What Does Numbers 7:50 Mean in the King James?
One golden spoon of ten shekels, full of incense:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew word for incense carries the act of making smoke within it: this offering is already named by what rises from it.
THE MEANING
The verse places a golden vessel in view, weighs it at ten shekels, and says it is full of incense. The word for incense holds the making of smoke inside it, so what is held here is poised to become visible in the air before God.
THE ROOT
קְטֹרֶת
qetoret
GROWS FROM
קטר
q-ṭ-r
To make smoke; to burn incense.
“incense” in this verse is qetoret. The word names more than a substance: it carries the act that makes smoke. What fills the vessel is named by the visible movement it produces as it rises.
ALSO GROWS
qāṭar: To burn incense; to make smoke.
קָטַר
This verb makes the action inside “incense” explicit.
qitor: Smoke or vapor.
קִיטוֹר
This noun names the visible result carried within the incense root.
שְׁקָלִים
sheqalim
GROWS FROM
שקל
sh-q-l
To weigh or weigh out.
“shekels” in this verse is sheqalim. The amount is not left as an impression of abundance: it is weighed. The root ties the vessel’s measure to the act of weighing, making precision part of what the verse shows.
ALSO GROWS
shāqal: To weigh.
שָׁקַל
This verb is the action from which the measured shekel takes its name.
mishqal: Weight or measure.
מִשְׁקָל
This related noun makes the verse’s exact amount part of the same word family.
THE PATTERN
Incense becomes visible as smoke rising before God, carrying an offering or prayer into view.
And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.THE THREAD
Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.The Hebrew word for incense in both verses comes from קטר (q-ṭ-r), “to make smoke; to burn incense.” The measured vessel in Numbers holds the same smoke-making substance that Psalm 141 uses to picture prayer set forth before God.
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