And you shall make uses the singular you. The four vessels mentioned are difficult to identify with accuracy. The word for plates is a general term for a dish which was probably deeper than the flat plates used in many places today. Revised English Bible has “dishes,” and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh and Contemporary English Version have “bowls.” The Hebrew word for dishes is the same word for the palm of the hand. Others translate “cups” (Good News Translation), “saucers” (Revised English Bible), “spoons” (American Standard Version), “ladles” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), or “pans” (Translator’s Old Testament). Translators should select similar shaped objects used in the receptor culture: the first, a shallow dish or bowl of some kind; and the second, a deeper cup-like object. The words for incense have been added by Revised Standard Version and New Revised Standard Version, but they are not in the Hebrew. References such as Num 7.86 suggest that these dishes were sometimes used for incense, but it is best to omit this here (so Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version).

The flagons were “pitchers” (New International Version) that were used mainly for pouring wine. Others have “jars” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version), or “jugs” (Translator’s Old Testament). The bowls were similar to the “basins” in 24.6 but may have been smaller. (A different word is used there.) Both the flagons and the bowls were used to pour libations, or “drink offerings” (New Revised Standard Version). (See the comment on “libations” at 29.40.) Literally the text says “and its bowls which it was poured out in them.” This means that the flagons were used to pour out the “wine offerings” into the bowls. Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version incorrectly suggest that all four objects were used for the wine offerings, but this does not apply to the plates and the dishes. New International Version helpfully keeps the first two separate: “And make its plates and dishes of pure gold, as well as its pitchers and bowls for the pouring out of offerings” (similarly New American Bible and Revised English Bible).

Of pure gold you shall make them means that none of the four types of vessels for the table were to be common pottery, but rather they were to be made from “clean gold.”

Alternative translation models for this verse are:

• Make plates and cups, and also make the jars and bowls to be used for wine offerings. Make all of these out of pure gold.

• All plates and cups, along with the jars and bowls to be used for wine offerings, must be made out of pure gold.

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .