribution. God chose that each tribe should have its own particular day appointed for it, not only so that there might be no confusion or disturbance, but also so that by this extended exercise the hearts even of the careless might be stirred up to zealous devotion.

⁴⁰¹ V., mortariolum. LXX.,: θυί̑σκη Ainsworth, cup. Heb., כן from whence probably our English word cup.

⁴⁰² שקל shekel, from שקל, shakal, to weigh. C. follows LXX. in renderining גרה gerah, — the twentieth part of a shekel, — by the word obolus, ὀβολός The general opinion of modern commentators is, that the shekel, throughout the Old Testament, expressed not a coin, but a weight of about half an ounce Troy, which would bring its value in silver, at a rough calculation, to 2s. 6d., and in gold to 2 Pounds sterling: though indeed it appears impossible to ascertain either the intrinsic or relative value of the precious metals at so early a period with anything like accuracy. The Rabbins (see Ainsworth) consider the estimate of the golden vessels to have been made by the shekel of silver.