Ezra 1:9-11 (ESV):
And this was the number of them: 30 basins of gold, 1,000 basins of silver, 29 censers, 30 bowls of gold, 410 bowls of silver, and 1,000 other vessels; all the vessels of gold and of silver were 5,400. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up, when the exiles were brought up from Babylonia to Jerusalem.
So we have:
- 30 basins of gold
- 1,000 basins of silver
- 29 censers
- 30 bowls of gold
- 410 bowls of silver
- 1,000 other vessels
All these figures add up to 2,499. But then we read "all the vessels of gold and of silver were 5,400".
Where does the 5,400 figure come from? Is this a genuine mathematical contradiction?