Gold bowls fill the lists of the tabernacle and temple. The Lord tells Moses to make dishes, spoons and “bowls thereof, to cover withal,” for the table of the bread, all of pure gold. Solomon’s temple has bowls, snuffers, spoons and censers; later, Ezra counts gold and silver basons as they come back from Babylon. These are working vessels for the place of worship, made with care. The one surprise is in Ecclesiastes, where a “golden bowl” that is broken pictures death. Exodus 25 shows the first set being made.
10 verses
And thou shalt make the dishes thereof, and spoons thereof, and covers thereof, and bowls thereof, to cover withal: of pure gold shalt thou make them.
And thou shalt make his pans to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his basons, and his fleshhooks, and his firepans: all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass.
And he made all the vessels of the altar, the pots, and the shovels, and the basons, and the fleshhooks, and the firepans: all the vessels thereof made he of brass.
And upon the table of shewbread they shall spread a cloth of blue, and put thereon the dishes, and the spoons, and the bowls, and covers to cover withal: and the continual bread shall be thereon:
And the bowls, and the snuffers, and the basons, and the spoons, and the censers of pure gold; and the hinges of gold, both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, to wit, of the temple.
Also pure gold for the fleshhooks, and the bowls, and the cups: and for the golden basons he gave gold by weight for every bason; and likewise silver by weight for every bason of silver:
He made also ten tables, and placed them in the temple, five on the right side, and five on the left. And he made an hundred basons of gold.
And the snuffers, and the basons, and the spoons, and the censers, of pure gold: and the entry of the house, the inner doors thereof for the most holy place, and the doors of the house of the temple, were of gold.
Thirty basons of gold, silver basons of a second sort four hundred and ten, and other vessels a thousand.
Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
Matthew George Easton, 1897
The sockets of the lamps of the golden candlestick of the tabernacle are called bowls (Ex. 25:31, 33, 34; 37:17, 19, 20); the same word so rendered being elsewhere rendered “cup” (Gen. 44:2, 12, 16), and wine “pot” (Jer. 35:5). The reservoir for oil, from which pipes led to each lamp in Zechariah’s vision of the candlestick, is called also by this name (Zech. 4:2, 3); so also are the vessels used for libations (Ex. 25:29; 37:16).