The pots were used for carrying ashes from the altar of burnt offerings (Exo 27.3). New Jerusalem Bible has “ash containers” and Good News Translation “ash containers used in cleaning the altar.”

The shovels is the rendering of most translations here; these tools were used for cleaning the altar (see Exo 27.3).

The snuffers were “the tools used in tending the lamps” (Good News Translation); see 1Kgs 7.50. New Jerusalem Bible accepts a word of a slightly different spelling which means “pruning knife,” and has here “knives”; these were in two parts, probably similar to scissors or tongs. However, this is not thought to be the best form of the text.

The basins were the bowls in which the blood of the sacrifices was caught (see Exo 27.3); New Jerusalem Bible and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh both have “sprinkling bowls”; Good News Translation translates “the bowls used for catching the blood from the sacrifices.”

The dishes for incense (see Exo 25.29) is translated “the bowls used for burning incense” by Good News Translation; New Jerusalem Bible has “incense bowls.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .