Ezra 8:27 - Exposition

Twenty basons of gold, of a thousand drams (see comment on Ezra 2:69 ). The "basons" would be worth about £55 each. Fine copper, precious as gold . The metal intended is probably that known to the Romans as orichalchum , which is generally believed to have been brass, but which may have been a more complicated amalgam. Being rarely, and perhaps only accidentally, produced, this metal was highly valued.