Continuing on with the tabernacle offerings from each Prince of Israel, as delivered in the covered wagons. One part of the offering, each prince offered the exact same items, was a golden spoonful of incense. I find this perplexing as I'm not sure how to undestand the physics of this offering? I mean was the spoon positioned in such a way that it held a heaping mound of incense without spilling a smidge or are we talking about a different kind of spoon with an entirely different approach to carrying?
NUMBERS 7:86
86 The golden spoons were twelve, full of incense, weighing ten shekels apiece, after the shekel of the sanctuary: all the gold of the spoons was an hundred and twenty shekels.I have looked through several pages of images trying to decipher what exactly the spoon might be and I have come to the conclusion that the spoon is most likely what is considered a boat today. Most of the images consisted of an incense burner, a boat, and a spoon. The spoon is very small and housed within the boat which is a little cup-like dish with a lid. The boat fits inside the incense burner which has vents for the incense to breath and burn and a long chain for priests to swing the burner back and forth as they walk down the center aisle...
Side Note: In reference to the swinging incense burner, I can't help but recall a scene in the film, Keeping the Faith, where Edward Norton is a catholic priest and Ben Stiller is a Jewish Rabbi; anyway, there is a scene where Norton is walking down the aisle swinging an incense burner back and forth. He eventually swings it a little wide and whacks a guy in the head - great scene!
Anyway, I'd venture to say that the actually spoon, which by-the-way weighed about as a much as a cup of raisins (approximately 140 ounces or 10 shekels), was something akin to a boat or cup-like dish with a lid and more than likely had a long stem by which to carry the item when lit. I may be wrong but you get the idea and can formulate your own mental picture.
~Kipling
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