Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children: for the people wept bitterly.
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Bede
AD 735
The various kinds of vessels represent the various persons or deeds of the faithful. Moreover, in the Apocalypse we read that the twenty-four ancients had golden bowls full of fragrances? and Scripture, by way of explanation, adds: which are the prayers of the saints. Consequently, the bowls, which are open and shining vessels, designate the hearts of the simple, which know no concealing of deceitful thoughts within themselves but are wont to speak out with a pure tongue the things they keep in their mind. This is why spices (i.e. prayers acceptable to God) are rightly said to be in these bowls. By contrast, the impure hearts of the reprobate are properly compared to sponges that are shadowy with blind channels. This is also why the Jews offered the crucified Lord a sponge filled with vinegar, that they might represent through such an action that, when their Creator came to them in the flesh, they offered him thoughts from a deceitful heart and words that were sour and much degenerated from the very pure taste of their ancestors' utterances. On the other hand, the knives with which they used to cut up and divide the limbs of the sacrificial victims in a suitable way so that, after everything was divided up with due observance, part was consumed in the sacred fire on the altar while part was given to the priests, part to the Lévites, and part to those who were making offerings, doubtless symbolize those in the Church who are marked by the grace of discretion. These people perfectly know how to discern in the salvation-bringing sacrifice that is Christ what things should be said to everyone, what to the more perfect alone, and what, exceeding the bounds of human thought, should be given to the fire of the Holy Spirit. Likewise, the knives symbolize that all who are dedicated to God through faithful service are his victims. The knives by which the limbs of the sacrifices are divided into portions should be understood typologically as the scribes learned in the kingdom of heaven who, skillfully examining the merits and thoughts of their listeners, know well how to decide who they should promote to which grade of the ecclesiastical ministry. The cups (which are drinking vessels) figuratively express those who are wont to be intoxicated with a more fervent blaze of inward love. Now it is said that some vessels were gold and others were silver. The gold ones signify those who glow with the greater splendor of spiritual wisdom, the silver those who by the charm of speech understand how to expound more eloquently those things which they know. Distinguishing these in turn, the Apostle says: To some by the Spirit is given the words of wisdom, to others, the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit. But the fact that it mentions the number of the vessels, both each kind individually and the total of all collectively, teaches us that the Lord keeps the sum total of his elect written down in the book of eternal remembrance - not just of those who persevere in the purity of the faith which they have accepted but also of those who, after they have gone astray, return to “253” the faith by regaining their senses. As a figure of these people it is aptly added:
