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 degenerate...
